Today is a deep day of shame for the Northern Territory CLP government, which has shut the doors on YiSSA and cast those in need onto the streets. The YiSSA homeless and short stay facility in Darwin is one of the largest of its kind in the country. It's a 300-bed facility that could house as many as 400 people. For years it's provided a home for hundreds of families at any one time.

When the news first broke, in July this year, that the facility was going to close, I went to visit families and staff who were understandably shocked. I spoke to a grandmother who was the sole carer for her grandchildren. Her daughter, their mother, had died by suicide, and she was left with nowhere to go. She had sought refuge at YiSSA. She told me that the children were attending local schools in Darwin and that YiSSA gave them some stability in their lives, to feel normal and to get an education. Another man told me that he would be back out on the streets if YiSSA closed. Another woman pointed to a deep scar on her forehead and said to me, 'A bad man did this to me.' Tonight, in this place, I stand here not knowing where these people have ended up or where those in need in Darwin or Palmerston are supposed to go.

The CLP government, after making the callous and heartless decision to close YiSSA, has been intent on blaming everyone but themselves for this decision. Minister Cahill, in the Northern Territory parliament today, launched an attack against me, so I thought it was important to put the facts on the record here in the Senate—facts I've consistently spoken about throughout this process. On 15 July, the Northern Territory government announced that YiSSA would close in just 90 days. The Northern Territory claimed the negotiations with Ausco over the lease had failed. Ausco is the company that the demountables belong to. They own it. This announcement came absolutely out of the blue for residents and the YiSSA workers, who knew nothing of a potential closure.

From that moment, despite this in no way being a Commonwealth government facility, I got to work to help find a solution because I knew it mattered to these families. The land is Northern Territory Crown land. So on 7 August I wrote to Minister Cahill advising that the Commonwealth would consider providing financial support to purchase the modular accommodation from Ausco. I proposed that the accommodation be owned by Yilli Rreung Housing Aboriginal Corporation, a well-respected and highly effective community controlled Aboriginal organisation that has actually been running YiSSA for many years along with Mission Australia. This would allow Yilli to continue operating and supporting those who need it.

On 14 August, Minister Cahill responded, confirming that the lease arrangement would end in October. So we went further. On 20 August I wrote again to Minister Cahill with a revised offer. The Commonwealth would provide $3.5 million to support the Northern Territory government to purchase the modular accommodation from Ausco. Under this proposal, the Northern Territory government would own the assets. This was a genuine offer of financial support to help secure the future of the facility. On 27 August, Minister Cahill wrote back advising that the preparations to close YiSSA were continuing.

On 31 August, I wrote directly to the Chief Minister, Lia Finocchiaro, once again confirming the Commonwealth's offer of $3.5 million to support the purchase of the accommodation. Minister Cahill and the Chief Minister, instead of responding to my letters or engaging in negotiations, continued to attack me through the media. The Chief Minister called it 'a waste of taxpayers' money'. Minister Cahill said she wanted the money with no strings attached for it to be accepted. All the while, they insisted that a transitional plan would be forthcoming and that the hundreds of families in the facility would be looked after. As the deadline loomed, families were told to make other arrangements. New intakes for YiSSA were rejected. On 16 September, the Northern Territory government announced that it would establish a transitional accommodation facility in Batchelor to relocate residents. Batchelor is about 100 kilometres south of Darwin.

On 18 September, the Minister for Finance, Katy Gallagher and I met with the Acting Chief Minister, Gerard Maley, and made clear our concerns about YiSSA, and we reiterated our offer again—that it was still on the table. I also urged the Northern Territory government to keep YiSSA open at least until the end of the wet season. Earlier this year, we saw thousands of people displaced as a result of severe flooding right across the Northern Territory, in particular in the north. YiSSA was able to assist in accommodating many of those families from the Daly River region.

Batchelor is a small community of roughly 500 people, as I said, 100 kilometres south of Darwin. To open this new facility, it's costing an astonishing $80 million. Batchelor has limited policing and access to medical services and no public bus. A taxi to Darwin costs hundreds of dollars. This was where they wanted to move one of the largest homeless and short-stay facilities in the country. I suggest that the priority was an 'out of sight, out of mind' approach. If these people were pushed out of Darwin, they wouldn't need to be dealt with.

Well, news has come through this afternoon, on the day after the facility, YiSSA, closed. Thirty people have moved into the new facility in Batchelor. It's an absolute scandal—from having hundreds of families housed in the YiSSA facility, which I visited in July, to having just 30 people in Batchelor. Madam Acting Deputy President Grogan, I will tell you where these people have had to go. They're sleeping rough on the streets of Darwin or in the long grass. They're sleeping rough on the streets of Palmerston or in the long grass. They've returned to partners who are not safe to be with. They've returned to remote communities where they can't get the dialysis that they need for their renal needs. These decisions could be fatal.

YiSSA was not a Commonwealth facility, but, out of basic and common human decency and a desire to assist those in need, we made offers of help. We made repeated, reasonable, sensible offers to assist. Not only were our offers rebuffed; we've been smeared, and the residents have been demonised in a nasty display of arrogance. And the staff have lost their jobs. Where have they gone?

I can certainly promise that this decision will follow this government of the Northern Territory over the next few years. These families whom it cast onto the streets and into overcrowded houses will not forget what it has done, and nor will decent Australians, who can see that what has happened here is completely unjust, completely reprehensible, so callous and so cruel to these individuals and their families when they didn't need to be treated in that manner at all.