2007-08-21
Child Sexual Abuse - Reporting
Ms CARNEY to CHIEF MINISTER
The authors of the Little Children are Sacred Report have reported that some Aboriginal people who suspect sexual abuse of children take their concerns to law and justice committees, that is at page 76 of the report; that others, ‘… consult about their options before going to the police’, at page 77; and, for some, ‘... it was best to go through the right people … within the alleged offender’s clan or family group’, at page 101.
Chief Minister, do you agree that any Territorian should take their suspicions of child sexual abuse to a committee; should consult about their options; or go through the right people rather than report to police? If so, given that these comments are contained in the report, what are you going to do to ensure that these excuses for not obeying the law are dealt with?
ANSWER
Madam Speaker, everyone in this House would agree that anyone who suspected sexual abuse of children should report that to the appropriate authorities. That is exactly why some of the barriers to having that happen, and there are many described in the Wild/Anderson report, are one of the biggest impediments we have to protecting children in the Territory. It is why we have taken such comprehensive action with our plan, Closing the Gap, which is comprehensive and long term, to tackle the complex issues that need to be addressed to protect children and really make children in the Territory safe.
The inquiry had 97 recommendations. The inquiry team talked to many communities across the Territory. That discussion has been incredibly valuable. There are reports that some communities are now, probably for the first time, really starting to look at what child sexual abuse is and what needs to be done. That has been very successful from the inquiry’s point of view.
I am disappointed that, because of the complex issues about the veil of silence surrounding child sexual abuse, we did not get clear directions from the inquiry about what we could do. It is not easy. However, I was disappointed that there was not more direction for government in that key area of the 97 recommendations.
When I announced the Closing the Gap package, I said that government can only do so much. Layers of government can do so much when it comes to protecting children. When it comes to the abuse of Aboriginal children, it has to be Aboriginal people who are prepared to make the change. That is critical. We have a partnership here. I would have liked that to be more clearly spelled out in the recommendations of the Wild/Anderson report.
Yesterday, we stepped beyond the recommendations to a plan for generational change. I believe that this is the way forward.
Madam SPEAKER: Before we continue, I advise the media that there is not to be any panning. There is only filming of members who are on their feet, or of the Speaker.
Little Children are Sacred Report -
Northern Territory Government Response
Northern Territory Government Response
Mr HAMPTON to CHIEF MINISTER
Yesterday, you announced Closing the Gap – A Generational Plan of Action for Overcoming Indigenous Disadvantage. This program is the most comprehensive plan addressing this issue put together by any government since self-government. Can you outline for the House the measures that will act to overcome disadvantage, and why the government decided to step beyond the recommendations of the Wild/Anderson report to put into place this fuller response?
ANSWER
Madam Speaker, I thank the member for Stuart for his important question. This government, and I hope this parliament, should be proud of the package that was announced yesterday - Closing the Gap. We should all be proud of it. It is the most comprehensive response to overcoming indigenous disadvantage that has ever been placed before the Territory. It has a very strong vision. The vision is that, by 2030, every baby born in the Territory, indigenous or non-indigenous, will have equal opportunity to thrive and grow as part of our community.
We should be aspiring to that. That is the vision that is driving Closing the Gap. It does have significant additional and focused resources, which are carefully costed resources: $286m-plus over five years is a significant sum of money in our budgetary context. The resources are carefully targeted over a five year period.
This plan builds on the work that we have been doing since 2001, work that has seen an increase in the focus on health right across the Territory. We have 318 new nurses. Since we came to government, indigenous women’s life expectancy has been extended by three years, and infant mortality rates have dropped by 36%.
For the first time in the Northern Territory, we have delivered secondary education to the bush. The first ever Year 12 graduates in the bush occurred only four years ago, and those three in 2003 have grown to 30 last year. We have put education resources in the bush, and 110 additional teachers above formula in the bush as well. We have also attacked alcohol abuse which is the underlying problem of many issues that we are tackling across the Territory. Alcohol plans have been established across the Territory. Police has had an 65% increase in its budget, and that means adding more than 200 police to our police force. These are some of the elements we have built on in the Closing the Gap plan announced yesterday.
Madam Speaker, over the last six years this government has worked cooperatively with the federal government. In April 2005, we signed the bilateral Overarching Agreement on Indigenous Affairs in this Parliament House with the Prime Minister. He praised the Territory for the work we were doing cooperatively. Last year, I placed the idea of such a generational plan, not just for the Territory but for Australia, on the COAG table. I certainly pushed to get it there and I will keep pushing the Commonwealth and the other states. We need to do this as a country, not just as a territory. This government initiated the Wild/Anderson inquiry, and now we have stepped out to implement it and to close the gap between indigenous and non-indigenous Territorians.
Every dollar allocated in this package goes towards the protection of children - every single dollar of that $286m. It just appals me to hear the Opposition Leader say: ‘You are not spending every dollar on the protection of children. You only have one line on child protection workers’. In this complex area, the underlying causes of child sexual abuse have to be tackled. Every single dollar in this package, whether it is for health, policing, education, or employment, is added to that funding which is specifically for child protection.
The package I announced yesterday goes beyond the 97 recommendations of the Wild/Anderson report, for two reasons. The first is that the report was open-ended in many areas. It did not draw out the need for a partnership between government and Aboriginal people and, as I said before, that is critical. The second reason I stepped beyond that report and its recommendations is because the truth is that indigenous disadvantage, dislocation and dysfunction is the real cause of child abuse. That is why we must address the underlying causes well beyond where this report was prepared to go.
Madam Speaker, it is a day of change in the Northern Territory. We are building on what we have put in place. As the Wild/Anderson report said, we are stepping in the right direction. Well, this is a big stride forward.
Little Children are Sacred Report –
Northern Territory Government Response
Northern Territory Government Response
Ms CARNEY to CHIEF MINISTER
One of the recommendations in the child sexual abuse report that you commissioned, namely recommendation 39, is that the government develop:
- … alternative models of sentencing that incorporate Aboriginal notions of justice and rely less on custodial sentences …
Ms Martin: No.
Ms CARNEY: Well, in that case you can clarify it. Chief Minister, have you adopted this recommendation?
Mr Henderson: Stop putting words into people’s mouths.
Ms CARNEY: Hang on, sport.
Madam SPEAKER: Order!
Ms CARNEY: Chief Minister, have you adopted this recommendation?
ANSWER
Madam Speaker, I hope that the Leader of the Opposition actually received the package. Did you?
Ms Carney: Yes.
Ms MARTIN: You received the package. So you have read each and every response …
Ms Carney: I have probably read more of it than you did.
Mrs Miller: No, we do not have it.
Mr Henderson: A bit like Dave Tollner. He did not actually read the legislation.
Mrs Miller: It would be nice if we had them first.
Madam SPEAKER: Order! Leader of Government Business, order!
Ms MARTIN: Madam Speaker, what I said and what this government committed to do was to address each and every recommendation – address.
Ms Carney: So you have not accepted them all?
Madam SPEAKER: Order!
Ms MARTIN: We had an independent inquiry. Those recommendations come to government. Government has carefully looked at each and every recommendation. As I said, some of them were very broad and they did not give a clear direction for government. Others put a point of view, and each and every one of those recommendations has been addressed in the report.
Simply because an inquiry recommends something to government does not mean that we do not look at those recommendations. However, as a government, what we have made very clear is that serious crime will do the time. It is an issue for us that our gaols are very full, but we will, where appropriate, look at alternative methods of punishment. We strongly support our juvenile diversion program and, of course, we would like to see our communities more involved in finding resolution for the offences and crimes that are committed in those communities. We will continue to do that, but it is always going to be a balance. When a serious crime is committed, that means there will be a serious penalty paid.
Closing the Gap - Beneficiaries
Mr BONSON to CHIEF MINISTER
Can the Chief Minister outline who benefits from the comprehensive Closing the Gap package?
ANSWER
Madam Speaker, I thank the member for Millner. That is a good question, because this package has significant funding, $286.43m over five years, and it benefits the Territory. It specifically focuses on Aboriginal people living in the bush. They, of course, do benefit, but so do all Territorians. Every person living in Darwin, Palmerston, Katherine, Tennant Creek, Alice Springs and Nhulunbuy receives the benefits.
The first point is that, if we get it right out bush in the Territory, we reduce pressure on urban areas. If communities are safe and vibrant, and viable parts of the Territory, the pressure to drift to town is reduced. The pressure to live itinerantly in our streets - whether it be in Darwin, Palmerston Alice Springs or elsewhere - is also reduced. If people from our remote communities are healthier, then the pressure on our hospital system will be dramatically reduced. That, of course, is of benefit to all Territorians.
If people living in the bush are getting a stronger education, are attending school, then they will be able to participate more fully in our economic life, and that benefits every single business across the Territory. Talk to any business. We need more skilled workers, and skilled workers who are living in the Territory and want to stay here are No 1, No 2 and No 3. The fact is that the economy as a whole is a big beneficiary of this package - more training, more skills, and more proactivity will result from this package. After all - and we talked about it this morning - there is a labour shortage in the Territory. To have Aboriginal Territorians entering our workforce in greater numbers is of benefit to the Territory as a whole.
The focus on child protection will also be in urban areas. The additional police and FACS workers will be as useful here - whether it is Katherine, Tennant Creek, Alice Springs, Darwin, Nhulunbuy - as they will be in Yuendumu and Yirrkala. That is why this package is not only good for the bush, it is good for the town. This package is good for the Territory.
Closing the Gap – Funding
Ms CARNEY to CHIEF MINISTER
Your government has $1.1bn more per year in the budget than it did in 2001 yet your long-term solution to child abuse and disadvantage in Aboriginal communities, which you announced yesterday, received $0.5m to expand alcohol and drug rehabilitation services in remote communities. Chief Minister, $0.5m over five years in 73 communities works out to be approximately $1300 per year per community. How is that an adequate response?
ANSWER
Madam Speaker, I agree with the opposition, that if that was the only response, it would be awful, really awful! However, what we have negotiated with the federal government - I believe it is $17m …
Ms Lawrie: $15.9m.
Ms MARTIN: $15.9m, so $16m, for expansion of alcohol treatment programs. We are very pleased about that, as part of this package is about working with the Commonwealth and saying: ‘This is our very important commitment, and this is where we believe the Commonwealth has a strong obligation as well’. Those areas are no mystery.
Policing: the Commonwealth has committed 50 police. We want to see that ongoing, because that means that this package produces 90 additional police into our policing across the Territory, which is very significant. Housing: if you looked at this package and said, okay, we put in an additional $100m over five years last year, we have $42m and a bit in this package, the significant contributor to housing is the Commonwealth. The Commonwealth has made early commitments with some significant funds. Our challenge is to bed those down to ensure those dollars come to the Territory for tackling the backlog we have in housing.
The other area is education. We are talking to the Commonwealth about education. A critical area is health. Primary health care in the Territory, getting GPs and medical specialists where they are not in the Territory, is a Commonwealth responsibility. There is an obligation for the Commonwealth not just to make a short–term commitment, but a long-term commitment to support us in closing the gap.
Closing the Gap - Education and Training
Mr KNIGHT to MINISTER for EMPLOYMENT, EDUCATION and TRAINING
Can the minister outline some of the initiatives in Closing the Gap aimed at addressing the education and training challenges facing the Territory’s remote communities?
ANSWER
Madam Speaker, I thank the member for Daly for his question. In the government’s Closing the Gap response to the Wild/Anderson report released by the Chief Minister yesterday, education is a fundamental aspect of improving the lives of indigenous children in the bush. We all know that education is the foundation on which life’s opportunities are built. It is a sad reality that across the Northern Territory we do not have, particularly in the remote communities, attendance levels at school that we should have; we do not have the education outcomes from those schools that we should have. As the Chief Minister said, we have done much since we came to government to increase the number of teachers in the bush, building new schools and infrastructure and, for the first time, providing secondary education opportunities in our remote communities. Last year, we had 30 students graduating with an NTCE from their home community.
However, that is not enough. We need to do more, and there is $70.6m over the next five years committed in this response to build on the work that government has done to date. Picking up on what the Chief Minister said, governments can only do so much in providing facilities and teachers to teach in those schools. We want real partnerships with indigenous people, community by community, family by family, across the Northern Territory as it is those families who are responsible for getting those students into the schools.
A significant part of the additional funds will provide six additional mobile preschools, with an additional 21 teachers and assistants across the Northern Territory. Not only the Wild/Anderson report, but all contemporary thinking shows that the earlier you can engage students, and particularly preschool-aged children, into a more structured preschool setting and environment, the transition through to Transition and then to Grade 1 is going to be significantly stronger.
There are additional commitments for teachers, additional classrooms, upgrading facilities across the Northern Territory. Of course, it cannot all be done immediately at the click of a finger. We need the Commonwealth to come on board to play their part, long-term, outside of the commitments they have provided to the Northern Territory.
As the Chief Minister said, and I made a note of it, it is a good line, we need to address this challenge in the Northern Territory as a country not just as the Northern Territory. The Wild/Anderson report very explicitly states that the response required in the Northern Territory is totally outside the capacity of the Territory government as an institution in its own right to respond to. We need the Commonwealth of Australia to work with us over the next 20 years, and future governments in this parliament and the federal parliament. I do not know if any of us will be here in 15 or 20 years’ time, but we need to make a national commitment to the challenges that are placed before us in this particular report.
In terms of education, what we will be asking the Commonwealth to do is to increase the funding for English as a Second Language provision to the Northern Territory to provide an additional 42 teachers for our seven- and eight-year-olds in remote schools. There are great challenges for those kids who do not speak English as a first language, who are not immersed in their communities in English as a first language. At the moment, the Commonwealth funding formula only provides for assistance for kids at the age of six. We believe that, if we have additional assistance for six-, seven- and eight-years-old, by the time they sit the MAP test in Grade 3, they are going to have a much better opportunity of actually succeeding in reaching those levels at Grade 3 and then building on them. The further you go, the harder it is to catch up. I believe that is a legitimate request of the Commonwealth.
It is also beyond the Territory government’s capacity to provide high schools in every of the 73 communities, and there needs to be an increased effort in funding for boarding schools across the Northern Territory, and I will be taking that up with the federal minister.
There has been a significant commitment by the government in providing additional resources to build on what we already done. Partnerships with Aboriginal people are absolutely imperative in seeing sustained successful outcomes. We want to work with the Commonwealth government and for the Commonwealth government to take their share of the responsibility in supporting the implementation of this report.
Juvenile Crime – Sentencing and Restitution
Mrs BRAHAM to MINISTER for JUSTICE and ATTORNEY GENERAL
In May this year, five juveniles, aged 10, 11 and 12, broke into a number of businesses in Alice Springs. It was decided that there would be a pre-court divisionary scheme used. Nearly four months later, nothing has progressed. The businesses have suffered damage to their stock, to their buildings and loss of business. Will you amend the Juvenile Justice Act to speed up the process and make the offenders’ parents or guardians pay compensation to the businesses for what they have lost?
ANSWER
Madam Speaker, I thank the member for Braitling for her question. I will give her this commitment: I will undertake, as quickly as I can, to get the background to that case, the damage that was done and the sort of costs that were envisaged. I recall early in my 17 year parliamentary career, it might even have been before I was elected in October 1990, that the CLP did pass legislation requiring parents to pay for property damage done by their offspring. It was never used, Madam Speaker. Curious. We would not be passing legislation that we had no intention of using. I will take the question on notice and undertake to get back to the member for Braitling about these issues, including whether there is a case to look at the time frames and such as she has suggested.
Closing the Gap – Community Education
Ms CARNEY to CHIEF MINISTER
Your government has $1.1bn more per year in the budget than it did in 2001, yet your long-term solution to child sexual abuse and disadvantage in Aboriginal communities which you announced yesterday provides $440 000 for a community education campaign on child abuse. As you know, that is $440 000 over five years for 73 remote communities. How does a little over $1000 per community over five years spent on educating people about child abuse amount to an adequate response?
ANSWER
Madam Speaker, we have seen the Opposition Leader, with no plans and no ideas about this, simply bag elements of the Closing the Gap package. What we have done is responsibly put together a comprehensive package. It is carefully costed within our budget capacity. It is a significant package which builds very carefully on the work that we have done so far.
We are not moving from a standing start here. The Wild/Anderson report made that very clear. We have been taking steps in a positive direction in tackling those underlying causes of the problems we have seen outlined in the Wild/Anderson report. The package announced yesterday builds on that. If you single out one component of it, that is not the effect of it. It is putting all those components together and looking at the additional funds, in very many different areas, to tackle the underlying causes that lead to child sexual abuse and child abuse in our communities.
It is a large expenditure so we will be monitoring this very carefully. There will be regular reports to Cabinet. Ministers will be very keenly involved in the expenditures, and reporting to Cabinet if they are not meeting their targets, if the expenditure allocated is not adequate. We will be monitoring that very carefully. I said yesterday that it is hard to predict whether the amount allocated over five years is going to be needed in those proportions as we get, say, two or three years on. I would love to be standing here, and this parliament would love to hear, in two to three years’ time, and I am sure the Minister for Alcohol Policy would love to hear, that the problem of alcohol abuse has been reduced and we will not need to spend the funds we have now allocated on tackling that issue.
We have allocated funds against where we think the problems will be. It is a coordinated and comprehensive package. We have the ideas, we have the strategy, and it starkly contrasts with the Opposition Leader, who is left carping in the wings.
Closing the Gap - Health
Mr WARREN to MINISTER for HEALTH
As the Chief Minister so eloquently announced yesterday, the Closing the Gap plan is one of the most comprehensive packages to tackle indigenous disadvantage in the Territory’s history. What action has the government taken to build on those advances made in Aboriginal health since we came to government in 2001?
ANSWER
Madam Speaker, I thank the member for Goyder for his question. I was glad to be there yesterday when the Chief Minister made her announcement, on behalf of government, of our detailed response to the 97 recommendations put forward by Rex Wild and Pat Anderson.
As we will hear later on today, and as the debate on the Chief Minister’s statement on this issue progresses through parliament this week, government has made a very detailed response to 97 recommendations. However, in my mind, there is one paragraph that stands out in this report:
- What is required is a determined, coordinated effort to break the cycle and provide the necessary strength, power and appropriate support and services to local communities, so they can lead themselves out of the malaise: in a word, empowerment!
What we will be seeing through this government’s response to this report, and bridging the gap and closing the gap, is a government that is keen to engage with Aboriginal people and Aboriginal communities at every level of service provision and every level of government. The malaise in many Aboriginal communities is all about alienation and powerlessness, and it has been getting worse over time. As a government, we need to work in partnership with the Commonwealth government, and we hope we can work in partnership with the opposition, to turn this around as it is one of the most important issues facing the Territory.
As the authors of this report point out, this is a government that is headed on the right track. We have had the building blocks in place and we are further building through our response. Since we came to power in 2001, we have had a 73% increase in health expenditure. Also, approximately 60% of our health expenditure has been directed towards providing services for Aboriginal people, who represent approximately 30% of our population.
Some of the things that we are going to be building on, as the Chief Minister mentioned, are an increase in life expectancy for Aboriginal women. She also mentioned the decrease in infant mortality rates, compared decade to decade, and kidney dialysis programs. We have doubled expenditure on that since we came to power in 2001 - $12.5m at that time, it is closer to $25m now in this budget - and we will continue to build on it, because it is such an issue for the Territory. We are setting up renal dialysis satellites throughout the Territory, something that the CLP never did as government. They resisted it in government, and it was something the former member for Greatorex, I believe, admitted during his final session here, that it was an error, that government should have moved on that issue much sooner.
We will also be building on the $2.2m a year we have in the current budget to employ 25 child health staff, including nurses and Aboriginal community health workers. There will be a focus on early childhood health and development, preventative health, sport and recreation, and primary health care programs. We will also be looking at the management of chronic disease, and access to quality primary health care. I am pleased to say that that is one area in which we are working cooperatively with the federal government, with Tony Abbott, and the Aboriginal Medical Services Alliance of the Northern Territory. There are very productive talks occurring at present, and I am hoping there will be a significant extra injection of funds from the Commonwealth to address this very important issue.
We will be investing $9.6m in early childhood and family services; expanded antenatal and maternal care programs, with additional midwives; plus the development of appropriate models of maternal and child health home visitation. Home visitation is very important; the evidence has shown it to have a very powerful effect in improving wellbeing for children. There will be a focus on early childhood health and development programs that strengthen development and learning in early childhood, playgroups, mothercraft skill development, in addition to increasing the number sport and recreation officers, facilities and programs in each shire worth $4.5m.
The Chief Minister mentioned alcohol rehabilitation as being pivotal. It has been spoken about here. Yes, $0.5m, and is leveraging nearly $16m of Commonwealth funds. We will also be expanding programs around hearing loss for Aboriginal children, and preventable chronic diseases at $8.8m ...
Mr MILLS: A point of order, Madam Speaker!
Dr BURNS: The member for Blain might not want to hear this …
Madam SPEAKER: Minister, please pause.
Mr MILLS: Madam Speaker, this is very important material being discussed here, however, the concerns that the government expressed whilst in opposition about the use of Question Time for excessively long answers is not reflected in the responses now in Question Time. We are going to have a statement to discuss this very important matter. It is an abuse of Question Time, Madam Speaker.
Mrs BRAHAM: Speaking to the point of order, Madam Speaker. There is a rule about presumption of debate that is going to occur later on. The member for Blain is quite right: we have had question after question about a statement we will hear later in the day. There are other questions we could ask instead. We would like to get on with Question Time.
Mr WOOD: I agree. Each minister has been given a question which is, obviously, in relation to the statement about Closing the Gap. We are getting a free radio broadcast of a statement that is going to be made this afternoon. That is a misuse of the Question Time.
Mr WARREN: Speaking to the point of order, Madam Speaker ...
Members interjecting.
Madam SPEAKER: Order! I cannot hear.
Mr WARREN: It was my question and I wish to hear the answer to that question. I have a right to ask a question in the House as every member here does, and I wish to hear the answer.
Mrs Braham: It is a statement!
Madam SPEAKER: There is no …
Members interjecting.
Madam SPEAKER: Order! Member for Braitling!
Mr Warren: I give you that courtesy, please give me that courtesy.
Madam SPEAKER: Order, member for Goyder!
There is no point of order. As you are aware, in Question Time there is a lot of latitude, both in the asking and the answering of questions. Yes, there is a statement which the Chief Minister is making later on. As you are also aware, that particular standing order does not generally relate to Question Time. It has been raised as a point of order many times in this Chamber, both during the time that I have been the Speaker and with previous Speakers as well. It is also used in the House of Representatives. The minister can continue, but perhaps he could come to the point fairly soon.
Dr BURNS: I have been making the point, Madam Speaker, that this is a comprehensive response to a comprehensive report, further strides through Closing the Gap, and we will hear more about it during the statement.
Closing the Gap - Police Resources
Ms CARNEY to CHIEF MINISTER
Yesterday, you announced that you would recruit 16 additional police for Aboriginal communities as part of your long-term plan to address child sexual abuse and indigenous disadvantage. This is over and above the police already provided by the Commonwealth government. That is 16 police across 73 communities over five years. How can 16 police for 73 communities be an adequate response to address child sexual abuse and lawlessness in so many communities?
ANSWER
Madam Speaker, it is an important question, however, I wonder whether the point of order raised by the member for Blain applies to the asking of this question.
Ms Carney: That was the member for Braitling, Chief Minister, you need to listen.
Madam SPEAKER: There is no point of order, Chief Minister.
Ms MARTIN: The member for Blain said we were going on too long and it was about – anyway …
Members interjecting.
Ms MARTIN: We are funding an additional 40 police. We are giving specific funding to the CAT force, the FACS and the police task force that will be focused on child sex abuse - that is 24 officers there, an additional 16 plus the 50 that is committed by the Commonwealth, then what we are looking at over this period is an additional 90 police officers, and 90 will make a difference.
Closing the Gap – Child Safety
Mr KNIGHT to MINISTER for FAMILY and COMMUNITY SERVICES
How will the measures announced in …
Mrs Miller: The questions are doing their rounds today.
Mr KNIGHT: Yes, there is another question. It is very important, member for Katherine. How will the measures announced in Closing the Gap make children safer in the Northern Territory?
ANSWER
Madam Speaker, I thank the member for Daly for his important question. I start with the premise that everyone in this parliament rejects the scourge of child abuse wherever it occurs in the country, and no one owns a moral position that has greater prominence than any other. We all want to prevent child abuse. Particularly for our side of government, the care and protection of children is our highest priority. Our Labor government has increased the child protection budget every year, and this year the budget is $35.7m, unlike the CLP, whose budget was $7.8m.
Members interjecting.
Ms SCRYMGOUR: This additional funding has made a real difference in how we protect children. For example - and I know they do not like having this put - we have an additional 71 staff in the child protection program; we have a dedicated after hours service, something the CLP never understood the need for; we have a centralised intake base at Berrimah police station where skilled professionals assess every call from the public and work with the police to keep children safe; and we have intensive family support services for families in crisis and the specialist care program for children most at risk. These are all excellent initiatives, and I pay tribute to the former minister who had child protection for getting intensive family support services that do fantastic work out there.
In Closing the Gap we acknowledge that there is much more to do. This government continues to make children’s safety a priority. The Closing the Gap package includes an additional $80m; that is on top of the $35m in case they need a hand helping. The Child Protection budget is well in excess of $116m. With the additional $80m for services to protect our children, that package will deliver long term improvements. Key initiatives include 10 additional child protection and family support workers; a new residential care unit and therapy service; a network of child protection and care services badly needed on the ground in those communities; we will extend the Sexual Assault Referral Service, including a new service in Katherine, which I am sure the member for Katherine will like; we will expand the Child Abuse Task Force - 23 additional FACS staff to work with police to identify and investigate child abuse.
Mrs BRAHAM: A point of order, Madam Speaker! Answers should not be about dollars and cents; they should be about outcomes. That seems to be what everyone is missing. Not dollars and cents; outcomes.
Madam SPEAKER: Resume your seat, member for Braitling. As you are aware, there is no point of order. The minister is answering the question. Minister, please continue.
Ms SCRYMGOUR: Madam Speaker, our priority is that children are to be safe. Under Closing the Gap measures, we anticipate that we will find more child abuse cases and take more children into care. Our numbers will go up before they go down. That is because we are taking action to keep children safe. We are not prepared to turn a blind eye as has been done in the past for many years.
It is about keeping children safe, and it is not just about police and child protection workers. Closing the Gap addresses substance abuse, which is long overdue – we all know the impact of substance abuse on the ground in our communities; health services; housing, which is a major issue; and education. These are all the things that need to be in place for children to be safe and to have the best opportunities for the future.
Howard Springs Nature Park
Mr WOOD to MINISTER for PARKS and WILDLIFE
Once again, anyone who has visited Howard Springs during the Dry Season will know that you cannot swim there. This is very disappointing to the Friends of the Springs who spent so much time during the Wet Season getting the government to do some work to open it. At the moment, that sign is sitting up there discouraging all our tourists who come to the north from having a swim in one of their favourite swimming spots. What is your government going to do to rectify this problem? When was the pool last cleaned out? What has happened to the master plan? Is there a plan to annually clean the pool? If all this is too hard for the government, why can’t you simply put up a sign advising people that they can swim at their own risk and let people go back to enjoying a dip in the springs?
ANSWER
Madam Speaker, I thank the member for his question. As a kid, I loved going to Howard Springs for a swim, so I appreciate where the Friends of Howard Springs are coming from in their desire to see the springs open for swimming again. It has been some time, though, since that park has been able to be used for swimming as there has been a water monitoring program in place. The water is tested at Howard Springs on a weekly basis.
During the Wet Season, the e-coli counts routinely exceed 1000 organisms per 100 millilitres of water. This is greater than has been considered safe for swimming and the water hole is closed due to those high e-coli counts. During the Dry Season, the e-coli counts vary from below 100 organisms per 100 millilitres to more than 600 organisms per 100 millilitres, with most readings in the 150 to 600 range. The water hole has sporadically been open unless there are excessive e-coli bacteria readings.
In addition to the water monitoring done at Howard Springs, I draw your attention to the new National Recreational Water Quality Guidelines developed in 2006. The national guidelines provide a framework for assessing risk and recommend testing regimes. They are a far more reliable testing regime for contamination than previous indicators. In response to these national guidelines, Territory Health Services are developing interim microbiological water quality guidelines for marine and fresh water in the Territory to minimise the safety risks. These interim guidelines recommend testing for both e-coli and enterococchi. Until a sufficient amount of baseline data is collected and assessed, these new testing procedures will need to be fully implemented.
A working group has been established to update the Howard Springs Nature Park water quality monitoring and management program to comply with these national guidelines. The working group is currently drawing together some data, which will come to me as the minister. I will not make a decision on the future of the Howard Springs Nature Park until that work has been completed.
Gone are the days of exposing people to significant levels of e-coli bacteria risk. That would be negligent. It would be foolish of a government to say to people: ‘We know the contaminant levels are too high in that water, but we are going to let you make a decision about whether you expose yourself and your children to significant bacterial infection’. Let the experts proceed with the work they are doing regarding whether there can be safety levels established around the e-coli bacteria and other bacterium.
I am happy to keep you updated on the issue, but we will not rush in to making a decision around exposing people to the risk of significant bacterial infection.
Northern Territory Economy
Mr BURKE to TREASURER
Can you update the House on recent key indicators which show how the Territory government’s management is leading to strong economic performance, bucking national trends?
ANSWER
Madam Speaker, I thank the member for his question. I am delighted to update the House on current economic matters. As a government, we continue to invest in the key economic drivers for the Territory. The strong economic management of this government over the past six years is continuing to pay off for the Territory economy, including small, medium and large businesses operating within our borders. All the indicators for strong economic future development are there. Importantly, we are also beginning to see some stabilisation of that growth over the past few years, and that is a healthy sign for a maturing and expanding Territory.
We have seen unprecedented growth across retail turnover, population, jobs and construction activity. Retail growth continues to far outstrip the national average. For the year to June, it was up 11.5%; nationally, it was 6.4%. That is getting close to twice the national rate. ABS figures in the year to July indicate employment growth of 5.1%. There are now 107 430 people in the Territory workforce, with full-time employment inside that up by a staggering 7.5%. According to the ABS there is an annual increase of 18.6% in total building work. The national increase is just 7.5%. That is approaching three times the national levels there. There are strong signs for the building industry’s future as well, which is important. Building work yet to be done has increased by 33.2% to $307m. That is in stark contrast to when we were elected in August 2001 …
Mr Mills: Before the GST.
Mr STIRLING: … when the CLP was still the government and had just hit the wall so badly …
Mr Wood: You could buy a house then.
Mr Mills: How much was land then?
Mr STIRLING: … and proven their inability to properly manage the Territory.
The Deputy Leader of the Opposition has been calling for the Territory government to help first home buyers for the last few days.
Mr Wood: Not keep them in debt.
Mr Mills: You have kids.
Mr STIRLING: Madam Speaker, this government has been a huge supporter of first home buyers in the market. The strongest mix of purchasers of first home buyers …
Mr Mills: Release the land.
Mr STIRLING: … still the second most affordable jurisdiction in the country.
The stamp duty-free threshold of $350 000 saves a first home buyer over $15 000. The HomeNorth Scheme, rejuvenated, rebuilt, reconstructed at this last budget, continues to offer terrific assistance and, as I said, only the ACT is ahead of us in terms of home affordability …
Mr Wood: It does not say that in here.
Mr STIRLING: … in Australia. I urge the member for Blain, and the member for Nelson might like to join him, and they can pen a letter, they might like to sign it jointly, to the Prime Minister and to the Treasurer of this country, who misled all Australians at the last federal election, when the little advertisement appeared saying - now John Howard never even saw this ad. It is remarkable. John Howard, Prime Minister of this country, never saw a Liberal Party ad that said ‘we will hold interest rates at record lows’. ‘Never happened’, he said. Never happened until he saw the ad, and then: ‘Oh, I cannot remember that’. ‘I don’t remember that’, he says.
Members interjecting.
Madam SPEAKER: Order!
Mr STIRLING: Caught in the headlights of a Liberal election promise that that they have failed to fulfil.
Mr Mills: Release the land. Stop playing your games. There is plenty of land.
Mr STIRLING: That is the challenge for the member for Blain. If he is genuine and if he is sincere, and the member for Nelson can join him …
Mr Wood: If you release land, then I will.
Mr Mills: You are not sincere; you are playing games. Release the land.
Mr STIRLING: ... if they are sincere about what is happening to the first homebuyers out there in the marketplace. I can tell them the first thing that is happening to them is the climb of increasing interest rates, one after another after another, after another. And the Governor of the Reserve Bank now tells us that before the next election, it well may be inside the election period - this is the first Governor ever of the Reserve Bank to up interest rates in an election year.
Mr Mills interjecting.
Madam SPEAKER: Order! Member for Blain, cease interjecting!
Mr STIRLING: And guess what? The next interest rate is going to be 0.5%, he says, probably inside an election period.
I hate the thought that I have to pay more for what is a large mortgage that I have, but gee, if it serves to get rid of Howard and Costello, I will willingly pay that extra interest rate increase. We will continue with our vigilant approach to fiscal management that we have adopted and I look forward to securing an even stronger economic outlook for all Territorians, including first homebuyers.
Madam SPEAKER: Before I continue, I need to remind the cameramen that there is only to be filming of the member on their feet, there is not to be any filming of other members during this Question Time, thank you.
Closing the Gap – Funding
Ms CARNEY to CHIEF MINISTER
Yesterday, you announced a package of $286m. Can you answer the following questions in relation to that announcement: how much of the $286m is new money? How much of that $286m has already been announced? How much of the $286m are funds that were already allocated in the May budget before you received your report into child sexual abuse in Aboriginal communities? Can you advise whether the 10 additional Corrections Officers you announced yesterday are new officers or are they coming from the pool of 15 announced by the Attorney-General a few months ago?
ANSWER
Madam Speaker, $286.43m over five years; all of those dollars are newly allocated. What they do is build on the work we have done so far in so many key areas. These dollars are all new commitments, and we believe they will contribute significantly in five years towards closing the gap that our target is for 2030.
Ms Carney: And Corrections Officers?
Ms MARTIN: It is all here.
Nuclear Waste Disposal Site
Mr HAMPTON to MINSTER for NATURAL RESOURCES, ENVIRONMENT and HERITAGE
Is the minister aware of any recent developments in relation to the planned Commonwealth nuclear waste dump in the Northern Territory?
ANSWER
Madam Speaker, I thank the member for Stuart for his question. He takes a keen interest in the trail of broken promises in the wake of John Howard’s previous federal election commitments. Members will be aware that, in the lead-up to the last federal election, there was a Howard government pledge that a nuclear waste dump would not be built in the Northern Territory. Surprise, surprise! After the election, they broke that pledge. Well, look out, it is nearly election time again and we are seeing a number of pre-election pledges being made.
The National Party’s candidate for the seat of Richmond in New South Wales, Sue Page, issued a media release over the weekend. I will read the first paragraph to members:
- There will be no nuclear power stations or waste storage facilities on the North Coast or anywhere else in Australia if the Coalition government is re-elected this year, Dr Sue Page pledged today.
Mr Wood: You are not comparing the same thing.
Ms LAWRIE: I know the member for Nelson will have a nuclear waste dump anywhere except in Nelson …
Members interjecting.
Madam SPEAKER: Order!
Ms LAWRIE: Dr Page pledged that there will be no nuclear waste storage facility anywhere in Australia. With the backing of the Nationals leader, the Deputy Prime Minister, Mark Vaile, she went on to say:
… the Nationals in federal government, without whom the Coalition cannot enact legislation, are also committed to opposing this ...
The Nationals are committed to opposing the nuclear waste dump that they voted for just last year. It reminds me of a pledge made by Senator Scullion of the CLP who sits with the National Party in Canberra. He pledged, ‘not on my watch’, and then sat there watching as the Commonwealth Coalition passed legislation to build a nuclear waste dump in the Territory, despite this Legislative Assembly passing legislation to prohibit it. They overrode it. This Martin government stands firm: the Territory should not be the nuclear dumping ground of Australia.
Mr Wood interjecting.
Ms LAWRIE: Member for Nelson, we know your record on this: you will take a nuclear waste dump anywhere but in Nelson.
Government Funding Priorities
Ms CARNEY to CHIEF MINISTER
According to the Auditor-General’s report in February this year, the government’s spending on the Darwin waterfront is $529.87m. Yesterday, you announced $286m funding to deal with the biggest challenge facing all of us in the Northern Territory. When you are spending almost twice as much on the Darwin waterfront than you are on child sexual abuse and other Aboriginal disadvantaged, how can you expect Territorians and, in particular, indigenous Territorians to take seriously your announcement to address problems of child abuse and other disadvantage in their communities?
ANSWER
Madam Speaker, the figure that has been quoted for the expenditure on the waterfront is one that, when you look at it in its individual components, is over 25 years. It is all very well for the Opposition Leader to pretend that she is across the fiscal details. She is not. She is not quoting a relevant figure ...
Ms Carney: Sorry, I am quoting the Auditor-General’s report, page 125, Clare.
Ms MARTIN: If you look at what, in today’s dollars, the waterfront will cost - a project that the opposition just cannot bring themselves to support; they clearly dislike the waterfront project - when you look at the expenditure on the waterfront, balanced against the return on the property, the total expenditure will be $149m. That is over a period of 10 to 15 years. Let us put into perspective why the waterfront project was so important, and continues to be so important.
Let us go back to when we took government, when our economy was on it knees. You can say something like our economy was on its knees, but there was no growth happening. Do you know what no growth means? No growth means that Territory families do not have a bread winner; there is no work happening. No growth means, when you look at the repairs and maintenance schedule in the Transport and Works area, as we did as an early government, there were no funds past November. No money to be spent. The biggest issue for business was that nothing was happening and the economy was flat.
We strategically made a decision to take the taxation impost from business – very important – and I am proud that Territory businesses with fewer than 100 employees pay the least tax of any businesses in the country. That is fantastic! We did that strategically. An economy that was flat, people without jobs, businesses without contracts; it was a very difficult situation, a dire situation in many ways. We strategically pursued the issue of a convention centre, knowing the economic benefits it would bring, and put it within the context of a package for the waterfront.
This was about getting our economy off its knees. We still cannot get any support from the CLP; the party that crippled our economy, that saw it run flat, people out of jobs. We still cannot get any support from them. It is a great project, Madam Speaker, and we are proud of the way that project has been put together.
The expenditure on Aboriginal Territorians, as indicated by the Indigenous Expenditure Review, is that 50% of our economy goes to the 30% of the most disadvantaged Territorians – and we are proud of that. The government is about governing for all Territorians. We will get the economy off its knees, and we are doing that very well. We will spend, appropriately, on the most disadvantaged Territorians, which are our Aboriginal Territorians, to give them those opportunities. I believe we have found the balance. I am proud of Closing the Gap. Stop being churlish; stop carping, and support it.
Mr HENDERSON (Leader of Government Business): Madam Speaker, I ask that further questions be placed on the Written Question Paper.
Last updated: 09 Aug 2016