Mr RIOLI - 1994-12-01
Mr Speaker, I refer the minister to comments by Professor John Matthews, in the Menzies School of Health Research's annual report in which he describes the Aboriginal health situation as 'tragic'. Professor Matthews went on to say that often health infrastructure, housing, food and water supplies, and health services available to many Aboriginal people have been inadequate or culturally inappropriate. During a recent sittings of parliament, the opposition tabled a memo from the director of the rural health district which stated that 10 independent, community-controlled health services in the district are underfunded by up to $850 000 per year. It said that these clinics have had to reduce services to fit within their budgets. Will the minister tell the House which clinics his government is underfunding, by how much and why?
ANSWER
Mr Speaker, I am happy to respond to the member's question. I wish that he would be as open as I am in addressing these matters. He will recall that, at the last sittings, Irequested that both he and the Leader of the Opposition table the statement about matters relating to Aboriginal health that he made to the ALP National Conference in Hobart in the comfort of being thousands of kilometres away from the Northern Territory. He has yet to provide the people of the Northern Territory with that information, but that is another issue. We know that members opposite are not particularly open with the people of the Northern Territory. Obviously, that statement contained something sensitive that they want to keep concealed from Territorians but one day the truth will out. It is of great frustration to me that we continue to have difficulty in making inroads into improving the health profile of Aboriginal people in the Northern Territory. In this House previously, I have detailed the problems that we face. The member for Arafura should have taken the opportunity to speak to some of his federal counterparts in Hobart and illustrate clearly the problems that we face with dual funding by different agencies, and ATSIC is an obvious one.
In this House, the member for MacDonnell sought, quite rightly, to have a regular nursing service put in place for his constituents at Jay Creek, to the west of Alice Springs. Last year or early this year, I raised a question that I thought was directly relevant to this matter. At the time, ATSIC regional councils were allocated $5m to provide a water supply to people, some of whom I believe are employed by ATSIC. Certainly, they had jobs in town and were much more financially independent than the people at Jay Creek, yet they nobbled the $5m to provide those people with a water supply. Why didn't they allocate that $5m to health services? That was $5m of health money which was devoted to providing a water supply for people working in the Aboriginal industry in Alice Springs, people who have access to such health services, either where they live or in terms of their disposable income.
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The member should talk to ATSIC about priorities. That was $5m of health money, not water money. ATSIC redirected that health money to an inappropriate purpose which could well have been serving the people of Jay Creek or people in the electorates of Arafura and Arnhem. We need to face those issues, but Hon Carmen Lawrence, the federal Minister for Community Services and Health, will not address them. I do not know how many times I have written to her asking for a joint approach to these matters jointly so that we can put in place a process that avoids the overlapping and duplication of services and focuses on the needs of Aboriginal people. When we start to do that and those needs are recognised, we will begin to make some ground.
At the last sittings, I referred to a remark by the federal minister in relation to the Territory government's misuse of funds for health services. At that time, I took the opportunity to repeat the offer that I had made to the Commonwealth to place someone in our Department of Health and Community Services to oversight how we expend our Aboriginal health funds. The delivery of Aboriginal health services accounts for 52% of the Northern Territory's health budget. This week, I received the federal minister's letter in reply. It thanked me for my offer but said that she did not think that they would bother to take it up. The federal government's concerns about where we spend health funding cannot be too deep if it will not take up that offer to place someone in the department here to monitor the services that we provide and the way in which we spend the money.
In relation to the frustrations to which the member for Arafura alluded, why do we face continuing problems in providing health services? Nyirripi is an excellent example of health professionals being threatened in their homes and having their health vehicles trashed when they are attempting to provide services in communities. Staff who work on Aboriginal communities throughout the Territory are a dedicated group of professionals. Why do we face continuing problems with our housing program on which millions of dollars have been spent over the past decade? On many communities, the number of houses has not necessarily increased because, as soon as they are built, they are trashed. Those are issues that members opposite, as members of this House ...
Mr Ede: No, they are issues the government ...
Mr REED: ... and representatives of their constituents ...
Mr Ede interjecting.
Mr SPEAKER: Order!
Mr REED: They can have some influence on those issues in their electorates.
Mr Ede: No.
Mr REED: It is a responsibility that comes with your job. It is about time you accepted that responsibility as members of this House who are supposed to be serving your constituents.
Mr Ede: It is a total denial of responsible government. They talk about statehood when they cannot provide responsible government and yet ...
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Mr SPEAKER: Order!
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ANSWER
Mr Speaker, I am happy to respond to the member's question. I wish that he would be as open as I am in addressing these matters. He will recall that, at the last sittings, Irequested that both he and the Leader of the Opposition table the statement about matters relating to Aboriginal health that he made to the ALP National Conference in Hobart in the comfort of being thousands of kilometres away from the Northern Territory. He has yet to provide the people of the Northern Territory with that information, but that is another issue. We know that members opposite are not particularly open with the people of the Northern Territory. Obviously, that statement contained something sensitive that they want to keep concealed from Territorians but one day the truth will out. It is of great frustration to me that we continue to have difficulty in making inroads into improving the health profile of Aboriginal people in the Northern Territory. In this House previously, I have detailed the problems that we face. The member for Arafura should have taken the opportunity to speak to some of his federal counterparts in Hobart and illustrate clearly the problems that we face with dual funding by different agencies, and ATSIC is an obvious one.
In this House, the member for MacDonnell sought, quite rightly, to have a regular nursing service put in place for his constituents at Jay Creek, to the west of Alice Springs. Last year or early this year, I raised a question that I thought was directly relevant to this matter. At the time, ATSIC regional councils were allocated $5m to provide a water supply to people, some of whom I believe are employed by ATSIC. Certainly, they had jobs in town and were much more financially independent than the people at Jay Creek, yet they nobbled the $5m to provide those people with a water supply. Why didn't they allocate that $5m to health services? That was $5m of health money which was devoted to providing a water supply for people working in the Aboriginal industry in Alice Springs, people who have access to such health services, either where they live or in terms of their disposable income.
Page 369
The member should talk to ATSIC about priorities. That was $5m of health money, not water money. ATSIC redirected that health money to an inappropriate purpose which could well have been serving the people of Jay Creek or people in the electorates of Arafura and Arnhem. We need to face those issues, but Hon Carmen Lawrence, the federal Minister for Community Services and Health, will not address them. I do not know how many times I have written to her asking for a joint approach to these matters jointly so that we can put in place a process that avoids the overlapping and duplication of services and focuses on the needs of Aboriginal people. When we start to do that and those needs are recognised, we will begin to make some ground.
At the last sittings, I referred to a remark by the federal minister in relation to the Territory government's misuse of funds for health services. At that time, I took the opportunity to repeat the offer that I had made to the Commonwealth to place someone in our Department of Health and Community Services to oversight how we expend our Aboriginal health funds. The delivery of Aboriginal health services accounts for 52% of the Northern Territory's health budget. This week, I received the federal minister's letter in reply. It thanked me for my offer but said that she did not think that they would bother to take it up. The federal government's concerns about where we spend health funding cannot be too deep if it will not take up that offer to place someone in the department here to monitor the services that we provide and the way in which we spend the money.
In relation to the frustrations to which the member for Arafura alluded, why do we face continuing problems in providing health services? Nyirripi is an excellent example of health professionals being threatened in their homes and having their health vehicles trashed when they are attempting to provide services in communities. Staff who work on Aboriginal communities throughout the Territory are a dedicated group of professionals. Why do we face continuing problems with our housing program on which millions of dollars have been spent over the past decade? On many communities, the number of houses has not necessarily increased because, as soon as they are built, they are trashed. Those are issues that members opposite, as members of this House ...
Mr Ede: No, they are issues the government ...
Mr REED: ... and representatives of their constituents ...
Mr Ede interjecting.
Mr SPEAKER: Order!
Mr REED: They can have some influence on those issues in their electorates.
Mr Ede: No.
Mr REED: It is a responsibility that comes with your job. It is about time you accepted that responsibility as members of this House who are supposed to be serving your constituents.
Mr Ede: It is a total denial of responsible government. They talk about statehood when they cannot provide responsible government and yet ...
Page 370
Mr SPEAKER: Order!
Page 371
Last updated: 09 Aug 2016