Mr BONSON - 2007-08-29
Earlier today I understand you met with the Prime Minister. Can you advise the House on discussions held?
ANSWER
Madam Speaker, I thank the member for Millner for the important question. I met with the Prime Minister this morning and had a very constructive discussion with him on a variety of subjects. Quite rightly, we discussed Closing the Gap announcements that were made by this government last week in response to the Wild/Anderson Report in a context of a generational change that we have put in place, the first five year plan. Of course, we talked about the federal government’s plan of tackling child abuse which they announced in June.
I stressed again, and I am sure everyone in here joins me in stressing to the federal government and the Prime Minister that, if we are to effectively tackle the situation facing Aboriginal children in the Northern Territory, the solutions need to be long term. I restated that the solutions must be long term, and discussed what we were putting in place and, given the federal government’s plan, but also the areas of responsibility of the federal government, what kind of commitment the Prime Minister could give.
Discussions have been held with health ministers, locally and federally, and I am pleased that we are moving on those. Everyone in here knows that because of a lack of GPs in the bush we miss out on millions of dollars in both NBS and PBS funding, and it really makes a difference when it comes to delivering medical and health services right across the Territory.
I did raise with the Prime Minister that there are health teams going across the Northern Territory, but I would be concerned if those health teams are simply duplicating work that we are already doing with our very dispersed health clinics across the Territory, and the terrific work that our nurses and doctors do in those health clinics. I said that if you cash-up NBS and PBS, we have calculated it to be a recurrent sum of between $60m and $70m per year. This is strongly advocated by the Health minister, and we need to put that in place for long-term solutions.
We have a commitment from the federal government of 50 police. I am delighted to say that that commitment is ongoing. Put together with the police numbers that we have increased by 200 over the last few years, and another 40 in Closing the Gap, I believe we will have a much more effective remote policing strategy in the future. I thank the federal government for their support there.
Another critical area is education. The federal government gives assistance for English as a Second Language if you are a six-year-old. We all know that many kids in our remote areas only speak English at school. It is a really tough ask for the school, when you have six-, seven- and eight-year-olds, to get them literate in those very important early years. I have argued with the federal government that not only should we have extra funding for six-year-olds, but also for seven and eight, covering those early childhood years. I did not get a commitment today from the Prime Minister, but the work is happening at officer level to identify the cost of that well focused additional resource in education.
Following yesterday’s motion in here I raised the issue of a plebiscite for a nuclear waste dump in the Territory. Guess what? The Prime Minister said no. It is a really interesting difference, isn’t it? For the rest of the country, where we site nuclear reactors, the Prime Minister said, yes, we will have a plebiscite. For the Northern Territory, a nuclear waste dump is going to be sited here because the South Australians said ‘go away’, and the only reason that the Prime Minister can do it to the Territory is because he can. On behalf of all Territorians, I am extremely disappointed.
ANSWER
Madam Speaker, I thank the member for Millner for the important question. I met with the Prime Minister this morning and had a very constructive discussion with him on a variety of subjects. Quite rightly, we discussed Closing the Gap announcements that were made by this government last week in response to the Wild/Anderson Report in a context of a generational change that we have put in place, the first five year plan. Of course, we talked about the federal government’s plan of tackling child abuse which they announced in June.
I stressed again, and I am sure everyone in here joins me in stressing to the federal government and the Prime Minister that, if we are to effectively tackle the situation facing Aboriginal children in the Northern Territory, the solutions need to be long term. I restated that the solutions must be long term, and discussed what we were putting in place and, given the federal government’s plan, but also the areas of responsibility of the federal government, what kind of commitment the Prime Minister could give.
Discussions have been held with health ministers, locally and federally, and I am pleased that we are moving on those. Everyone in here knows that because of a lack of GPs in the bush we miss out on millions of dollars in both NBS and PBS funding, and it really makes a difference when it comes to delivering medical and health services right across the Territory.
I did raise with the Prime Minister that there are health teams going across the Northern Territory, but I would be concerned if those health teams are simply duplicating work that we are already doing with our very dispersed health clinics across the Territory, and the terrific work that our nurses and doctors do in those health clinics. I said that if you cash-up NBS and PBS, we have calculated it to be a recurrent sum of between $60m and $70m per year. This is strongly advocated by the Health minister, and we need to put that in place for long-term solutions.
We have a commitment from the federal government of 50 police. I am delighted to say that that commitment is ongoing. Put together with the police numbers that we have increased by 200 over the last few years, and another 40 in Closing the Gap, I believe we will have a much more effective remote policing strategy in the future. I thank the federal government for their support there.
Another critical area is education. The federal government gives assistance for English as a Second Language if you are a six-year-old. We all know that many kids in our remote areas only speak English at school. It is a really tough ask for the school, when you have six-, seven- and eight-year-olds, to get them literate in those very important early years. I have argued with the federal government that not only should we have extra funding for six-year-olds, but also for seven and eight, covering those early childhood years. I did not get a commitment today from the Prime Minister, but the work is happening at officer level to identify the cost of that well focused additional resource in education.
Following yesterday’s motion in here I raised the issue of a plebiscite for a nuclear waste dump in the Territory. Guess what? The Prime Minister said no. It is a really interesting difference, isn’t it? For the rest of the country, where we site nuclear reactors, the Prime Minister said, yes, we will have a plebiscite. For the Northern Territory, a nuclear waste dump is going to be sited here because the South Australians said ‘go away’, and the only reason that the Prime Minister can do it to the Territory is because he can. On behalf of all Territorians, I am extremely disappointed.
Last updated: 09 Aug 2016