Ms CARNEY - 2006-10-12
When questioned yesterday about your failure to act on allegations of girls being prostituted for petrol, and other matters at the Central Australian community of Mutitjulu, you ducked and weaved in order to avoid blame. Leadership requires the highest standards of integrity and courage. You failed that test when, in November 2004, you decided that issuing a memo was an adequate response to the information you received. You further failed that test when you feigned shock at the revelations on Lateline, which were the same matters you knew about for some 18 months, and you failed yesterday when you did not take responsibility. Are you going to resign from the portfolio of Indigenous Affairs and, if not, why not?
ANSWER
Madam Speaker, I did not duck and I did not weave yesterday. This is a very difficult issue, as I comprehensively outlined yesterday. I refer the Leader of the Opposition to the Hansard.
Ms Carney: You ducked and weaved.
Ms MARTIN: I comprehensively - the Opposition Leader can say ducked and weaved all she likes, but we had some very specific strategies in place about what we have heard about Mutitjulu. It was not a secret that Mutitjulu was a community that had significant problems. They had been in the media over a number of years and there was no sense that we were ducking and weaving. We were taking action, and I outlined yesterday the level of quite significant action that we had taken before November 2004. So to say that I was ducking and weaving - far from it; in fact, the opposite, Madam Speaker.
We were dealing with the issues of a community, and we were working with the federal government.
Police resources had been increased a number of months before that memo; child protection resources had been increased; and the focus was there. Anything that was referred to was followed up. I said yesterday, very clearly, we could find no evidence for the allegations made by Greg Andrews in that community.
Ms Carney: Well then, why did you call an inquiry in June?
Madam SPEAKER: Order!
Ms MARTIN: We certainly followed up, Madam Speaker. We have had police in the community working, particularly with substance abuse, before that time. We worked with alcohol, we had new legislation for volatile substance abuse, and we had intense effort in that community. We needed to do more, and I made no apology about the fact we needed to do more. If allegations were being made and we were not able to get anything substantiated about that …
Ms Carney: What changed?
Madam SPEAKER: Order!
Ms MARTIN: Madam Speaker, we were determined to move further. The inquiry that I set up, which is headed by two excellent people, Rex Wild and Pat Anderson, is not only about Mutitjulu. Mutitjulu is one community in the Northern Territory where the …
Ms Carney: You were embarrassed into it, that is why.
Ms MARTIN: Madam Speaker, Mutitjulu is one community, but there are many other communities where we want to work with them to try to get behind some of the figures that we have that indicate a level of child sex abuse. We want to find ways to ensure that we can get the perpetrators; we can have community’s confidence to identify those perpetrators; and then go through the process of being witnesses and having those perpetrators sentenced.
Madam Speaker, there is a sequence of events here. The inquiry is one component of that.
ANSWER
Madam Speaker, I did not duck and I did not weave yesterday. This is a very difficult issue, as I comprehensively outlined yesterday. I refer the Leader of the Opposition to the Hansard.
Ms Carney: You ducked and weaved.
Ms MARTIN: I comprehensively - the Opposition Leader can say ducked and weaved all she likes, but we had some very specific strategies in place about what we have heard about Mutitjulu. It was not a secret that Mutitjulu was a community that had significant problems. They had been in the media over a number of years and there was no sense that we were ducking and weaving. We were taking action, and I outlined yesterday the level of quite significant action that we had taken before November 2004. So to say that I was ducking and weaving - far from it; in fact, the opposite, Madam Speaker.
We were dealing with the issues of a community, and we were working with the federal government.
Police resources had been increased a number of months before that memo; child protection resources had been increased; and the focus was there. Anything that was referred to was followed up. I said yesterday, very clearly, we could find no evidence for the allegations made by Greg Andrews in that community.
Ms Carney: Well then, why did you call an inquiry in June?
Madam SPEAKER: Order!
Ms MARTIN: We certainly followed up, Madam Speaker. We have had police in the community working, particularly with substance abuse, before that time. We worked with alcohol, we had new legislation for volatile substance abuse, and we had intense effort in that community. We needed to do more, and I made no apology about the fact we needed to do more. If allegations were being made and we were not able to get anything substantiated about that …
Ms Carney: What changed?
Madam SPEAKER: Order!
Ms MARTIN: Madam Speaker, we were determined to move further. The inquiry that I set up, which is headed by two excellent people, Rex Wild and Pat Anderson, is not only about Mutitjulu. Mutitjulu is one community in the Northern Territory where the …
Ms Carney: You were embarrassed into it, that is why.
Ms MARTIN: Madam Speaker, Mutitjulu is one community, but there are many other communities where we want to work with them to try to get behind some of the figures that we have that indicate a level of child sex abuse. We want to find ways to ensure that we can get the perpetrators; we can have community’s confidence to identify those perpetrators; and then go through the process of being witnesses and having those perpetrators sentenced.
Madam Speaker, there is a sequence of events here. The inquiry is one component of that.
Last updated: 09 Aug 2016