Doorstop interview: Closing the Gap; Stolen Generations Reparations

LINDA BURNEY, SHADOW MINISTER FOR HUMAN SERVICES, MEMBER FOR BARTON: Good morning everyone. This is an incredibly significant week, particularly for the Aboriginal community. Of course today, the Prime Minister will deliver the Closing the Gap report. And tomorrow is the tenth anniversary of Kevin Rudd's Apology to the Stolen Generations.

 

The Labor Party has announced that in connection to the Apology to the Stolen Generations there will be a compensation fund of up to $75,000 for Stolen Generations people that live in the Northern Territory and the ACT and Jervis Bay.

 

We’ve also announced very importantly that a Labor Government within 100 days will have a summit on Aboriginal children. Now this is very very significant. At the moment up to 35% of children in care across this country are Aboriginal. It is an outrageous number. Something like 17,000 children are in care. This is unacceptable and Labor will focus on child removal today as the Apology did ten years ago.

 

We've also announced that there will be a funeral fund created for those members of the Stolen Generation which is very overdue and very important.

 

We've also committed $10 million to healing and to counselling for people that have been affected by the Stolen Generations.

 

Kevin Rudd's Apology ten years ago was an incredibly important point for this nation. This is everyone's business and of course we see that the handing down of the Closing the Gap Report today indicates very strongly that there is still so much work to do. There has been minute improvement in three of the Closing the Gap targets. But we're still seeing things like heart disease in Aboriginal communities. And we’re still remote houses with up to 30 people living inside them. We're still seeing Aboriginal people are dying dramatically young than non-Aboriginal Australians.

 

What astounds me by the Turnbull Government, what just flabbergasts me and the Labor Party is the Turnbull Government is about to cut the Remote Housing Scheme. Now this is a scheme that is funding to a number of the states for the most fundamental human right, and that is shelter. If there is going to truly be a commitment to Closing the Gap, you would not be cutting the remote housing scheme. It is an absolute scandal. It will mean that in Queensland alone, 30 young Indigenous apprentices will lose their jobs. This is a scheme that's working. And yet it's going to be cut in the context of Closing the Gap. It is an absolute scandal. If there is going to be a true bipartisanship in Aboriginal Affairs, which is what we want, then the Turnbull Government needs to think about what bipartisanship looks like. The Turnbull Government needs to understand that we all want to work together collectively and I don't see that happening effectively at the moment.

 

JOURNALIST: Senate Hansen's just door-stopped over on the Senate side. She's still skeptical about investment in Indigenous Affairs and Indigenous health. She says she has concerns in terms of the accountability of such investment. What's your message to her?

 

BURNEY: Well the most important thing in terms of Aboriginal health is listening to Aboriginal People, talking to the very established professional long term Aboriginal medical services to understand what the real needs are.

 

There is in the general community I think shock that the health outcomes for Aboriginal People are so dreadful. An Aboriginal baby is born, not at the right birth weight and therefore their life choices and chances are affected from the day before they are born.

 

There is still an enormous amount of smoking in terms of prenatal conditions for Aboriginal children.

 

The the health outcomes for Aboriginal People in this country are not just an outrage in Australia. They are an outrage nationally. Senator Hansen needs to have a good look, not only at the statistics on paper, but actually going out and meeting communities and seeing the conditions that people are forced to live in.

 

There is still communities in this country that don't have an adequate water or electricity supply. This is in a nation, a first world nation like Australia, and I think the accountability on Aboriginal community organizations, one of which I have run in past life is adequate and there needs to be a proper investment by both the Commonwealth and the States in Aboriginal health.

 

JOURNALIST: Ken Wyatt made comments that left open the possibility of an Indigenous Voice to the parliament through legislation, not through the constitution. Does that leave you hopeful?

 

BURNEY: Well, the Labor Party's position has been clear from the get go on this. That is that we believe in constitutional reform. We believe that there needs to be a recognition of First People’s in our Constitution. We have whole heartedly adopted and accepted the Uluru Statement which included a voice to the parliament. And if the pathway to a voice to the parliament is through legislation then we would be very happy to work with the Government on this.

 

You only have to look at the outcomes of Closing the Gap. You only have to look at the decisions that this government is making in things like remote housing to understand there is an urgent need, there is a desire, and there is a willingness from the Aboriginal community to provide advice to this parliament.

 

JOURNALIST: Just in relation to Barnaby Joyce, what questions remain to be answered in terms of his relationship with his former staffer Vicki Campion, and is his position at risk?

 

BURNEY: I think that the issue of Barnaby Joyce has been commented on extensively, and I don't want to add anything to the pain and trauma of everyone involved. And I certainly don't want to get involved in commenting on the private life of Barnaby Joyce. Where Labor is at is if the ministerial code of conduct has been breached, that taxpayer money has been misused in this affair, that is quite a separate issue. But in relation to the personal life of Mr Joyce I'm not going to be commenting on that.