David Littleproud and Senator Jacinta Nampijinpa Price press conference at Alice Springs
SENATOR NAMPIJINPA PRICE
Good afternoon everyone. It's really good to be here today with our Nationals Leader, David Littleproud on the anniversary, the first anniversary of the Referendum for the Voice. And can I just say that the last 12 months have been absolutely disappointing with regard to the lack of action by the Albanese Government, even with the new Minister, Minister McCarthy, Minister Berney before her seemed to not have any ideas to go forward with, especially after the failure of the Voice, no backup plan to improve the lives of marginalized Indigenous Australians.
And that seems to be the continuing theme with the Albanese Government. I know that the Minister has called for a bipartisan approach to these issues. And the times that I have sat down with, whether it's Minister McCarthy or Minister Burney, I've received lip service or they've simply not known what they're doing with the portfolio.
And I don't see any sort of constructive way forward, especially considering that there's been growing call for an inquiry into land councils and statutory authorities, especially by traditional owners. And whenever I have taken traditional owners to have these conversations with members of the Albanese Government, the Ministers, they have failed to heed these calls or to do anything about this situation, I mean, it's pretty grave when there are those who are supposed to be served, their interest is supposed to be served by land councils and statutory authorities.
And yet when they bring forward their concerns, they are largely ignored. When I talk about the need for fixing the structures that currently exist, this is what I'm talking about. We need an inquiry. We need an audit, which is what we will do if we win government. Next, we will conduct an inquiry. We will hold an audit to understand where the over $30 billion is spent year in, year out, where it's failing, who's wasting it, who should be held accountable for those failures, and how we can invest to better to provide outcomes.
That's what we need to do. It wasn't about creating another layer of bureaucracy as Australians voted against. It was about fixing the structures that currently exist. As I've also mentioned, we will be holding a Royal Commission into the sexual abuse of Indigenous children in this country. And it's beyond me why the Prime Minister and his Minister McCarthy continue to ignore the need to allow for the voices of our most vulnerable to be heard. I'm always confronted with stories about sexual abuse of Indigenous children in this country.
Why is it that these kids are left to continue to suffer in these horrible dysfunctional circumstances? Are they not good enough for this government to allow for their voices to be heard through a Royal Commission in this country and for their human rights to be upheld to not be left in dysfunctional circumstances so they can have the same opportunities as the children of those who sit on six figure salaries and run Aboriginal organizations, organizations like Snake, the peak national body that's supposed to advocate for vulnerable Indigenous children in this country denies the need for a Royal Commission into the sexual abuse of Indigenous children.
We know we have the highest rates of sexual abuse of Indigenous children in this country. So why would the head of that body continue to deny the need for a Royal Commission so that we can actually start protecting these children properly in moving forward? We, as the Coalition Government, myself, if I were to become the Minister for Indigenous Australians, I will support traditional owners, not only to hold inquiry, but as our traditional owners in this community, particularly have been calling for their own Arrernte land council, for another land council to be established.
I would be ensuring that I was supporting their progress toward establishing another Arrernte land council. And I would consider the request of other language groups to do the same thing when they feel like they've been failed by the large bureaucracies. You know, they talk about self-determination, a hell of a lot on the left side of politics.
This is what self-determination looks like in practice. Allowing these groups to establish their own land councils in their own right is something that I would seek to support if I were the Minister for Indigenous Australians after the next federal election. So these are the sorts of steps forward that need to be taken. I mean, we've been calling for these steps now for the last 18 months where the Labor government has been in bed with the Greens, have voted down five times. Motions that are brought to the Senate to hold an inquiry into land councils and statutory authorities.
And enough is enough. Five times is five times too many times. We can't continue down this particular road. And I'm calling them out once more on this significant day of October 14, where we should be progressing forward. As for the ‘yes’ proponents who still want to deny the outcome of the Referendum, most of them have six figure salaries.
They’re academics, they're sitting in organizations, their children are going to school. All we want is for marginalized Indigenous Australians to have the same opportunities that they have had. Their time is over. If they want to continue to look toward the past, then stay there. But we want to move forward and progress forward for the benefit of marginalized Indigenous Australians, whose first language is not English, who are forgotten in remote communities, and who the Albanese Government continue to ignore. That's the message we have for Indigenous Australians and what we would do as part of a Coalition Government if we were elected for the next federal election.
I would like to invite David Littleproud now, and I'm so pleased to have him here in Central Australia, on this very significant day.
DAVID LITTLEPROUD
Well, thanks Jacinta. It's great to be with you and the way that you led our nation 12 months ago, in a very important decision, a decision that The Nationals got to before anyone else, because of the principled lived position, that those that come to The National Party room were able to bring with a sense of practical reality of repeating the mistakes in the past, which is what the Voice was all about. We were going to have ATSIC mark two that wasn't going to change the lives of the most marginalized. We had the courage of our conviction before anyone else. When we came out, there was only about 30 per cent of Australians who believed we were right.
In the end, there was over 60 per cent, because we talked about the lived experience. But we're not here to do a victory lap. We're here to say that our hand's still out.
The first thing that Jacinta Nampijinpa Price, Peter Dutton and I did the week after the Voice Referendum was not to gloat, but was to walk into Parliament and to move a motion to ask for a forensic audit and to actually start a Royal Commission into child sexual abuse here in Central Australia.
Practical measures, that's what the Australian people said to politicians, forget about all the ideology. Get on with the practical reality of changing these people's lives. And we had the courage to do that. And we've had a lost 12 months, a lost 12 months, where a government has been sulking and has wiped their hands of the real reality of how we can change these lives.
We are a rich nation and we are spending the money, but we've got to spend it in the right ways. And if we do that properly, there won't be a gap.
We know to the postcode where the gap is. And this is where you need to get to the local level and empowering local Elders. And this is what Jacinta is talking about. Going a step further with land councils, having a land council here, unlocking the economic potential for those traditional owners to own their own individual land and to do something with it and to make money out of it, and to grow their family and have pride, not to be held back by a select few. Those that propagated the ‘yes’ case I respect, but it's now time to respect the nation's view to get out of the way and to let those that want to get on with the real practical measures that'll change lives here in Central Australia to do it, to do it.
We're ready. And we say to the government, you shouldn't be playing politics with this and saying that, you know, Jacinta Price failed to turn up to a meeting.
You gave 24 hours’ notice to Jacinta to turn up and you've had 12 months. And all of a sudden this has become an issue for you. The very first week after the Referendum, we said it was an issue. We wanted to do something about it. We stand ready, but make sure you would've practical measures of doing something different, not repeating the mistakes of the past, which is all this government seems to do. So to Jacinta, can I say thank you for your courage of your conviction? And I'm proud to say that your National family stood around you and this nation stood around you, but it's now time for the baton to be handed over for Labor, to get out of the way and let real Australians get on with solving this problem.
Because there are real solutions from the lived experience that Jacinta Nampijinpa Price has lived and experienced and can change this nation for the better. Happy to take questions.
JOURNALIST
Senator, a whole series of indicators have gotten worse for the Northern Territory, Indigenous people, since the Referendum. Death rates, the cost of remote food and incarceration rates. If you win government, what are some of the key things you'll do to try and fix that?
SENATOR NAMPIJINPA PRICE
Yeah, look, absolutely. I mean, you know, incarceration, I talk about the rates of incarceration with Indigenous Australians before, over and again. And the number one reason why we have such high rates of incarceration is due to the levels of interpersonal and family violence that takes place. This is an issue that we all need to tackle. And so far what we've seen is the Albanese Government drop the ball when we've seen that the National Aboriginal Justice Agency, in Northern Australian, sorry, Aboriginal Justice Agency, has cycled through six CEOs in the last 18 months.
I mean, how devastating is that? There were people sitting in remand, you know, there were people that would've been incarcerated who probably didn't need to be incarcerated because of that. They've dropped the ball, they allowed alcohol, the flow of grog back into communities when they first came into power.
This has obviously contributed to that. The removal of the cashless debit card. There are so many issues that they have dropped the ball on, but simple tools, pragmatic tools that alleviated some of those problems already. But absolutely, domestic and family violence is a key issue that we all need to tackle and we need to ensure that we're not allowing our perpetrators to be on boards of organizations, for example. We'd be leading by example. We can't tackle these problems if we are not ensuring that appropriate, fit and proper people are in positions of power where we can execute what we need to execute to deal with these issues more pragmatically.
JOURNALIST
You've been very strong just now in creating policies for all Australians. Why not have a Royal Commission into all child sexual abuse?
SENATOR NAMPIJINPA PRICE
Well, I believe there has been a Royal Commission into sexual abuse of children in this country in institutions. There hasn't been one specific to Indigenous children. And the fact remains that we do experience the highest rates of sexual abuse in this country. We did have a Royal Commission into children, you know, being incarcerated in the Northern Territory. And what I found with that Royal Commission was that they ignored the fact that Indigenous children experience the highest rates of sexual abuse in this country. So there have been opportunities, but Indigenous children have been missed in those opportunities before and need to be the primary focus, especially when we know that when a child experiences sexual abuse, you know, and has dysfunction in their lives, they are going to be fast-tracked to a life of crime or early death or, you know, dealing with alcohol and substance abuse.
So this is an issue we need to tackle.
I'd (also) like to debunk the myth that, you know, in remote communities, Indigenous people predominantly voted yes. What we saw in remote communities is what we see at polling time, is the lowest voter turnout in the country. And that took place in remote communities. And what happens is a lot of people in remote communities feel bullied to vote a particular way in those remote communities. And there's a strong Labor presence in those remote communities as well as, you know, there's the land council that have a strong presence in those communities. When people don't want to vote in favour of what Labor are asking of them, they will stay away from the polling booth.
What we need is a better democratic process in remote communities. And I've asked this of the AEC for some time now, and what I would say is the quiet people in Indigenous communities that are often unheard, we are providing an opportunity for them through these inquiries to be heard in a private way, in Canberra if they have to, so that they can get to leaders in this country and be heard face to face like that.
But there is a lot of fear mongering that occurs in remote communities and that is why people are reluctant to come forward and to be heard. That's why they're reluctant to come forward and vote, whether there's a Referendum on or whether there's a federal or territory election. This is what needs to change.
JOURNALIST
Senator, the Children's Commissioner says lowering the age of criminal responsibility will disproportionately impact Indigenous children and will put already vulnerable children at further risk. What do you make of the decision to lower the age?
SENATOR NAMPIJINPA PRICE
I guess there's a lot of issues around that matter because obviously as it stands at the moment, what we have is we have a higher level of what I believe to be organized criminal behaviour in that adults will send children in to commit crimes on their behalf because of the fact that they don't face the same sort of criminal responsibilities as an adult would, and this is problematic as well. So it's a real double-edged sword, but one that I believe that the Territory Government, the current Territory Government will tackle.
And I know that they want to put other measures in place that look at youth diversion as well. And I've also been talking about the need to protect our children, our vulnerable Indigenous children, so, we're preventing them from going into a life of crime to begin with in the first place. That's what we really need to focus on.
JOURNALIST
You mentioned issues of alcohol and drug and communities in Central Australia just earlier, what are your takes on the concerns that the minimum floor price for alcohol in Northern Territory is going to be dropped by this now CLP government?
SENATOR NAMPIJINPA PRICE
Yeah, look, I don't think it's the floor price that is the concern. What we need to do is invest more in alcohol and substance abuse reform and ensuring that we can rehabilitate those that are confronted with those problems. And this is more broadly as a society, but absolutely even more so for Indigenous groups is that rehabilitation is so important. That is, you know, we're not going to stop an addict from getting their hands on what they're addicted to, whether it's alcohol or whether it's other drugs.
It's actually dealing with those people in their circumstances and giving them the tools to overcome that addiction, which I think is far more important where we should be investing.
JOURNALIST
Sorry, you spoke about breaking away the Central Land Council into the Arrernte Land council. Is that going to be an election promise?
SENATOR NAMPIJINPA PRICE
That is an election promise from me, that if the Arrernte people wish to break away and establish their own land council and stand on their own two feet, I would certainly assist them to take that opportunity for them. I think it's high time. These are conversations that have been had for decades now, especially with groups feeling like they're not being represented by the current, whether it's Central Land Council or the Northern Land Council who I think are over bloated bureaucracies that can't possibly serve the interest of all those groups that they're supposed to govern for.
JOURNALIST
Would you give a timeframe, if you were elected as Australia's Indigenous Minister next year, would you give a timeframe as to when you would potentially achieve these breakaway councils?
SENATOR NAMPIJINPA PRICE
Oh look, I would initiate the process immediately. How long that takes would be the process behind it. So, you know, it would be immediate for me to start working on this for those groups.
JOURNALIST
There were about 3000 people at those 50th anniversary celebrations like Telegraph Station for that celebration. Is that fair to indicate there is still support for the organization here in Central Australia?
SENATOR NAMPIJINPA PRICE
Oh look, if you put on these bands and a sausage sizzle and some food, you're going to attract 3000 people along to it. Of course there's going to be that kind of support for that sort of thing if that's the case. But ultimately it doesn't speak to the governance issues that sit behind the organization and the calls, and the understanding that I've had, you know, for many, many years about the concerns and traditional owners whose concerns for have fallen on deaf ears for a long time. We can't dismiss those just because 3000 people turned up to a concert.
JOURNALIST
Senator, with the call for each of the groups to have their own essentially land councils rather than the land councils that we have. One, are the concerns about, you know, doubling up of services, tripling up of services and that sort of thing and for want of a better term, money being not so much as wasted, but doubly spent with, you know, the separate groups with their own, let's say land councils?
What are your concerns? What are your concerns about that as to opposed to three or four overarching land council at the moment?
SENATOR NAMPIJINPA PRICE
Well, I mean, I guess, you know, the Tiwi Land Council already exists. They govern their land as that as in their own right and deal with their own budgets as in their own right, as they do. And they're overseen to do that through auditing processes obviously. So I would imagine that any other group would go through the same sort of process. But the purpose also of an audit is to understand how money can be utilized much better across the board when it comes to Indigenous organizations and bureaucracies and to streamline that money as it stands.
We have a doubling up of a lot of service providers all over the country. It doesn't matter if, you know, I'm in Toomelah or whether I'm in Leonora, Kalgoorlie, whether I'm in the top end in Maningrida, I hear it over again that there's so many service providers.
I mean, in Mutitjulu, , they've got 300 people and yet 30 service providers, you know, one service provider for every 10 people is a lot of service providers. And so this is why we need to take a fine tooth comb to understand how things can be done better and you know, communities are asking for the opportunity to actually say, well these are the service providers we want, instead of having them hoisted upon them.
So these are all the issues that I would be looking at very closely to ensure that there isn't a double up going on. But if you've got a land council that is language group based, they know their country, they know who's responsible for it and they know how to take care of it because of that, you know, very close knowledge of the country.
So, you know why I think it makes sense that, you know, again, when it speaks to Aboriginal people having the opportunity to stand on two feet, this is the way to do it.
