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senate vote 2024-02-26#5
Edited by
mackay staff
on
2024-07-03 17:13:00
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Title
Matters of Urgency — First Nations Australians- Matters of Urgency - First Nations Australians - Divert funding from police to First Peoples
Description
<p class="speaker">Andrew McLachlan</p><p>I inform the Senate that the President has received the following letter, dated 26 February, from Senator Thorpe:</p>-
- The majority voted against a [motion](https://www.openaustralia.org.au/senate/?id=2024-02-26.131.2) introduced by Victorian Senator [Lidia Thorpe](https://theyvoteforyou.org.au/people/senate/victoria/lidia_thorpe), which means it failed.
- ### Motion text
- > *That, in the opinion of the Senate, the following is a matter of urgency:*
- >
- > *The policing, surveillance, criminalisation, and detention of First Peoples children is a humanitarian crisis and the youth carceral system is operating in breach of this country's human rights obligations. Children need culture, country, connection, and family, not prisons. The billions spent on police, prisons and surveillance must be urgently re-invested into First Peoples self-determined community programs and services to provide appropriate wrap-around support to women, children, and families.*
<p class="italic">Pursuant to standing order 75, I give notice that today I propose to move "That, in the opinion of the Senate, the following is a matter of urgency:</p><p class="italic">The policing, surveillance, criminalisation, and detention of First Peoples children is a humanitarian crisis and the youth carceral system is operating in breach of this country's human rights obligations. Children need culture, country, connection, and family, not prisons. The billions spent on police, prisons and surveillance must be urgently re-invested into First Peoples self-determined community programs and services to provide appropriate wrap-around support to women, children, and families.</p><p>Is the proposal supported?</p><p class="italic"> <i>More than the number of senators required by the standing orders having risen in their places—</i></p> <p class="speaker">Lidia Thorpe</p><p>I move:</p><p class="italic">That, in the opinion of the Senate, the following is a matter of urgency:</p><p class="italic">The policing, surveillance, criminalisation, and detention of First Peoples children is a humanitarian crisis and the youth carceral system is operating in breach of this country's human rights obligations. Children need culture, country, connection, and family, not prisons. The billions spent on police, prisons and surveillance must be urgently re-invested into First Peoples self-determined community programs and services to provide appropriate wrap-around support to women, children, and families.</p><p>Since 1991, 33 First Nations children have been killed in custody that we know of. My thoughts are with those families. Losing a child is something no-one should have to go through. There are 17 prisons for children across this country, where our babies, some as young as 10, are held in horrific conditions, being abused, starved and tortured, in breach of all human rights obligations. Over 50 per cent of these kids are First Nations, when we are just three per cent of the population. These babies are being torn away from culture, country and everything they know, too far away for family to visit. As said by Dylan Voller, a survivor of torture at Don Dale, said, these are kids:</p><p class="italic">… from a beautiful culture, the oldest continuing culture in the world, with so much to teach about how we can live in harmony together and with the land. But … their elders have been pushed aside by a government hungry for land and power.</p><p class="italic">… the Australian government uses brutality against children for their own political ends.</p><p>The National Children's Commissioner, Anne Hollonds, said that decades of evidence show that harsh punitive measures go against all recommendations from across the world and do not keep the community safer. In fact, the states with the toughest youth crime laws are the ones with the biggest problems. The Standing Council of Attorneys-General has a report, which is in the hands of all of the state governments, clearly stating that locking up children will only cause more harm to the community. We know increased punitive measures do nothing to address the underlying social issues, yet this so-called progressive Labor government have a few native police officers in their ranks. Your own Marion Scrymgour is making disgusting calls to treat our kids even more harshly, when they are already being openly hunted, locked up and tortured, and then Senator McCarthy is giving black money to the police dogs, adding to the billions of dollars being spent on this racist system every single year. Native police in your own ranks—shame!</p><p>Imagine if instead these billions on police stations and prisons and police surveillance were reinvested into First Peoples self-determined wraparound community services to support our women, children and families. We know this works. Children need culture, country, connection and family, not prisons. We're talking about 10-year-olds! It is beyond time for the federal government to show leadership, to commit to real justice reinvestment, to raise the federal age of criminal legal responsibility and to comply with the human rights obligations they signed up to.</p> <p class="speaker">Kerrynne Liddle</p><p>There are actions the Prime Minister can take today to reduce the rates of children entering the youth justice system and for adults entering the justice system. To make a difference, you have to deal with domestic and family violence, and you have to deal with the issue of child protection and recidivism. It's not just the police, the courts and the prisons; it's everyone who has to take action here. It is parents being responsible for getting children to school and ensuring home is a safe haven, not somewhere of chaos and trauma from which they escape and inevitably find trouble.</p><p>The reality is that youth incarceration is in large part caused by a failing child protection system. Around 58,000 Indigenous children come into contact with child protection in any given year, and that number is going up. Around 22,000 Indigenous children are subject to child protection orders in any given year, and that number is going up. The Victorian Aboriginal Justice Agreement states that, of the Aboriginal children involved in the youth justice system, 81 per cent were victims of abuse, trauma or neglect, and 78 per cent experienced domestic and family violence. The Productivity Commission report of March 2020 recognises that most children are raised in loving, positive environments and that the risk of harm to children is exacerbated by a higher prevalence of other risk factors, such as poverty, unemployment, overcrowding, mental health issues, substance misuse and, of course, family violence. The link is undeniable. For adults, family violence results in greater risk of exposure to police, courts and prisons, too.</p><p>Indigeneity of itself does not condemn Indigenous people to a life of harm, crime and trauma. But for too many, that is their reality. It's the focus on those who need it most that should get our attention, and we should act on everything. It might be uncomfortable to talk about sexual abuse, coercive control, and physical and mental abuse. But talking about the hard stuff is what truth-telling is really about. Until we reduce the number of young people in the child protection system we won't be able to reduce the number of children behind bars. Indigenous children are 10.5 times more likely to be living in out-of-home care than non-Indigenous children, an overrepresentation of some 800 per cent. Most Indigenous children are taken into the system before they turn one year old, and the likelihood of their being returned home is bleak. In New South Wales, just 15.2 per cent return home.</p><p>Where it is safe to do so—and only where it is safe to do so, because the work has been done—children should be assisted to return to their families. This motion suggests redirecting money from police and prisons to an Indigenous corporation. I don't think that's the answer. Better-targeted funding, removal of duplication, accountability, and focus on outcomes not outputs are what's needed in greater measure. This also means an audit of services that deliver to the most vulnerable.</p><p>There is no doubt that irresponsible actions of ideologically driven politicians has also contributed to making an already bad situation worse. I'm referring to the removal of the cashless debit card in those communities that asked for a trial and the reckless lifting of alcohol bans in the Northern Territory. When spending on alcohol, drugs and gambling rather than on food, education and essentials occurs, the change for the most vulnerable is not for the better. In former trial site Bundaberg, the rate of domestic and family violence offences rose by 24 per cent. In former trial site Kalgoorlie-Boulder, breaches of violence restraint orders skyrocketed by 48 per cent. When I travelled to the region in January the shire councils, the shelters, the emergency frontline workers, the teachers and the locals told the same sad, sorry, shameful stories: more lives shattered, more demand for emergency services, more money needed to rebuild lives. The silent victims of this family and domestic violence epidemic are children and the most vulnerable. Sometimes those who were once innocent victims end up as perpetrators facing police, courts and our prisons.</p><p>Two years ago the Albanese government promised 500 new frontline community service workers to combat escalating family and domestic violence. To date they've delivered just two. I've yet to hear someone plausibly explain how an ice-skating rink in Alice Springs, painting roller shutters and supporting music festivals will change the lives of the most vulnerable. Senator Thorpe is right: all contributors to this issue need to be part of the solution. It's not one versus the other. There needs to be an improvement in the expectations of services delivered. <i>(Time expired)</i></p> <p class="speaker">Jana Stewart</p><p>I want to start by acknowledging Senator Thorpe for bringing the important issues impacting First Nations communities to this chamber today. It is indisputable that yes, children need culture, country and connection to family. It is indisputable that women, children and families need access to support services when and where they need them. And it is indisputable that families and community members need to have control over these programs and services. The evidence tells us that when Aboriginal people have a seat at the table our children are happier and our families are healthier. But this cannot be done by simply throwing money around. We must, above all else, empower First Nations communities.</p><p>On Gunditjmara country in south-west Victoria Winda-Mara Aboriginal Corporation is recognised as a progressive leader for positive change in the community. In 1990 a group of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander community members came together on Gunditjmara country in south-west Victoria to discuss the needs and aspirations of the mob at the time. From that initial meeting, the attendees determined to form an Aboriginal community controlled organisation in Heywood focusing on addressing the housing, health, employment, child removal and education of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people in the region.</p><p>Winda-Mara has since celebrated its 30th birthday and continues to go from strength to strength. The organisation is now a well-respected Aboriginal community controlled organisation with over 85 staff, working from offices in Hamilton, Haywood and Portland in the south-west corner of Victoria. Winda-Mara manages medical centres and housing properties tenanted to Indigenous Victorians. Their work in the community services space includes supporting cultural strengthening, regional local justice, playgroup and youth mentoring programs. They also talk about having some of the lowest incarceration rates in the state because of what they do and how they do it. The team at Winda-Mara are passionate, kind and effective. They have high aspirations not just for First Nations people but for the entire region, and the determination to match it. Leaders like Uncle Mookeye, JB, Ben Church and Jason Walker are working to engage young people plus build opportunities for mob.</p><p>This year, construction will begin on Winda-Mara's new medical clinic in Heywood and a new integrated family services building. These developments not only will strengthen the quality of services provided to Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander community members—and other community members are welcome to use the service—but also will contribute to the regional economy at large. More construction in the regions means more jobs for builders, plumbers, sparkies and site managers. We must continue to build on the strength and resilience of First Nations people to achieve better outcomes because, after all, what's good for mob is good for all Australians.</p><p>Through justice reinvestment, the Albanese Labor government has invested a historic $91.5 million to enable a community led approach to prevent First Nations people coming into contact with the criminal justice system in the first place. We are also implementing a wide range of other measures to support communities, including working in partnership with First Nations people to deliver a new remote jobs and economic development program and establishing a national commissioner for Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander children and young people to help achieve progress under the Closing the Gap agreement. I note that a commissioner for Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander children is something that mob have been asking for for a very, very long time.</p><p>In any conversation around supporting First Nations people we must look to the success of the deadly organisations already operating in this space and work with them to identify and remove barriers to further success. That pathway requires a strong emphasis on self-determination, trust and power sharing with Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander communities. It requires us to support and create pathways and remove barriers to economic participation and inclusion. It requires a long-term focus and commitment. It requires us to build mob up, not tear them down. I would say that most First Nations senators and members in this place have a shared commitment in wanting better for our communities, and referring to members and senators in this place in a derogatory way does nothing to advance that cause.</p> <p class='motion-notice motion-notice-truncated'>Long debate text truncated.</p>-
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