Minister for Indigenous Australians
PATRICIA KARVELAS, HOST: The latest Closing the Gap Report in July found the majority of targets weren’t close to being met. And the budget outlines some funding measures, for funding a referendum, for a Makarrata, that are worth discussing with Linda Burney, the Minister for Indigenous Australians, welcome back to breakfast.
LINDA BURNEY, MINISTER FOR INDIGENOUS AUSTRALIANS: Good morning, how are you?
PATRICIA KARVELAS, HOST: Good, let’s talk about the budget initiatives. There’s more than a billion dollars in the budget dedicated to health, education and economic outcomes for First Nations people. The latest Closing the Gap report found just 4 of 17 targets are on track. How will the money address those targets?
LINDA BURNEY, MINISTER FOR INDIGENOUS AUSTRALIANS: The money in the budget really goes to very much what the targets are for Closing the Gap. Probably the most important, or the headline ones Patricia are $100 million dollars, particularly for the justice package. What we want to do is rollout justice reinvestment, which is basically about keeping young people out of incarceration settings, across 30 communities throughout Australia. We’ve already identified Halls Creek and we’ve also identified Alice Springs as two places where we’d like to see this happen. The other really significant commitment, of course, is 500 new Aboriginal Health Workers which will go right across Australia. And I want those health workers to particularly focus on issues around wellbeing, especially with women and children. There are a number of other measures particularly the preparatory work for a referendum sometime in the next financial year. Money to the AEC, the Australian Electoral Commission to get their work started in terms of the referendum. We’ve also allocated $5.8 million towards the establishment of a Makarrata Commission, so they can start the early work in relation to the implementation of the Uluru Statement in full. And finally what is really exciting is $22 million to a Birthing on Country centre down in Nowra, and also doubling Indigenous Rangers and 10 new Aboriginal Protected Areas in Australia. They’re sort of the headline ones that I’d draw everyone’s attention to.
PATRICIA KARVELAS, HOST: On AM, there was criticism from one Indigenous leader that you had only spent $5.8 million on Makarrata and had put all of your emphasis on a Voice. What’s your answer to that critique that obviously Truth, Treaty and Voice were all components of Uluru. You’ve committed to all of them, but you’re not spending enough on Makarrata.
LINDA BURNEY, MINISTER FOR INDIGENOUS AUSTRALIANS: Well, this is one budget. I’d make that point. The second point that I’d make is there are a variety of views across the Aboriginal community and the broader community. What’s really noticeable Patricia, is the incredible momentum that’s starting to build and build and build around a referendum. But we are very committed to Voice, Truth and Treaty, it’s crucial, and you can see that commitment within the budget. I hear what people are saying and there are ways in which people can have input into the process through the Engagement Group and the Working Group that’s going to be meeting today, to discuss some really key issues around a referendum and as you know, we are sequencing the referendum Voice and Treaty and Truth and that’s very important, but I can assure you and your listeners there’s an absolute commitment to the Uluru Statement in full.
PATRICIA KARVELAS, HOST: So not just the Voice elements, so what more funding will be delivered on Makarrata down the line?
LINDA BURNEY, MINISTER FOR INDIGENOUS AUSTRALIANS: In time to come. But the money that’s been allocated in this budget, is to actually start the process in establishing a Makarrata Commission and the very early work that needs to be done around truth telling and treaty making and I think the perfect example is in your home state of Victoria, where we see the Yoorrook Justice Commission and the First Nations Assembly. They’re into their fourth year and are now beginning the process of treaty and truth and it is crucial, whatever we do at the Commonwealth level that we don’t trip over or stop what’s going on and state and territory levels.
PATRICIA KARVELAS, HOST: Yesterday Peter Dutton called for a Royal Commission into child sexual abuse in Indigenous communities. He said this is not about creating another Stolen Generation. Do you support the Royal Commission into this?
LINDA BURNEY, MINISTER FOR INDIGENOUS AUSTRALIANS: I support concrete action into what is a really challenging issue. There is no secret about the fact that domestic violence and child abuse is bedevilling many Aboriginal communities. And Patricia, I’ve been in this space, both as an Aboriginal woman, as an educator, and someone that worked at the coalface in child protection over a very long time. And the thing that I learnt more than anything, is that if you’re going to address these issues, you do it at a local level, led by the Aboriginal community and we’ve put, I won’t quote numbers but we’ve put substantial resources into places like Alice Springs, to address the very issues that the leader of the Opposition is concerned about. I think his concern is genuine. But my commitment and the commitment of this government, to addressing those issues in a concrete way, led by the community, is equally genuine.
PATRICIA KARVELAS, HOST: Are you saying that his claim, and he made the claim on this program, a little earlier, that there are these high rates and it’s an emergency going on of child abuse, and that there’s an emergency going on, are true?
LINDA BURNEY, MINISTER FOR INDIGENOUS AUSTRALIANS: What I’m saying is that I’m going to be in Alice Springs next week. I’ll be meeting with people like the Tangentyere Women’s Council, local government, and a whole range of other instrumentalities. I have had long discussions with both relevant ministers and the Chief Minister of the Northern Territory about the issues that that are particularly emerging around Alice Springs. And I also have made financial commitments to things like night patrols, things like additional funding to women’s groups that are actually dealing day to day with these issues. And finally, I am in discussions regularly with leaders of various community organisations, including Congress, which is a health organisation about, you know, what needs to happen urgently in relation to the very difficult issue of child protection and domestic violence.
PATRICIA KARVELAS, HOST: Linda Burney this week we heard about the tragic death of Noongar teenager Cassius Turvey. He was just 15 years old. He was allegedly violently attacked walking home from school. I’ve heard the police describing him being in the wrong place at the wrong time. But he was walking home from school, how can that be the wrong place at the wrong time.
LINDA BURNEY, MINISTER FOR INDIGENOUS AUSTRALIANS: Well, precisely. You know, children, whether they’re Aboriginal or not, need to be able to get off a bus and get home safely and this is nothing short of a tragedy and I personally know what it’s like to lose a child. I think that the family have been incredibly brave and enormously generous in allowing people to use Cassius’ name and also the images that we’ve seen. We’ve reached out obviously to the family and it is in front of the court and I don’t want to say anything that’s going to jeopardize what needs to happen in terms of judicial proceedings. But this is another reminder isn’t it, of the precarious, how precarious it is for young Aboriginal people in this country.
PATRICIA KARVELAS, HOST: A very sad story. Thank you, Linda Burney, for joining us.
