Minister for Indigenous Australians
Topics: NT Coroner’s findings, Government response to Senate Inquiry into murdered and missing First Nations women, missing First Nations men in the Pilbara.
JOHN PAUL JANKE: JOURNALIST: Minister, thanks for joining us this afternoon. Yesterday you tabled the Albanese Government’s response to the Senate Inquiry into missing and murdered First Nations women and children. This includes a stand‑alone Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Family Safety Plan that’s going to be launched next year, but many are calling for immediate action now. The NT Coroner yesterday was very critical of delays and wants immediate action; she wants immediate funding to support services, particularly in the Northern Territory. Can Aboriginal women wait til next year to see some action?
MALARNDIRRI McCARTHY, MINISTER FOR INDIGENOUS AUSTRALIANS: People have been calling for action for a lot longer, JP. One of the women who was the four, as part of the Coronial Inquest in Central Australia actually came here to Parliament and spent time with me in 2018, to advocate for further support for family and domestic violence victims in Alice Springs, at Tangentyere. I commend the women of Tangentyere who’ve been working in that space for nearly a decade now. We listened to their stories in Opposition, that’s why when we came into Government, we knew that that space had been really vacant, largely in the previous decade, and we wanted to act. So, we have been acting in terms of so many areas of policy, with introducing domestic violence leave, trying to get the Housing Bill through to provide more supported accommodation for First Nations women and children in particular, and setting up the First Nations Children and Youth Commissioner. We’ve worked in this space, but I hear what you’re saying, you know, when you listen to the statistics. I want to see those statistics turn around in the next generation.
JOHN PAUL JANKE: What’s the timeline for the safety plan, it’s sort of saying sometime next year? We’re conscious that there’s a federal election sometime early next year. What’s the timeline for that safety plan?
MALARNDIRRI McCARTHY: Minister Rishworth and Minister Katy Gallagher have been working very closely with stakeholders in the Aboriginal community sector on this, and they are looking at early next year. I know that the sector has been working with them. I’ve also been a part of meetings with the Minister for Women around each jurisdiction, I met with them on Friday with both Katy Gallagher and Amanda Rishworth, to be able to make sure that those jurisdictions are also emphasising the importance of action. As a government we’ve provided 500 frontline positions across Australia in family and domestic violence centres, over 350 of those are in place now, eight of them in the Northern Territory. We clearly need to keep doing more but I certainly know and listen to those who are on the ground and try and give as much as we can in terms of support.
JOHN PAUL JANKE: You mentioned yesterday that addressing the current crisis requires a concerted effort of all governments. In relation to the NT, have you spoken to the new NT Chief Minister to get immediate reaction and get immediate investment, particularly in those frontline services?
MALARNDIRRI McCARTHY: I have certainly written to the new Chief Minister, but I’ve met with the Indigenous Affairs Minister, spoken with him, he joined us at our Joint Council meeting just recently with all Indigenous Affairs Ministers. We are very concerned about the high rates of incarceration that impact First Nations families, but also our youth, and that was really important to have that conversation with Indigenous Affairs Ministers. But they also carry that responsibility to their Cabinets as part of Closing the Gap, JP. All of this is interconnected. We have to work also with the perpetrators, we have to have programs to help, in particular the men, our men, they might be our sons, our uncles, our cousins, or people that we don’t know, complete strangers, but they need the support in the justice system to be able to stop this violence.
JOHN PAUL JANKE: A lot of those frontline services of course are state and territory responsibility. What’s the Commonwealth’s role in prioritising immediate action?
MALARNDIRRI McCARTHY: We have elevated it the highest of levels. In September, the Prime Minister convened the ³Ô¹ÏÍøÕ¾ Cabinet of all state Premiers and Chief Ministers to emphasise that violence against women and children is just unacceptable in this country. He called for the end of gender‑based violence, and we have announced that through significant funding across the country to try and do that, especially in the justice system.
JOHN PAUL JANKE: Were you surprised yesterday by the findings of the NT Coroner? She said these are not radical solutions, the answers are in front of us, but she spoke about, there’s no domestic family sexual violence peak body in the Northern Territory, which is in stark contrast to the rest of this country. There’s no pre‑court diversion specific programs for children who are exposed or perpetrating domestic violence, there’s no overarching coordination in the Northern Territory, an all of agency response. Are you surprised by her findings that she’s saying, this is not radical solutions here, we need action and immediate reaction.
MALARNDIRRI McCARTHY: I certainly thank Coroner Armitage for the work that she’s done in bringing this forward, but I also importantly thank the families of the victims, those four incredible women who died terribly tragic deaths. Their families came forward to tell their stories and bring their voice to the Northern Territory court system but also to the Australian people. And we need the media in particular, as we saw with the Senate Inquiry recommendations, the media in particular, to give dignity in this space when there is such injustice for our women and children. To report the stories in the most appropriate ways, and to not ignore them. This was something JP, that kept coming through the Inquiry, families felt they were not listened to, that they were not believed, and that they were just completely ignored.
JOHN PAUL JANKE: You talked about the Inquiry yesterday, of course, we’ve been in Indigenous affairs for a long time, and you’ve reported on Indigenous affairs in a previous career. We’ve had multiple reports, multiple recommendations, multiple inquiries. You called this yesterday “our national shame”. Are we actually getting anywhere in addressing our national shame?
MALARNDIRRI McCARTHY: We have to. It is absolutely urgent that we must. We cannot let the next generation of young Australians, in particular First Nations young Australians, feel that their only pathway is death and despair, that’s not the country we want for any child growing up in Australia, and I certainly don’t want it for First Nations families.
JOHN PAUL JANKE: At Garma this year you spoke about bipartisanship as a way forward in terms of coping with that. What role does bipartisanship, across politics, play in addressing this current crisis?
MALARNDIRRI McCARTHY: Well, I certainly commend the role of Senator Dorinda Cox, for example, she certainly championed this, so did Linda Burney in Opposition, to have this Senate Inquiry. I can see that when we can cross party lines and work together, we can achieve some pretty amazing things in this Parliament. But more needs to be for people’s lives out there, it is tough, people in remote and regional Australia find it tough. We’re in a cost‑of‑living difficulty for all Australians and that adds to that burden. So, I do continually call on parliamentarians here to work together on issues that are so critical to humanity, like family and domestic violence.
JOHN PAUL JANKE: The findings of the NT Coroner were quite alarming, the inquiry into the four deaths of Aboriginal women. What’s your message to Aboriginal women who see that and are scared there has been no action and that violence will continue in Aboriginal communities.
MALARNDIRRI McCARTHY: I say to Aboriginal women and children out there, please, always reach out for support, for help, amongst your family, amongst those who you know and trust will do something for you. I know that we have incredible health workers in the Aboriginal health system, but also in hospitals across the country. These are places of safety and they should be, where you can go for help, and I would say, please, still reach out and ask for help.
JOHN PAUL JANKE: You met today with a delegation wanting urgent action and accountability on missing Aboriginal men. What did you say to them?
MALARNDIRRI McCARTHY: I thank the women from the Pilbara region for coming all that way to see me. Their message was incredibly sad, deeply, deeply disturbing, with the loss of their sons, their nephews, and still no answer as to what’s happened. So, I listened to their stories, I want to understand what’s happened with the coronial inquest. I do believe there was one recently this year. I also want to know what the role is of the state police, the Australian Federal Police. I know it’s something that Senator Cox has been asking and calling for, also the state government of Western Australia. I mean this is where jurisdictions must step up. These are very real stories. They’re human stories. Families who are just torn apart by the loss of loved ones, and I certainly hope that we can find a roadway here that gives some sense of peace and action for these families.
JOHN PAUL JANKE: Minister, thank you for joining us.
