Page 3189 - Week 07 - Thursday, 1 July 2010
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the last person standing then I think we have reached a really dire state of affairs in the ACT.
Moving away from Ms Burch and on to the issue of Indigenous affairs, which also falls under this area—although it is obviously supervised by the Chief Minister and he is the minister responsible for Indigenous affairs—I note that in evidence to the estimates committee, Mr Terry Williams, who is the chair of the Indigenous elected body, talked about closing the gap. He said:
Closing the gap. The gap is only getting wider.
While Mr Stanhope and others are going around signing the closing the gap statement and are getting every photo opportunity that they can, the reality on the ground is light years away from the happy snaps. It is no different from Mr Rudd and his apology—Sorry Day. It certainly was a sorry day because it was about spin and media management. Nothing tangible has happened on the ground. That was true of the federal Labor government under Kevin Rudd. I think he was booted out of his job by his own Labor colleagues because they saw that he was signing up for things and nothing was being delivered. That is a symptom that has crept in—it was probably there all along—and is apparent in this ACT Labor government.
When you speak to people on the ground, there are literally dozens of emails that are coming in about some of the things that we have organised in the last couple of weeks, be it about the Shepherd Centre, Noah’s Ark, assisting people to get their elective surgery or introducing random drug testing. That is in stark contrast to this government’s priorities and the spin that was put by the federal Labor government under Kevin Rudd. That is the way this government is behaving and it is heading towards the same grisly end. Mr Williams went on to say:
As to the funds that have been put into the budget at the moment, all I can say is that, truly, the allocation of funds directed to Indigenous people in the ACT is horrific.
Jon Stanhope is the man that goes out and puts himself forward as the champion of Indigenous causes, who loves the symbolism of it. When it actually comes to the reality, the chair of the elected body stood up and said—let me repeat it again:
As to the funds that have been put into the budget at the moment, all I can say is that, truly, the allocation of funds directed to the Indigenous people in the ACT is horrific.
I do not think you could get stronger language. This is not the Liberal Party saying it. It is fair to say that Mr Terry Williams is not a Liberal Party stooge. I know that that is normally the defence when something negative is said about the government. I think that that sort of language coming from the chair of an Indigenous elected body needs addressing. The Chief Minister basically said, “That’s not the case. I’ve not had that conversation with Mr Williams.” I question why it is that communications have broken down to such a point between Mr Stanhope and elements of the Indigenous community that Mr Stanhope was unaware that the chair of the Indigenous elected body considered the funding in this budget to be horrific.
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