E&OE TRANSCRIPT
MARION SCYMGOUR, MEMBER FOR LINGIARI: It's great to be here in Katherine with Minister Amanda Rishworth to discuss, with various stakeholders, issues across Katherine. So, it's been fantastic to have her here, and visit various stakeholders and hear about issues across Katherine. I will hand over to the Minister, and she can certainly talk about some of the issues and or just what the visit to Katherine is about thank you.
AMANDA RISHWORTH, MINISTER FOR SOCIAL SERVICES: Well, thank you Marion for your advocacy when it comes to Katherine and the wider regional communities across the Northern Territory. I'm really pleased today that I am able to announce that there will be 13 men's healing centres right across Australia, and three of those are going to be in the Northern Territory. We know family and domestic violence is a critical issue, and every day as Minister, I have been absolutely committed to looking at how we can tackle it, we launched our first National Plan to End Violence Against Women and Children as our first action plan, the second being the Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Action Plan. This was designed and led by Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander men, women and the service sector. They outlined some key actions that they advised that governments, both state and territory and the Commonwealth, should take. And one of those actions was to make sure that men were included in the conversation about domestic violence, the message was very clear that if we are going to shift of a dial when it comes to family and domestic violence, particularly violence against women and children, that we had to look at how we support men in communities. And that's why I'm so pleased that one of the tangible actions from our $262 million of investment in our Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Action Plan is these 13 men's wellness centres. As I said, there are three in the Northern Territory. Really, what they're about is community led responses to support early intervention for men, and ensuring those that are using violence actually get worked with and address some of the underlying causes of family and domestic violence. I'm really glad to be here with Steve from the Bagala Aboriginal Corporation, who has been successful in receiving $4.4 million for the work that their men's wellness program will deliver to his community, which is making a really tangible difference. This is looking at preventing violence. It's about early intervention, but importantly, it is about breaking the cycle of violence, done in a way that is culturally appropriate, culturally safe, and importantly, meets the needs of men that it is supporting. I might hand over to Steve to talk a bit more about his particular program.
STEVE SMITH, BAGALA ABORIGINAL CORPORATION: Minister this program in terms of its initial concept, first come to be approximately 10 years ago, so it's a decade in the making. The program will focus in on cultural healing across three main streams in our communities, which are music, sport and cultural camps. we tend to drill down then on what we focus on in terms of root causes, being domestic violence, which is somewhat of an issue in our community, and then drugs and alcohol being the primary two factors in terms of domestic violence. So our program is extremely well funded. We're an organisation based in Barunga. We took our office in 2013 and have been very successful in running federally funded government programs. And this program comes at a time that is much needed, with increased level of anti-social behaviour and violence. As I said, dealing with the root causes, as opposed to other matters, is where we think we're going to intercept and make some significant changes for men within our community. So, thank you again Minister for the funding, we look forward to delivering some outcomes in this space.
JOURNALIST: Minister, can I just ask for clarity? There are the three recipients here in the Northern Territory with the other 10 or so across the country. Are they already at the stage of being finished, or are they a little bit earlier on?
AMANDA RISHWORTH: This is for 13 locations across Australia and those are funded.
JOURNALIST: Here in the Northern Territory, the NT Government has these men's behaviour change programs which are running in Alice, and there's one coming in Katherine pretty soon too. I gather that's really more about working with men who are currently using violence and trying to get them to change that behaviour, whereas perhaps this is about stopping people becoming violent in the first place. But do you foresee any interaction between those two services?
AMANDA RISHWORTH: One of the cross cutting principles of the National Plan and the strong message from the Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Action Plan is we need to work not just supporting women, but we need to work with men at all areas of perhaps, whether that's prevention, whether that's early intervention, whether that's in responding to those that are perpetrating violence, and whether it's healing and recovery. So, all of these different programs have a really important role to play. Coming out of the National Cabinet there was a commitment to focus on men's behaviour change. What we want these programs to do is to make a genuine difference, and that's what I think is really critical in the communities that we're announcing today about men's wellness programs, is that it is steeped in a lot of experience and a lot of knowledge and consultation within community about what will make a difference, but all of these different programs play an important role in
changing the trajectory and breaking the cycle of family and domestic violence.
JOURNALIST: I understand some of these are going to work with, actually quite young boys. I think in the case of Beswick and Barunga, it's as young as 16, but perhaps it could go even younger in some places. How do you go about designing programs that engaging for young boys, and yet still getting them to, I don't know, eat the vegetables, so to speak, in terms of slipping those messages in there about healthy relationships, boundaries, coercive control. How do you do how do you do both? How do you make it fun, but also education?
STEVE SMITH: I think the demographics are a target demographic between Beswick and Barunga is important to mention. So as you say, 16 is an outset. We hope to drag that down lower to 14 and to 12 in the coming years. But the reason we're choosing 16 to 40 is so that we form what we call a father and son relationship, or a kinship relationship, which is obviously referred to a lot in Aboriginal culture. By bringing strong mentors into the back end and fathering them up with our children, we see that as the opportunity in terms of interception of drugs, alcohol and addiction. We're coupling up individuals with mentors that can lead them through this process. So cultural healing can start at a later age, as we say, around that 40 years age group. But it also important for the young men to see their father's healing and taking part in that process. And so how do we engage with the younger generation in terms of our music? That would be a fantastic example. The older men will be playing and dovetailing into the Barunga Festival, and then the younger boys will be dealing with some young Aboriginal rappers coming in and running a music program specifically targeting the younger people, like older people. I'm not too flash on rap myself, however, the younger kids absolutely love that. We've got a couple of really good young Aboriginal men doing that at present that are leading the country in Aboriginal rap, and that will be coming in as part of that program. So how do we make it specific and targeted? It's by doing that the music program itself is not just an adult pursuit. We can change the demographics of that particular activity to be either young or old and across all of our streams that is fundamentally important. Sport, we can have Junior sport or we can have professional sport at your older age. And then in cultural camps, we can have young men going out to cultural sites, and then the older men explaining what those cultural sites perhaps mean to their community. And I might just add, one of the messages that we've heard very clearly today from some people that work with young people in particular, was that they are keen to have these conversations. They are keen to talk about what healthy relationships look like, and they are really keen to break the cycle. And actually, that was a strong message that came from organisations here in Katherine that are working with young people. Particularly, there was a demand, for young people, young men, that actually wanted to have these conversations. So I think that is also a really positive message, that there is a desire to have these conversations. But of course, it's got to be done in a way where there is understanding, there's at there's respect and is culturally appropriate.
JOURNALIST: If I can ask again, with it, with domestic violence in general, in Katherine, it's obviously been, been very bad. Second half of last year for women in the big rivers region were killed by men known to them this program, I guess, is all about that long term change, but in the short term, the women's crisis centre here is totally overwhelmed. Had to turn away hundreds of women last year. Is there anything more the federal government can be doing for those of shorter term DV responses in Katherine?
AMANDA RISHWORTH: Look in terms of the investment in the National Plan, the Commonwealth makes investments right across those four domains, prevention, early intervention, response and healing and recovery. When it comes to funding across those four domains, as you identified, the men's wellness program is about early intervention and response. But yes, the Commonwealth does fund the Northern Territory Government a significant amount of money, as well as funding frontline services directly to provide support for women and children who may be at that crisis point. For example, we fund directly frontline workers, that funding is given to the Northern Territory Government to go out and provide those workers to frontline services. But we do provide significant funding to the Northern Territory through our National Partnerships agreements, through a range of different mechanisms across the territory.
JOURNALIST: I might just a few questions on other matters. The chief minister of the Northern Territory wrote to the Commonwealth late last year with a series of asks, some of which go to your portfolio. I can just ask you about some of those? They've asked that Centrelink payments be made on current takeaway alcohol-free days only. What's your response to that idea?
AMANDA RISHWORTH: Well, firstly, I would say when it comes to alcohol control, alcohol constrict, restrictions and indeed, community safety, the Northern Territory Government has primary responsibility over that as the Commonwealth, we're always looking at how we best assist the NTG government, and any ways we can assist, we will work with the NT government in the appropriate way when it comes to services Australia or Centrelink payments, there is a misconception that they are
paid only on a Thursday. I think I've seen that repeated numerous times. It's just not the case. Centrelink payments are evenly distributed and paid to people over a fortnightly period, so only about 10 per cent of people on any one day in that fortnight actually get their payments. And this has benefits for a range of reasons. It means that others don't know when someone is getting paid, and of course, allows you to manage your finances, set up your direct debit. I think there's been some misconceptions around when payments are made, and that the danger is, of course, having a large amount of money coming into communities on one particular day, and by changing the arrangement that sees it evenly distributed across a fortnight, could have unintended consequences.
JOURNALIST: The local member here, Jo Hersey, who's the NT Education Minister, she's been saying that she would like the Commonwealth to assist when the NT Government raises an issue around truancy, for the if there's a repeat pattern, the parents then might be placed on Income Management, which would require, obviously, the Commonwealth's involvement. What do you think about that idea?
AMANDA RISHWORTH: Well, firstly, I would say the vast majority of people on income support, on Income Management, already there is a provision available for the Northern Territory Government through the Child Protection pathway, which allows the amount of it, that is income managed, to increase from 50 per cent to 70 per cent I've had a productive discussion. We can't see any particular barrier for the Northern Territory Government, setting a policy about what allows them to use that pathway, but that is a decision and a matter for the Northern Territory Government.
JOURNALIST: One last one, should the NTG also suggested that there be 100 per cent income management for parents of youth offenders. Do you have any views on that?
AMANDA RISHWORTH: Well, look, when it comes to income management, I am interested in working with the NT Government to make sure that they are using the current Child Protection pathway. That child protection pathway is available to all states and territories. Other states have been using that child protection pathway. We haven't seen the use by the Northern Territory Government to increase and put people on a pathway that increases their income management from 50 to 70 per cent so my focus is working out why the Northern Territory Government has not been using that pathway and look at what and work with them around them using the pathway. But it's up to them to set the set the framework for that.