E&OE TRANSCRIPT
Topics: Domestic and family violence; Safe places; Men's wellness centres; Community infrastructure; Economic development; Income Management.
MARION SCYMGOUR, MEMBER FOR LINGIARI: It's great to be here and joined again, by Minister Amanda Rishworth, to look at some of the successful programs that we're investing in right across the Northern Territory. In particular for Central Australia, and it's not just in Alice Springs, it's our remote communities and how in those remote communities often the infrastructure is left wanting. But funding the needed programs with organisations like the Central Australian Aboriginal Family Legal Unit, which are here today to provide the necessary support and education to those remote communities. I'll hand over to the Minister to talk about those important projects and why this continues the Albanese Labor Government's investment both in Central Australia but across the Northern Territory.
AMANDA RISHWORTH, MINISTER FOR SOCIAL SERVICES: Thank you, Marion, and it's wonderful to join you. I did want to recognise you as such a fierce advocate for the Northern Territory and Central Australia. I'm really pleased to be here at the Central Australian Aboriginal Family Legal Unit to announce three major funding announcements to support Central Australia and the wider Northern Territory. The first is the commitment and announcement of $9 million to go to four organisations to deliver more support and services in communities, but also here in Alice Springs. I was just speaking to some of the employees here at CAAFLU who were talking about how they will use the funding. They will be using the funding to expand their outreach for legal services into more communities, so that those people in those communities can get the legal support in community and don't have to come into Alice Springs. They'll also be super charging their legal education program called Super Law. This is really important prevention work in family and domestic violence, because what it does is it supports the legal understanding, for example, of the new laws that have come in, such as coercive control and consent. Over the last ten years, since this program was first developed, there's been new laws to protect people, particularly women, against coercive control and also consent. This new program will update the Super Law program to provide legal understanding out in the community and will be translated into a number of different languages. This is a really exciting project, but there's other projects that are funded as well. For example, there's projects that will fund infrastructure for young people, so that they've got activities they can participate in their own communities, and a program run by the NPY Women's Council that will provide education to men, in particular, as they are exiting prison to break the cycle of family and domestic violence. This investment is about investment in prevention and interventions around family domestic violence, and importantly, an outreach to community. Today, I'm also announcing another really important initiative, and that is more crisis accommodation through our safe places program here in Alice Springs for women and children escaping domestic violence. There have been many people have calling for more options, more crisis options for women and children. I'm so pleased today that we have announced over $7 million to develop 56 safe places here in Alice Springs. We'll be partnering with the Salvation Army on that project and it is a really important initiative here in Alice Springs. Finally, I'm here to announce an exciting opportunity for the Northern Territory, and particularly for remote and regional communities. Today, I'm announcing the opening of an $18 million grants program to support communities to develop economic opportunity in their communities. It is important that we get our services out to community to make sure that they are properly supported. But it's also important that we support economic development and jobs in communities as well. The $18 million that I'm announcing today will be available to communities in the NT, and they will be able to apply for shovel-ready infrastructure projects that can support economic development and jobs in community. Other areas where we have invested this money have seen great opportunity. In one community, we were able to see the development of their art program and develop an art gallery that is attracting tourists. Now, of course, equally, we've seen communities do investment in space exploration to encourage young people to get interest in science and also the jobs that come along with that space exploration. This is such an exciting opportunity, and I'm very pleased to open this grant round and encourage remote and regional communities to apply so that there is money on the ground, economic development on the ground and job opportunities. These are really significant investments that I am announcing today. But it's not the total sum of the investment that the Albanese Labor Government has made to Central Australia and the NT. We continue to invest, when it comes to, for example, family and domestic violence. We have invested $245 million in the Northern Territory for family and domestic violence support, whether that's in prevention, early intervention, response or healing and recovery. We continue as the Commonwealth to be focused on how we invest and partner with the Northern Territory Government to deliver the right support, the right services and economic development opportunities here in the Northern Territory. Happy to take questions.
JOURNALIST: This $7.8 million the DV accommodation money? Is it coming from the $180 million already promised from the Federal Government? Or is it separate new funding?
AMANDA RISHWORTH: This funding is separate to the Central Australia Plan. This is extra funding that has been delivered through our Safe Places program. We committed $100 million across the country for our Safe Places program and the accommodation that has been identified in Alice Springs is critical accommodation. They provided a very competitive and compelling case for this accommodation. So, this is a separate funding in addition through our National Safe Places program.
JOURNALIST: So, it's coming from the $100 million you allocated across Australia?
AMANDA RISHWORTH: That's correct, yes.
JOURNALIST: And the money you were talking about going towards NPY For Men exiting prison, that's coming from where?
AMANDA RISHWORTH: That is coming from the Community Families program, but as a part of the Central Australia package. So that funding for those four organisations, including here CAAFLU, including the women's legal service, including NPY and Mutitjulu, that $9 million in total is coming from the Central Australia Plan. We've been investing through the Central Australia Plan, particularly in my portfolio around family and domestic violence, the prevention and intervention that has been working. We've been doing engaging directly with communities to identify gaps and need, and that is funding through the Central Australia funding.
JOURNALIST: And the men's hubs you announced yesterday. Is this a new funding announcement, or is this coming from something that's already allocated in the budget?
AMANDA RISHWORTH: So, the Men's Wellness Centres and the successful 13 Men's Wellness Centres or programs, because not all of them are going to be physical buildings, are part of the funding allocated through the Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Action Plan to end violence against women and children that was launched last year, and it is a really important plan. One of the key areas that was identified was actually the work with men, particularly Aboriginal men, so that funding is not part of the Central Australia Plan that is funding through the Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Action Plan. The broad funding was announced, but yesterday, what we were able to identify is the three locations successful locations that will be running those programs.
JOURNALIST: So, the funding was already allocated in the budget, through the Action Plan?
AMANDA RISHWORTH: What we announced yesterday was the successful places that these programs will be delivered. But that is, part of the $260 million that we have funded to back up our Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Action Plan.
JOURNALIST: Will there be a men's behaviour change hub in Alice Springs?
AMANDA RISHWORTH: In terms of the new wellness centres or the new wellness focus being rolled out in community. That is where the focus has been. So, for example, Barunga and Wadeye were considered places where there were strong proposals, because it's working on country with community. It's been identified where these are particularly important as part of the healing and recovery process, part of breaking the cycle. But my understanding is there's a number of other men's behaviour change programs. As I said, the program run by the NPY Women's Council will be working with men in the Alice Springs prison.
JOURNALIST: And will there be consideration for opening up a wellness program here?
AMANDA RISHWORTH: Well, there's different buckets of funding. This particular funding was about healing and about programs in the community. And I think one, one of the strong messages we get is we want to make sure support is available in community. But there is a number of programs being run. We fund several different Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander organisations directly around a whole lot of different things, so we can get you what's currently being funded.
JOURNALIST: And Just on another topic within your portfolio, the Chief Minister recently said that she was going to talk to the Federal Government about a few steps to tackle crime in Alice Springs. And I think some of them were around welfare payments. And I think there was a point made about moving welfare payment dates to Monday and Tuesday, when the alcohol-free day is here. Are you considering this? Is this something that you've been talked to about?
AMANDA RISHWORTH: I've had some very productive conversations with the NTG, I have to say that community safety, and that includes alcohol laws, are the primary responsibility of the Northern Territory Government, and it's important that they determine whether the settings are right. In terms of Income Management, they need to make sure that they've got their settings right when it comes to Centrelink payments, I think there is a little misconception that everyone gets paid on a Thursday. The truth of the matter is that income support payments are paid to people over a fortnight, so on any one day with a business day within a fortnight, about 10 per cent of income support recipients get their income payment. So of course, if you were to change that, you would have more people getting paid on certain days, and more money flowing into communities. We are very conscious of unintended consequences by moving income support payment days. But I did want to dispel the myth, because I think some of the discussion has been about moving from Thursdays to Mondays and Tuesdays. That is not how it operates. How it operates is people can choose which day they get their Centrelink payments. It is broadly about 10 per cent on any day here in the Alice Springs region. So, Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday, over a fortnight. So, it is evenly split over the 10 working days in a fortnight that people get their payments. And I want to not lead to unintended consequences, where, if we were to move those days, people might, for example, miss their direct debits, or indeed, that you have days where much more money is flowing into communities on some certain days. There are some benefits, but we'll keep working with the NTG around some of the challenges that they have, and happy to have those conversations. But I would say that alcohol management and community safety is primarily the responsibility of the Northern Territory Government.
JOURNALIST: The Chief Minister also asked that the Federal Government consider implementing full Income Management for parents of youth offenders. Would you consider such measures?
AMANDA RISHWORTH: We've had some good conversations with the Northern Territory Government. There is currently an option where people on Income Management, which exists here in the Northern Territory. And I would say that working age payment recipients here in Alice Springs are on Income Management. There is an option which is 50 per cent and there is already a pathway if there is child protection concerns for those parents to be put on 70 per cent Income Management. There have been very few referrals. In fact, up until recently, there'd been no referrals through that pathway. So, I've been talking with the Northern Territory Government about how we make sure that that pathway is working, which is already available to the Government. We'll keep working with the Government because it's up to the Northern Territory Government about who to refer through that pathway. So, we've had some productive discussions about how we get the Child Protection pathway to increase the proportion of Income Management, and that's where my focus is.
JOURNALIST: Minister, it's good to hear about the money coming into especially our community here. What's the plan around getting it delivered on the ground into jobs like local jobs first and making sure that there are people filling these roles, because that is another story of especially this town and this territory, and definitely other organisations, or there's a whole range of organisations where the bureaucracy has stopped, that there are local people who have asked to be in some of these roles, and they are instead flying people in from Western Australia.
AMANDA RISHWORTH: I heard that talking to a number of services that we really do have to have opportunity for local employment. So, look, one of the big things that we have been focused on through, whether it is our Aboriginal Torres Strait Islander Action Plan, or whether it's through our Central Australia plans, is making sure the money is flowing directly to local organisations, to Aboriginal controlled organisations, because often they do have the connections on the ground. I recognise that recruitment can be a problem, and it is a challenge in rural and regional areas to fulfill these roles, but it is important that the opportunity is given. A significant amount of our money does go through the Northern Territory Government, and we want to make sure that that money gets on the ground. But equally, with some of the announcements we're making today, we're directly funding communities. And through our Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander focus and our men's Wellness Centres, there's been a focus on funding Aboriginal controlled organisations, because often they're in a very good place to fill the jobs with local people.
JOURNALIST: Just the infrastructure, the new infrastructure for young people in communities that's coming from the Central Australia plan?
AMANDA RISHWORTH: Yes, that’s correct.
JOURNALIST: And also, on the Super Law program that you mentioned, that's coming out of the $9 million and you talked about coercive control there has been criticism of coercive control legislation because it does tend to trap, according to critics, a lot of Aboriginal women within this legislation, and there's been widespread criticism of the legislation. Will this be something that's considered when these programs are run, and will this be something that's talked about in terms of building trust?
AMANDA RISHWORTH: I think CAAFLU is best placed to talk about the design of the program, I think this is really, though, designed to be a legal literacy program about what the laws are in place, but I will let CAAFLU answer the questions about, what will the content be. It is about practical information for people that may not know about it. I'm not able to make comments the Coercive Control Legislation is a matter for the NT Government. It is state and territory jurisdiction around that law from the Commonwealth level. We've put in some principles around coercive control, which we think should be nationally applied. But it is a matter for states and territories about what legal legislation they put in and whether any reform occurs as a result.
JOURNALIST: What's going to be put into place? While this is all there, and getting the women to safe places, but that the like the police and other emergency services are a bit less either racist or any of the things that have come up recently, indicating that the women have actually felt not safe to go to these places that we would normally go to in that step before.
AMANDA RISHWORTH: I must start by saying the Northern Territory Government and states and territories broadly, they are responsible for police services and policing and emergency services. What I would say is the Commonwealth and all states and territories have signed up to the Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Action Plan, which identifies as one of its actions, improving justice responses and training of emergency services such as police as a priority. One thing that the Micaela Cronin, our National Domestic Family Violence Commissioner, has highlighted is that the police force, has such an important role to play. They come into contact with victim survivors multiple times a day, so they are in a really unique position to be able to play such an important role in breaking the cycle of family and domestic violence and that is why it's been identified by states and terrorists in the Commonwealth of how we improve our justice responses to make sure that survivors are safe.