GED KEARNEY, ASSISTANT MINISTER FOR HEALTH AND AGED CARE: Well, good morning everybody. My name is Ged Kearney, I'm the Assistant Minister for Health and Aged Care and it's a great honour and pleasure to be here on beautiful Arrernte country. And we pay our respects to Elder's past and present and we thank them for their tens of thousands of years of custodianship of this beautiful place. I'm here with the wonderful minister, Linda Burney, to make a very important announcement. We also have Donna Ah Chee, CEO of wonderful Congress and the team, the Congress team here. Because we are pleased to jointly announce a really important investment in the young people of the Northern Territory. We know that if we invest in our young people, then our future is much brighter. And as you know, the federal government have committed $250 million dollars to a Better, Safer Future for the Territory and part of that funding has been investment in health and we're pleased to partner with Congress to make a very important announcement today. I'm going to hand over to the Minister.
LINDA BURNEY, MINISTER FOR INDIGENOUS AUSTRALIANS: Look, thank you, Ged. Today is an incredibly important day for Central Australia and I have great pleasure in announcing $18.4 million to Congress to CYATS team to expand in fact, more than double the number of children that will be able to be diagnosed, and families that will be able to be supported, that have neuro developmental issues, and is part, as Ged has said, of the $250 million committed by the federal government to Central Australia. There are many children that we'll be able to reach now that were not able to be reached in the past, to diagnose things like FASD, to diagnose ADHD and autism. We know that these issues, if diagnosed early, can be really important in terms of a child's development. So this commitment, as I said, is part of the $250 million that is very much being rolled out here in Central Australia. It is a commitment to young people. It is a commitment to an Aboriginal organisation, through Congress, which is 50 years old, and has a fantastic reputation, you can see here, that team behind us, are the team that are going to be responsible for rolling out this really important initiative. As I said $18.4 million to Congress for expanding the CYATS team. That will mean that more children will be able to be reached down and I'm going to invite Donna Ah Chee, to say a few words.
DONNA AH CHEE, CONGRESS CEO: Look, I think it's really important to acknowledge here that this government has listened to the calls of Congress to invest in this really important service. This is a gold standard service, we've been able to expand to the extent where we've now got four neuro psychologist. Gold standard service, as the Minister has said, we're now able to extend our service out bush, and it is so consistent with the Closing the Gap reform agenda, which is about shared decision making. And that's what's happened here. The government has listened to Congress. They're investing in Aboriginal community control, another important priority area. We're also going to be collecting data which is an important area of reform so that we know that we're actually going to make a difference. We're evaluating it and we are so excited about the investment and how important this is going to be in assessing our little ones, so that we can get in early, we can treat, and we can put them on a pathway of a healthy trajectory to better, you know, life ahead for these young ones. So thank you, Minister.
LINDA BURNEY: Thank you Donna and I'd love you to be able to talk about the fact we're going to be able to reach kids in remote communities.
AMELIA PATERSON, PAEDIATRIC CLINICAL NEURO PSYCHOLOGIST: Thank you for coming and seeing us. We're really excited. So at the moment, our existing assessment and therapeutic services run in town only. And we for years have had referrals from communities surrounding Alice Springs who are asking us to come and work with their young people there. And for the first time, our service is actually going to be able to do that, because of this expansion funding. So we will be expanding both our assessment and our therapeutic services, so not only will our children and young people be able to access diagnostic assessments, but also the very, very important therapeutic treatment that goes alongside that as well. And we're very excited about that.
LINDA BURNEY: Thank you. Thanks, everyone. Any questions or comments from people?
JOURNALIST: Just firstly, can you clarify how long will this funding last for? Obviously, the need for these kind of assessments isn't going away anytime soon? That $18.4 million, how long is that spread over for?
LINDA BURNEY: Well, the program is over the life of the government obviously. The really important thing is that this will double the number of children that are being seen being seen at the moment. The faith that we have in Congress is very deep and that's why we've expanded and been able to make sure that Congress is able to double, even more than double the number of children being seen.
JOURNALIST: Is that going to get all the kids that it needs to?
LINDA BURNEY: Look, I think that's a question for Congress. But the really important thing is that this will mean that there is a doubling of the number, including, as we heard that capacity for Congress to reach remote communities, which has not been the case in the past.
JOURNALIST: Just going forward, the wraparound services involved in communities, we know it's difficult to get those services. But going forward, is that more money? Would that mean more involvement, more help. I mean, this is a massive project?
LINDA BURNEY: It is a very big project. The initial commitment, as you know, is $250 million for Central Australia. We've allocated about $154 million and we're consulting carefully with the community on the remainder of the money. I am not going to rush the implementation of programs that don't suit the community. The key to this is talking to the community, as Donna has said, to find out from the community, what is needed, and what is going to work.
JOURNALIST: Asking about broader things now, I want to ask about your travel out to the remote Northern Territory communities. I mean, do you think it's still the case that a lot of people just simply don't know what the Voice is and what is your Government doing to address that currently?
LINDA BURNEY: Well the Voice is three things. It's listening, it's recognising, and it's about getting better outcomes. We are working very closely with the Yes campaign to make sure as many people know as possible, about what the Voice is. I am confident in the Australian people that we will get a positive outcome at the referendum, which will mean that we can address issues that have bedevilled us for many years. Governments need to hear from Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people about what will work at the local level.
JOURNALIST: Could we get Donna's response also in regards to the referendum and how important you see the vote coming up?
DONNA AH CHEE: Well, look, this is the most important vote that we're going to have in our lifetime and Congress is supportive. We’re supportive of the Uluru Statement from the Heart, of which one of those includes the Voice to Parliament, enshrined in the Constitution and recognising First Nations people of this country. So we support it, we're backing it, and we are encouraging Australian people to vote yes in this referendum, because we think that it will make a practical difference. We know that at a local level, when voices are heard, we see change, and we see improvement. Congress is an exemplar example of that and we think that that can happen, and that's the missing link at the national level.
JOURNALIST: And just, again, for you, Minister, just on that point, I mean as you’d be aware that for the referendum to be successful, you need a double majority.
LINDA BURNEY: I'm extraordinarily aware..
JOURNALIST: Now, do you think in the NT, where the Voice has been a centre focus here, we have a higher proportion of Aboriginal people living here. Do you think it's fair that our vote counts for less than other states?
LINDA BURNEY: I am not going to get involved in the State and Territory discussions, except to say that the vote here in the Northern Territory is incredibly important for two reasons. Firstly, it will count towards the national figure in that two part referendum bar, which is extraordinarily high. So the Territory will count and the overall number of people casting their vote. But importantly, there is a huge Aboriginal community in the Northern Territory. So the Northern Territory has a very strong moral authority when it comes to a yes vote in the referendum.
JOURNALIST: Can I ask Assistant Minister for Health question, you were in town yesterday with Senator McCarthy hosting the Health Workforce Summit could you tell us a bit about what was discussed yesterday?
GED KEARNEY: Certainly, it was a wonderful event, we had around 70 people attend from various Northern Territory organisations and health professional organisations. And I just want to acknowledge the amazing work that Donna and AMSANT and Congress did helping us through that day. So thank you, Donna, it was really amazing. For example, AMSANT brought some very practical ideas about how we can make sure that there is a continuous supply of health professionals in the Northern Territory, how we recruit them, and how we retain them. There were many, many suggestions right across the board from, for example, better pay to how we train and recruit local doctors, nurses and allied health professionals here, and how we can encourage people from the cities and overseas to come and work in the Territory. So there were a vast number of recommendations. And we're looking forward to working with the Territory Government and health organisations to implement those.
JOURNALIST: When will we see those recommendations flourish or come out to the public?
GED KEARNEY Well, the recommendations were very wide, and I've had a discussion with the minister here about how we take them back. It will involve, of course, the Minister for Education, it will involve the Housing Minister it will involve a number of other portfolios, so it's going to be a whole of government approach and, you know, we'll pull that together very soon.
JOURNALIST: Minister Burney, it was a day or so ago, your office put out a release that we haven't had a chance to unpack with you, around providing more access to early childhood learning across the seat of Lingiari. Can you just explain that and why that's significant?
LINDA BURNEY: The Early Childhood package, Ged is probably in a better position to explain it than I am, is to do with overall cost of living package. In Northern Territory 10,000 families will benefit with cheaper childcare fees, and in the seat of Lingiari it's about 3000 families that will benefit with cheaper childcare fees. I went to a Childcare Centre here at Alice Springs yesterday, which was extremely uplifting, and they spoke very favourably not only in terms of this package, but also the fact that Aboriginal families are subsidised through the early childhood provision by the Commonwealth Government. So it's really the package that will see tens of thousands of families receive cheaper childcare fees in Australia.
JOURNALIST: Why is it so important that the kids get an early love of learning?
LINDA BURNEY: Well, we all know, the first two years of a child's life is incredibly important in terms of neurological development. But the other thing, of course, is to instil in children, good social skills, a love of learning, and importantly, it gives young people a great trajectory. If they get all of the things in early childhood education, they start school fully rounded in social, as well as the building blocks for academic achievement. And it's just so important that Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander children, get these building blocks to make sure that everyone has an even playing field.
JOURNALIST: Minister just one from my colleague in Canberra, the Prime Minister has confirmed he'll announce the day for the Voice referendum on Wednesday in Adelaide. Does this mean the government's intel suggests South Australia is becoming the most crucial State to win?
LINDA BURNEY: Well, all states are crucial. And there is, as you pointed out earlier, to win a referendum, you have to win four of the six states and a majority of people in all the states and territories. South Australia is important, but so is Victoria, so is Western Australia and so it's Queensland. We have chosen South Australia as the place for this announcement and I look forward to going there next week.
JOURNALIST: Minister just one more, for CAAMA radio listeners, could you just explain the importance of people being enrolled to vote?
LINDA BURNEY: Yep. Obviously, enrolment is incredibly important. What's wonderful, is that we've worked with the Australian Electoral Commission, and all you need is a Medicare card to actually enrol. And if you fear that you're going to get fined for past elections, that is a nonsense, there'll be no fining. People need to sign up if they want to have a say in this referendum and what is fantastic is to see the growth in Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people that have actually enrolled it's been quite astounding. So I encourage anyone listening to CAAMA to get on the roll, and have your say. Thanks, everybody.