NT MINISTER SELENA UIBO: It's great to be here on Larrakia Country, as the Northern Territory is the host jurisdiction for the National Close the Gap Joint Council. It's really fantastic to be joined by federal and parliamentary colleagues from across the country, as well as our Coalition of Peaks, which are the peak Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander organizations working on the action that is needed to close the gap for First Nations disadvantage across Australia. As the Northern Territory host Minister. It is my pleasure to welcome our Federal Minister for Indigenous Australians, the Honourable Linda Burney.
LINDA BURNEY MP: Good morning, everyone, and it is indeed great to be here on Larrakia Country, joined by my colleagues from the states and territories as well as, of course, the Coalition of Peaks. I have a statement that I'd like to read, and then we're happy to take questions. So thank you all for joining us in Darwin today for this joint council meeting on Closing the Gap. I want to acknowledge Catherine Liddle and Scott Wilson, the Deputy Co-convenors of the Coalition of Peaks who are representing Pat Turner, who is having a very well earned break. I would also like to acknowledge David Harris, who is just behind me here. This is David's first meeting. He's the new Minister for Aboriginal Affairs and Treaty in New South Wales. Leeanne Enoch, she is the new Minister for Aboriginal Affairs and Treaty in Queensland. The partnership between the Coalition of Peaks is all about practical steps to closing the gap. Local solutions for local challenges. That is what we are about, local solutions for local challenges. Today the Australian Government is delivering on its commitment to work in partnership with Indigenous communities on justice reinvestment. Part of the landmark $81.5 million for justice reinvestment packages. And I want to acknowledge the Attorney General, Mark Dreyfus, for all the work that he has done on this important reform. This is the first step for 15 communities, 15 communities that have said they want to do things differently because early intervention is better, it's cheaper, and we know it works. Working with the community on justice reinvestment can lead to a reduction in domestic violence, a reduction in custody, and an increase in educational participation. Justice reinvestment is about communities putting jobs, school education, culture and training first and keeping people, especially our young people, out of the justice system. Justice reinvestment works when the local community drives it. Its bottom up, not top down. Today's announcement is about supporting communities to make strong plans. So later this year they can seek funding to put those plans into actions. The communities that I'm speaking of, the 15 communities today, are Townsville, North Stradbroke Island, Mornington Island, Cherbourg and Doomadgee from Queensland. The Northern Territory communities are Katherine, Darwin, Groote Eylandt and Lajamanu. We have Circular Head in Tasmania, Canberra in the ACT. Newmand in Western Australia, Port Augusta in South Australia and Lower Murray in South Australia and a regional approach across metro and country, South Australia. We are already rolling out justice reinvestment in Alice Springs and in Halls Creek and other communities will be able to step forward later this year as I said. More than 30 years after the Royal Commission into Aboriginal Deaths in Custody, rates of incarceration of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people, men, women and young people, are a national shame. We can and we must do better. Justice reinvestment is a very large step in doing better. We cannot stand by and see our young people robbed of their futures by a justice system that too often lets them down. We can and we must do better. I'm also pleased today to say that the Australian and the Northern Territory governments are delivering on the $100 million commitment for urgent housing in Northern Territory homelands. This significant investment recognizes the significance of homelands and the importance of adequate housing to support people to live on the country. A new agreement on restoring funding to the Northern Territory homelands has been signed and provides $25 million this financial year to begin work to upgrade houses and essential infrastructure across the Northern Territory homelands. Now, I know some of you will want to ask me about the latest opinion polls on The Voice. That's kind of expected. So let me do a little pre-emptive truth telling. Progress is never easy and nothing worth fighting for is ever easy. And you know what? It wasn't easy for Vincent Lingiari and it wasn't easy for Charles Perkins. It wasn't easy for Eddie Mabo or Lowitja O'Donoghue, but they overcame so many hurdles and so will we at the referendum later this year. So I encourage all Australians to get informed ahead of the referendum. I encourage anyone who has questions and still isn't sure where to find out more. Simply visit Voice.gov.au. For those people who are saying there is not enough detail. I say to them, Let your fingers do some walking and there are some really good websites on where the information is. The referendum is about two things. It's about the recognition of the story of this country, of the truth of this country, 65,000 years of story, culture and truth and listening through a voice. Because only listening will create better policies that lead to better outcomes for our people. It will help, as Catherine Liddle has said last night, it will help close the gap. Thank you.
JOURNALIST: Quite a few communities are saying that one of the reasons that crime and incarceration rates are getting worse is because the social determinants of crime are getting worse. More families are on welfare, less people working. What's the federal government doing to improve your employment program, particularly the CDP, to make sure that more people have a future in those communities?
BURNEY: One of the very important projects, in fact, it was an election commitment was to reform the CDP program, which we are in the process of doing. We have identified a number of trial communities where there is great success, great early success in making sure that CDP is community driven, that the things that the CDP participants are doing is what the community needs and what the community wants. There is no reason why they can't have more creativity, more getting people ready for employment and more training in CDP. There is absolutely no reason why CDP can't be working in the care economy as well as the many other aspects of the community life here in the Northern Territory and across all CDP sites across Australia.
JOURNALIST: In terms of the other 15 communities I understand will be 30 in total that will receive money through justice reinvestment. Where are they likely to be? Are there going to be more in the Northern Territory or whereabouts?
BURNEY: I expect that there will be more in the Northern Territory. As I said later this year, there'll be the opportunity for people to apply for funding for justice reinvestment. The 15 communities that we've announced today are getting ready for the program. So obviously there'll be additional communities and that money will be available later on this year.
JOURNALIST: How far can it, if it's divided up across those 30, is the government initially earmarked in the Senate report? How far can really $2.1 million go to addressing justice reinvestment? Doesn't that need to be more money for all these communities, particularly big ones like Townsville, Darwin and Katherine.
BURNEY: The philosophy behind Justice Reinvestment is that there would be a 50% contribution from state and territory governments as well as the Federal Government. That will make it a very, very healthy amount of money. We know justice reinvestment works and this is particularly about reengaging young people with culture, reengaging young people with education, reengaging young people in the school system. Justice reinvestment will look different in different communities. It's what the community wants. It's not what the government says should happen.
JOURNALIST: Last week the Territory Corrections Commissioner said he expects we will need a new prison within ten years, and it's only eight years since we opened our last prisons. Why are so many people being sent to prison and what does that say about the situation?
BURNEY: I'll say something broadly then invite Minister to comment on something that is specifically to do with the Northern Territory. But one of the announcements, one of the reasons that we are putting so much emphasis on justice reinvestment, it is absolutely about doing precisely what you are describing, keeping people out of prison. Men, women and young people. This is an approach that is community driven. This is an approach that will suit individual communities. It’s not a cookie cutter model. And the issues in terms of justice for Aboriginal people, as I said, our national shame. We know that the royal commission was decades ago, and yet we're seeing more and more Aboriginal people go into the justice system. Today's announcement is about arresting that and changing that.
UIBO: So here in the Northern Territory, we have a very unique context. We know that when there are issues around crime and anti-social behaviour, it does affect each and every one of our communities right across the NT. Our police are doing a great job, but that also causes the downstream impact of having our judicial system quite full, including our prisons and detention centres here in the NT. Now, there is an economic story that's based around this as well. It costs the Northern Territory approximately $320 a day to house a prisoner. So we really do need to work on the social reforms as well as the economic reforms around justice, which is why the Northern Territory absolutely welcomes the investment from the Federal Labor Government that Minister Burney has announced today. We have those 4 sites in the Northern Territory, but we've also contributed through this budget in May, six law and justice groups to be established right across the NT for our Northern Territory budget. This will complement the work that we will do in partnership with the Federal Labor Government around justice reinvestment. It is really important when we're looking at alternatives to custody that these are community driven, that the sites and the programs and the initiatives are community solutions. Groote Eylandt has been announced through the justice reinvestment, there is already work happening, which is focused on youth between 17 and 25 years of age, which has seen some fantastic work and is community led, community driven. And we're getting some great results. It's something up to about 90% drop in youth crime and young people not having to go to detention from that part of the Northern Territory. We see more programs and initiatives that are community led that are rolled out across the Northern Territory. We will see that reduction not just in terms of the youth space, but also in terms of adult incarceration, which brings us back to the meeting that we have here today around closing the gap. Adult incarceration rates and youth incarceration rates for First Nations Australians is absolutely appalling. That's why it has to be practical solutions, community led solutions implemented at the grassroots level and supported by governments and our legal community and the judiciary. Last thing I'll say is, well, last month in May, the Northern Territory Labor Government passed the community courts legislation here. This is something our legal community had called for. It's something that our judiciary wants. We have now legislated with Attorney-General Minister Chansey Paech here in the NT to have those community courts reinstated here in the NT to make sure that we have the consequences for actions that meet the community expectation, keep our community safe, but also reduce the incarceration rates through detention.
JOURNALIST: In terms the incarceration rates, I'm interested in Minister Burney's response, you know, you could put pressure on all these government ministers behind you to actually raise the criminal age of responsibility to 14, as several youth justice advocates have called for, several First Nations Aboriginal legal services have called for. Are you going to do that today?
BURNEY: The issue of the age of criminal responsibility is a very important one. Federal Labor believes that ten is too young, it is inappropriate and we are very, very firm on that. States and territories are responsible for the legal justice systems and you will see across this country a number of states and territories that are already moving on the age of criminal responsibility. And I can assure you that this is firmly on the agenda for the Council for Attorney-Generals led by Mark Dreyfus. And the issue could have been dealt with, quite frankly, by the previous Federal Government. It wasn't. It was kicked down the road and it is now back on the agenda.
JOURNALIST: In terms of Dave Harris, you're the New South Wales Minister, ten is too young. Are you going to change that then?
NSW MINISTER DAVID HARRIS: Obviously, we're a new government. I think we've been sworn in nine weeks ago. So we're putting a new set of eyes across these issues. I've already had discussions with the attorney general, Michael Daly, on this issue, and we will be looking at it very, very seriously. But what we do need emphasizes that any change needs to come with wraparound programs. It's not about leaving young people deserted. It's about supporting them and making sure that there are proper strategies in place to support them if they are in this situation rather than going into the justice system, but making sure they're not left alone either, where they can then proceed later in life into the adult incarceration system.
JOURNALIST: But do you think 10 is too young which the federal minister has just said.
BURNEY: The issues that are around this is precisely why today's discussions are important. And as I say, it is the attorney generals that have this responsibility. The beauty of today is that we are talking with community controlled organizations. And if they have views about this, they will let us know. And this is not an exercise in coming to Darwin for the great weather. This is an exercise in sitting down and talking with community controlled organizations. And I'm going to invite Catherine Liddle in the moment to wrap this up. This is about sitting down with the community controlled organizations that have their feet in communities. There are people here from the legal service area. There are people here from the justice area. There are people here from health, from education, from early childhood. This is why we are having the joint council meeting so we can hear directly from community based organizations. I'll take one more question.
JOURNALIST: Does this mean that the traditional owners and the custodians of the lands that they live in and operate, have they been involved in the process?
BURNEY: Yes, they have. We had a wonderful welcome to country this morning from Larrakia people. Separate to this. I'm doing quite a lot of work with Malarndirri McCarthy and Minister Uibo in terms of the traditional owners here. We understand absolutely about protocol. We understand about recognition. And it would never, ever, ever be the case, this joint council would meet, without the involvement of the local people.
JOURNALIST: Can you sort of describe what these initiatives would look like on the ground?
BURNEY: The beauty of justice reinvestment is that a community designs what they think will work in their community and what does work in their community. They are in the best place to do that. It might be connecting young people back up to culture. It might be working with the local police to get them involved in school programs. It might be working with the local business owners in terms of employment and training. It might be men's behaviour groups to deal with domestic violence. These are some of the things that we've seen work in other communities. And it will be absolutely up to the local community to determine what they think is needed in those communities. But that gives you an example of the sorts of things that are possible. I'm going to ask Catherine Liddle to wrap up, and thank you all for your participation today.
CATHERINE LIDDLE: On behalf of the Coalition of Peaks of course, we welcome today's announcement. We know that the justice targets are alarmingly off track. It's quite significant we are in here in the NT today. While I'm not a Larrakia person I am a Territorian. Like all of my colleagues in the Coalition of Peaks I'm incredibly aware of how off track these targets are in the NT. What we know is that for these announcements to work, its going to take a lot of work. Where we see pockets of self-determination, we get different outcomes. So part of what we'll be doing today, of course, we'll been leaning in on that and say 'we love the announcement, that is fantastic. Now, how is it going to work?'. How do we get past the language and put in place the practical reforms, those priority reforms in the National Agreement that actually change the way that governments deliver these commitments to young people, and that is around what does genuine decision making look like on the ground? How are you bringing those communities in at the right time when we talk about the announcement on housing? What housing is needed in these communities? What are they responding to? How do they design the solutions for themselves? So we're really looking forward to being part of that conversation again. Joint council is something that the Coalition of Peaks fought really hard for and we're really pleased the Government has come to the table with joint council. Because that's the accountability needed. This is where we talk to the ministers as frankly as we can and have those really fierce conversations about what change can look like and have those conversations open and transparent in a way that genuinely drives outcomes.