MINISTER McCARTHY: Thank you, Acting Deputy President. Today's a deep day of shame for the Northern Territory CLP government, which has shut the doors on YiSSA and cast those in need onto the streets. YiSSA Homeless and Short Stay Facility in Darwin is one of the largest of its kind in the country. It's a 300-bed facility that could house as many as 400 people. For years, it's provided a home for hundreds of families at any one time. When the news first broke in July this year that the facility was going to close, I went to visit families and staff who were understandably shocked. I spoke to a grandmother who was the sole carer for her grandchildren. Her daughter, their mother, had died by suicide and she was left with nowhere to go. She had sought refuge at YiSSA. She told me that the children were attending local schools in Darwin and that YiSSA gave them some stability in their lives to feel normal and to get an education. Another man told me that he would be back out on the streets if YiSSA closed. Another woman pointed to a deep scar on her forehead and said to me, “a bad man did this to me”.
Tonight, in this place, I stand here not knowing where these people have ended up or where those in need in Darwin or Palmerston are supposed to go. The CLP government, after making the callous and heartless decision to close YiSSA, has been intent on blaming everyone but themselves for this decision. Minister Cahill in the Northern Territory Parliament today launched an attack against me. So I thought it was important to put the facts on the record here in the Senate. Facts I've consistently spoken about throughout this process.
On the 15th of July, the Northern Territory Government announced that YiSSA would close in just 90 days. The Northern Territory claimed the negotiations with Ausco over the lease had failed. Ausco’s the company that the demountables belong to. They own it. This announcement came absolutely out of the blue for residents and the YiSSA workers who knew nothing of a potential closure. And from that moment, and despite this in no way being a Commonwealth Government facility, I got to work to help find a solution because I knew it mattered to these families.
The land is Northern Territory Crown land. So, on the 7th of August, I wrote to Minister Cahill advising that the Commonwealth would consider providing financial support to purchase the modular accommodation from Ausco. I proposed that the accommodation be owned by Yilli Rreung Aboriginal Corporation, a well-respected and highly effective community-controlled Aboriginal organisation that has actually been running YiSSA for many years along with Mission Australia. This would allow Yilli to continue operating and supporting those who needed it.
On the 14th of August, Minister Cahill responded confirming that the lease arrangements would end in October. So, we went further. On the 20th of August, I wrote again to Minister Cahill with a revised offer. The Commonwealth would provide $3.5 million to support the Northern Territory Government to purchase the modular accommodation from Ausco. Under this proposal, the Northern Territory Government would own the assets. This was a genuine offer of financial support to help secure the future of the facility.
But on the 27th of August, Minister Cahill wrote back advising that preparations to close YiSSA were continuing. On the 31st of August, I wrote directly to the Chief Minister, Lia Finocchiaro, once again confirming the Commonwealth's offer of $3.5 million to support the purchase of the accommodation.
Minister Cahill and the Chief Minister, instead of responding to my letters or engaging in negotiations, continued to attack me through the media. The Chief Minister called it a waste of taxpayers' money. Minister Cahill said she wanted the money with no strings attached for it to be accepted. All the while, they insisted that a transitional plan would be forthcoming and that the hundreds of families in the facility would be looked after.
As the deadline loomed, families were told to make other arrangements. New intakes for YiSSA were rejected. On the 16th of September, the Northern Territory Government announced that it would establish a transitional accommodation facility in Batchelor to relocate residents. Batchelor is about 100 kilometres south of Darwin.
On the 18th of September, the Minister for Finance, Katy Gallagher, and I met with the Acting Chief Minister, Gerard Maley, and made clear our concerns about YiSSA and we reiterated our offer again that it was still on the table. I also urged the Northern Territory Government to keep YiSSA open at least until the end of the wet season. Earlier this year, we saw thousands of people displaced as a result of severe flooding right across the Northern Territory, in particular in the north, and YiSSA was able to assist in accommodating many of those families from the Daly River region.
Batchelor is a small community of roughly 500 people, as I said, 100 kilometres south of Darwin. So, to open this new facility, it's costing an astonishing $18 million. Batchelor has limited policing and access to medical services, no public bus, a taxi to Darwin costs hundreds of dollars. This was where they wanted to move one of the largest homeless and short-stay facilities in the country. I suggest that the priority was an out-of-sight, out-of-mind approach. If these people were pushed out of Darwin, they wouldn't need to be dealt with.
Well, news has come through this afternoon on the day after the facility YiSSA closed. 30 people have moved into the new facility in Batchelor. It's an absolute scandal. From the YiSSA facility in Darwin I visited in July, which housed hundreds of families, to just 30 in Batchelor.
Acting Deputy President, I will tell you where these people have had to go. They're sleeping rough on the streets of Darwin or in the long grass. They're sleeping rough on the streets of Palmerston or in the long grass. They've returned to partners that it's not safe for them to be with. They've returned to remote communities where they can't get dialysis that they need for their renal needs, and these decisions could be fatal.
YiSSA was not a Commonwealth facility, but out of basic common human decency and a desire to assist those in need, we made offers of help. We made repeated, reasonable, sensible offers to assist. Not only were our offers rebuffed, we've been smeared and the residents have been demonised in a nasty display of arrogance. And the staff have lost their jobs. And where have they gone?
I can certainly promise that this decision will follow this government of the Northern Territory all the way over the next few years. These families whom they have cast onto the streets and into overcrowded houses, they will not forget what you have done. And nor will decent Australians who can see what has happened here has been completely unjust, completely reprehensible. And Madam Acting Deputy President, so callous and cruel to these individuals and their families, when they didn't need to be treated in that manner at all.