weekly hansard - Queensland Parliament - Queensland Government

2636 Child Safety Legislation Amendment Bill 23 Aug 2005
I know in my area—and I think this is applicable to every member of this parliament—when I see
a child born in my community, that little child becomes a part of my life. I know that child’s mum and dad.
I see that child grow up. I watch the child go to preschool and then to school. The next thing the child is
in year 8 at high school. That child then becomes a young adult, leaves school and then goes on
through life. That is what it is about. That child is a part of our life regardless of whether it is my child or
your child, or somebody else’s child. As Australians and as members of the Queensland community, we
have to be aware and observant of other people’s children.
Members might ask: where is this bloke coming from? But, at the end of the day, there is more to
life than money. Money is the ruination of a lot of people, but we have to have money to help people
through life. People put too much emphasis on wanting material things, and they forget about the value
of their children and their family unit. It is about nourishing their child, clothing their child, caring for their
child and educating their child. As I said before, I have grandchildren. As grandparents, we watch out for
those kids all the time. We watch them grow and we watch that they are cared for. We are not trying to
do the work of their parents, but we are looking out for them. I believe that that is what every community
should be doing: looking out for children regardless of who their parents are. If we see a child in the
street, and the child might be with their parent, we should keep an eye on that child to see that they do
not run onto the road or that something is not going to harm them. I believe that as a parent and as a fair
dinkum citizen we need to do that all the time.
I want to go back to my area of responsibility—and that is Indigenous affairs. Being the shadow
minister for Aboriginal and Islander policy, this is something that is pretty close to my heart. I really
believe that as members of parliament, regardless of whether it is the Minister for Child Safety or the
minister for Indigenous affairs, we have a big responsibility in this state to try to correct the anomalies
that currently exist in Indigenous communities where children are abused, whether it is because of
alcohol or substance abuse. The key to this is educating the young people. We have to grab them at
school. We have to make certain that they are given the opportunity at school to learn what hygiene is
all about, to learn what diet is all about and to learn what looking after themselves is all about. I mention
the Palm Island issue again, but it comes back to learning about what the problems are. I hope that we,
together, can correct some of the anomalies that are out there. They are in Queensland. They are in the
Territory. They are in Western Australia. They are in western New South Wales. They have reached
epidemic proportions in some areas.
I was in Western Australia a couple of years ago at Docker River, on the Western Australia-
Northern Territory border. The place was absolutely dysfunctional due to petrol sniffing. By
‘dysfunctional’ I mean that kids and adults were walking around and they did not know whether they
were in Australia, in China or on the moon. They were off the planet because they were all sniffing
petrol. There were a couple of social workers and others there trying to keep the place together. That is
what we are up against.
Whether we have a Labor government or a conservative government in Queensland and whether
we have a conservative government or a Labor government in Canberra, we have to address this issue.
We have to take it by the throat and do something about it. When we go up into the cape areas and the
gulf areas, we can see the problems. Those problems are our problems, whether we sit on this side of
the House or on that side of the House. I cannot emphasise that enough. I am ashamed to be a
Queenslander in 2005 and to know that that is going on in our state. It is something we have to do
together. It is no good passing the buck and saying, ‘You’re in government. Do something about it.’ I
believe that we have to show more leadership on this issue and to make sure that we control it. It is
about education. It is about health. We have to give those kids those opportunities.
I have heard the Premier talk about the lost generation, and I have talked about it myself. I will tell
members about the lost generation. A lot of the mothers of those kids are in prison because of the
abusive system, the culture, that lies within those communities today. The Minister for Police and
Corrective Services is in the House tonight. During the budget estimates debate I raised the issue of
$100 million in funding to build a new Stuart women’s prison. That is all very well, but let us look at how
we, together, could correct the problem. The amount of $100 million could probably go a long way
towards assisting some of those women in those areas by putting in place some protection for
themselves and their children.
I know that housing is also an issue. I know that there are a lot of other issues and problems with
the culture, but we have to deal with them together. There are issues in south-east Queensland. A lot of
members here represent electorates in which there are people from lower socioeconomic backgrounds.
A good Aboriginal friend of mine from Quilpie was in the gallery this morning with his two daughters. He
lives at Inala, and he was telling me about some of the problems that their families are subjected to out
there—problems with housing, employment and the list goes on and on. The problem starts at a very
young age. We have not addressed it properly yet, but I think we are slowly but surely starting to
address it.
We talk about Indigenous communities. We can talk about non-Indigenous communities, too. We
see kiddies at schools in our own areas and we wonder if those kids are getting fed at home. We know
for a fact that some of those kids do not get pocket money to share in tuckshop days. These sorts of