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Prime Minister Anthony Albanese has dismissed a Coalition call for a royal commission into child sex abuse in Indigenous communities as a political stunt, while continuing to resist saying whether he would pursue truth and treaty for First Australians.
Several peak Indigenous groups also rejected the call, describing it as an attempt to politicise child sexual abuse and play into the “basest negative perceptions of some people about Aboriginal people and communities”.
Prime Minister Anthony Albanese said child sex abuse was a serious issue but it did not just affect one group or place.Credit: Alex Ellinghausen
Liberal MP Bridget Archer crossed the floor on Thursday and joined Labor in defeating Dutton’s call for a debate on a royal commission and an audit of spending on Indigenous programs.
The two ideas – advocated by opposition Indigenous Australians spokeswoman and leading No campaigner Jacinta Nampijinpa Price – were key pillars of the Coalition’s Indigenous policy as it mobilised against the Voice to parliament.
“The depth and feeling when you speak to people in Alice Springs, as I’ve done with Jacinta Price, it is palpable. When you speak with people who are involved in community services, in policing – they are heartbroken. They are exhausted,” Dutton said.
“This is about protecting children, it’s about protecting vulnerable children in our country who are being sexually abused.”
But the board of the Aboriginal Medical Services Alliance Northern Territory said the “substantial resources” required for a royal commission would be better used on the ground, including by acting on poverty, schooling and youth incarceration.
“Our Aboriginal organisations and communities do not minimise the issue of the abuse and neglect of children,” the board said. “Political grandstanding by those who actively campaigned against Aboriginal communities having a voice on matters that concern us can only be divisive and destructive.”
A joint statement by dozens of organisations, including many peak Indigenous bodies in health, child protection and education, said the Coalition’s claims had been made “without one shred of real evidence being presented”.
“It is frustrating and disappointing to hear the Opposition Leader and Senator Price repeating the same claims and calls they made earlier this year, again with no evidence and no credible solutions,” they said.
“If any politician, or anyone at all, has any evidence about the sexual abuse of children then they must report it to the authorities.”
Albanese said child sex abuse was a serious issue that every member of parliament should find abhorrent wherever it occurred, but it did not just affect one group or place.
“Tragically, it occurs on a very widespread basis and we know, actually, that the statistics tell us that the highest prevalence is actually within families and people that a child will know,” he said.
“No-one in this place is disputing the seriousness of this issue but what we won’t be doing is agreeing to stunts which are designed to whip up outrage somehow as if this is a partisan issue.”
He noted the Royal Commission into Institutional Responses to Child Sexual Abuse, which was supported by the Gillard government, had already probed circumstances in which Indigenous children had faced abuse.
Pressed by the Coalition on Labor’s plans for progressing elements of the Uluru Statement from the Heart, that called for treaty-making and truth-telling following the Voice referendum defeat, Albanese said the government would continue listening to Indigenous Australians.
“We said we would have a referendum, we did. We said we would respect the outcome of the referendum, we have. We said we would listen to Indigenous Australians, and we will continue to do so. We said that we would make practical difference to the lives of Indigenous Australians, and that is precisely what we will do,” he said in question time.
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