Mr LIEBERMAN(10.12 a.m.) —I welcome the Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Commission Amendment (TSRA) Bill 1997 and wish it a speedy passage. The bill amends the ATSIC Act and will allow the Torres Strait Regional Authority the first opportunity to negotiate its own budget bids directly with the minister rather than through ATSIC. Its budget bids, of course, will compete with all other competing bids from other Commonwealth government programs, but it is important that this parliament do all it can, as a matter of urgency, to increase the rights of Torres Strait Islanders to manage their own affairs and fight for the things that they believe in, and to help them achieve their hopes and aspirations.

The present funding arrangement under the existing legislation, introduced by the Keating government, is in fact demeaning to Torres Strait Islanders. I know it was not intended to be when the legislation was put through some years ago, but it is. It requires the Torres Strait Islanders and the authority that was set up for them to go through an incredible maze of bureaucracy and of layers of government and inter-governmental arrangements before it can have its voice directly heard. I know this was not actually intended, but that is in fact what has happened. So this legislation brings in a very welcome improvement and reform, and I am proud that it is the government of which I am a member doing it in 1997.

The shadow minister, the member for Banks (Mr Melham), who just spoke, is the deputy chair of the House of House of Representatives Standing Committee on Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Affairs and I am very proud and honoured to be its chairman. I do thank all my colleagues from all parties for their contribution and support in the work we do.

One of the most exciting and challenging things that I have ever had to face in my life is meeting the challenges of the reference that is currently before the committee and on which it is working hard. It is, in effect, to recommend to the parliament, the government and the minister ways of improving the autonomy of Torres Strait Islanders and to take into account the implications.

While observing the protocols of the committee which is currently undertaking the inquiry—and I will not abuse those protocols in any shape or form—I can say that this amendment certainly would have very strong sympathy from my committee as being one of the essential ingredients towards achieving greater autonomy for Torres Strait Islanders.

When I fist visited the Torres Strait Island people on the islands last year, I was struck by their dignity and their commitment to each other, their great commitment to their Christian beliefs, their pride in their culture and their history, and their passion for this country. These qualities are on the public record, in transcripts that have been authorised for publication, so they are available for all to see.

It was a wonderful thing to hear the Torres Strait Islanders teach us about their traditions and their involvement in this great country and talk about what they had done to help defend it against the Japanese invasion and to help us build, while enduring the most dreadful conditions, infrastructure such as railways. They are very proud of the fact that part of our railway network in isolated areas of Australia was built with the skill, dedication and fortitude of Torres Strait Islander people.

One thing that made me very happy was their constantly saying to everybody that they are proud to be part of Australia and want to continue to be part of Australia, that they are Australians. Mr Deputy Speaker, you will recall that some years ago there was a suggestion that some people on Torres Strait Islands wished to secede from Australia. That is not the case. Torres Strait Islanders passionately want to be part of Australia's future, to help build it and help it become even greater. That is why this legislation is a step in that direction.

Without pre-empting my committee's deliberations or what it might recommend, I say that there are enormous barriers—and it is on the public record—between the decision makers in government and indigenous people in this country. There are barriers in terms of legislative frameworks, bureaucracies, authorities, agencies and the like. These barriers should not continue. Indigenous people, including Torres Strait Islanders, should have the same access to their government—Commonwealth, state and local governments—as all Australians.

The obstacles that our indigenous people face to have their voices heard, to have their hopes and aspirations analysed by government—and I invite honourable members to go into this more thoroughly when they get the time—are quite incredible. It is sad that we have allowed this to happen.

I hope you support my view that the great thing we can do for indigenous people is to give them a great sense of self-reliance, a feeling that they have control over their own lives and their own communities, just as all Australians do. Let me assure you, Mr Deputy Speaker, they do not have that control at the moment. Under the present legislative set-ups, Torres Strait Islanders are denied the right to have a direct say in their own everyday affairs. That is something that I, along with the committee, will be passionately addressing. We hope that we can come forward with ideas.

When I was visiting one of the islands, I had the pleasure of spending some time with a young Torres Strait Islander who had recently qualified as a tradesman, having served his apprenticeship and done his TAFE training on mainland Australia. I asked him what his hopes and aspirations were for his young contemporaries, his friends, on the islands. He said, `Lou, I'd like them to have the same opportunities that I've had. I'd like to be able to teach them what I've had the benefit of being able to learn. I'd like them to be able to build their own homes on our islands for our people, rather than us having to have people from the mainland come over and do it for us—not that there's anything wrong with those people; in fact, I've learnt a lot from them. I would like to teach them. I would like the opportunity to teach them.'

He told me that, as a very young boy, he had learnt to give his aunt a hypodermic injection into the abdomen because she suffered from diabetes. He told me that he expected that he would also develop diabetes because this was part of the health profile of people on the islands.

I was shaken by that, I must say. I wanted to think about it and consider why this should be. I believe that part of the reason that the health of our indigenous people, particularly those on Torres Strait Island, is so bad in so many ways is that they have not been able to manage their own affairs as I think they should be able to. Unfortunately, they have become more reliant on others telling them how to do it and what to do.

We all know that they have been great providers for themselves and their families. We know that they are skilled cultivators of intensive agricultural vegetable production. We know that their skills as fisher people are legend—incredible. They have sustained and fed their families for hundreds of years.

But, regretfully, that sort of activity is no longer the norm on the islands. It is quite the reverse. They are no longer self-reliant in so many of those areas. That, unhappily, is because well-meaning people over the years have supplanted their own endeavours, their own enterprise and their own wish to be self-sufficient with the provision of government which has sapped some of their own self-esteem, I suspect, and certainly denied them the ability to get on and to achieve, as they have done so well over so many hundreds of years.

I could see the great fish population as I got closer to the islands. I could see them swimming around the islands and in one conversation I had with an Islander I asked him how often he fished and he said, `We only fish when we're broke.' I said, `Please explain.' And he said, `Most of my friends and family only go fishing when we've run out of our allowance because we get our food from the supermarket on the islands. We buy our food there now. We don't go fishing as we normally might have done in bygone years.'

Of course, the sort of food that you find in the supermarkets is processed food, processed sausages. I said to one young person, `What did you have for breakfast today?' and he said, `Processed pork sausage.' I said, `What are you going to have for lunch?' and he said, `Probably beef sausage.' `What are you having for dinner tonight?' and he said, `As a matter of fact, one of our mates is bringing over Kentucky Fried Chicken. We are having a community singsong tonight and we are having Kentucky Fried Chicken.' Those of us who happen to know a little bit about manag ing your own health would understand that, if at an early age that is the basic diet, as you grow older you may develop serious preventable diseases such as diabetes.

I see a direct link between those sorts of things—those terrible blows to the health of those Torres Strait Islanders and other indigenous people—and the fact that they do not have a direct say over their future. They do not have direct links with government. They have too many layers interrupting the passage of good dialogue and advocacy for their needs.

I see this legislation as being a long overdue and very welcome move to give them more access to ATSIC. But I can foreshadow—again, without breaching the protocols as the chair of a committee currently undertaking a very important and challenging inquiry—that this is not going to solve the enormous challenges and problems those people have in achieving the proper level of autonomy. That is why with some excitement I look forward to being able to deliberate with my colleagues and bring down a report to this government, to the parliament and to Australia which I hope will be an example to all as to the sorts of things that can be done by governments for indigenous people to enable indigenous people to go forward and to do all the wonderful things they should be able to do but which they are being inhibited from being able to do because they do not have the right access.

I will just briefly make a contrast in relation to this. When I go back to my home in north-east Victoria, I think about these things: I have a municipal council under a local government, and I have a right to vote for candidates regularly. That council is responsible for certain very important things. It also interfaces with other local governments in the region and, of course, with state and federal governments.

If you go to the Torres Strait Islands and look for that sort of model, you do not find it. There is part of a local government model, but it does not extend totally over all of the communities. In fact, some representatives are on one agency and not on others and you have different authorities involved, and the TSRA is a classic example of that. The TSRA is actually responsible for many things, but it does not quite do other things because other agencies up there are crowding it. They are involved as well.

This legislation is just the beginning of what is, hopefully, going to be picked up by the parliament and governments for the Torres Strait Islanders. It will enhance their future and recognise at long last their right to improved and increased autonomy. Above all, it will help us to address the urgent health issues that present themselves in the Torres Strait Islands.

Unfortunately, the death rate for women in the Torres Strait Islands is the highest of any indigenous people in the world. Their health problems cause them to die earlier than any other indigenous people in the world. Why should this be? What fine, noble, beautiful Australians they are. It should not be. This means that every effort has to be made by all of us in this parliament, those of us who are involved in the policy, to address the issues.

In my view, it is so damned obvious that we can help the Torres Strait Islander people and we can improve their health. We can increase their self-reliance and give them all the things they are entitled to have by looking at the way in which governments interface with them. We can do all we can to remove the obstacles. My hope is to give them the maximum say over their affairs, no holds barred.

Obviously the shadow minister's support and encouragement to me as chair of the committee is much appreciated, but I was sorry to hear the shadow minister referring to other issues in his contribution today, and I know he has the right to do that. Certainly, if I wanted to, I could answer most of what he said, but I will not. I will not take the opportunity, even though I am a politician and I am tempted to do it, in this debate.

I will not weaken the importance of this legislation or the message that the government and I are trying to give our indigenous brothers and sisters by becoming involved in a squabble over politics which, I regret very much, the shadow minister has introduced at the level of intensity that he did in his contri bution today. I know he has the right to do it. I just find it a bit sad. I am not daunted, however, and I know that he, in his own heart, will support good reforms for indigenous people. I certainly look forward to working with him to that end.