Minister for Indigenous Australians
Subjects: Low-Cost Essentials Subsidy Scheme, Indigenous Rangers, Housing, Closing the Gap.
SANDY DANN, HOST: Minister, welcome to Broome.
MALARNDIRRI McCARTHY, MINISTER FOR INDIGENOUS AUSTRALIANS: Good morning Sandy and good morning to all your listeners. What a beautiful place, and it's lovely to be here with you.
SANDY DANN: Good morning, I hope it's been a beautiful start so far.
MALARNDIRRI McCARTHY: It has been. This morning, I was able to look out at your incredible ocean. I always think Darwin's got stunning sea views, but there's no doubt about it, Broome is very different again and it's an absolute pleasure to be here.
SANDY DANN: I know you've been to the East Kimberley, is this your first time to the west?
MALARNDIRRI McCARTHY: No, it's not my first time, but it is my first time as Minister for Indigenous Australians. And I feel that the opportunity to be able to listen to families and organisations, not just in Broome, but also in Derby, where I drove to as well while I'm here, has been important. It is important to be able to just listen to families and organisations and just see what's going on.
SANDY DANN: In fact, you've had a career, a sterling career with the listening and taking in the thoughts of people with a broadcasting background yourself. To date, how has the position been for filling those big shoes of doing that title as the Federal Minister for Indigenous Affairs?
MALARNDIRRI McCARTHY: Look, I can do this job with great team support from my ministerial staff. I certainly am in touch with the National Indigenous Australians Agency across Australia, but also more importantly with local mob. People contact me from the communities, whether it's Fitzroy, whether it's Derby, whether it's Halls Creek and Kununurra. Families reach out to me and if they don't reach out to me directly, they reach out to people who work beside me and I do it because I love the job. I think it's an incredible honour. I'm deeply honoured to be in this role, but I know it's a serious role where we've got to improve the lives for our families right across the country. And in my view, the way to do that is by working with people and trying to do the best that I can. Local mob usually have the solutions and it's important to me to see what I can do to help them.
SANDY DANN: In fact, improving the lives has certainly been evident out there recently with getting Outback Stores onboard with 30 items in remote communities now being a lot cheaper.
MALARNDIRRI McCARTHY: That's right, Sandy. One of the first things that I really wanted to work on, especially when I was Assistant Minister for Indigenous Affairs and that was around food security. It worries me a lot around the prices that impact mob in community, especially our remote regions. Prices are so high and we worked as a team, under Linda Burney at the time, and now that I have the role, I'm rolling this out to reduce those costs. And I can say that over 100 stores in remote regions have taken on the challenge to reduce their price by up to 50% on 30 essential items, Sandy. It's not going to be on everything, but it's going to be on those products that we know are everyday needs of families and I do acknowledge that here in Western Australia, there are 13 stores that have signed up so far and I want to see more.
SANDY DANN: Minister your trip to Derby? What was that like?
MALARNDIRRI McCARTHY: It was pretty special. I drove down to Derby and the opportunity to listen to families there. There was an incredible celebration of 30 years for women and children and the whole work that's been done to reduce family and domestic violence. It was important to drop in on that celebration and also thank people for the work they're doing, to help our families, but also those organisations that are continuing to work with our youth, in particular, going to look at the hostel, that caters for our youth. Being able to go to see what they're doing, but also just hearing from them about what they want going forward, as well. So, Derby was a good place to sort of see that. One of the big things for me, Sandy, is the concern I have about our youth, in terms of incarceration, in terms of how we can reduce incarceration, what are the programs? How can we help them? I was at Derby High School with the School Ranger Program, something that I was very proud to fund as we're funding across the country, to work with our young people, to keep them at school, know their sense of self and identity. I met people like Justin and Clancy, who are part of that school program. Lovely to see that Justin's going to graduate this year. He gets on the bus every day, along with lots of little kids, as well as the big kids from Pandanus Park to go to school and it's important that we keep our kids going to school. And I stopped in at Pandanus Park to spend some time with families there, who love their program for the littlies, the babies, but they were talking about what happens with their kids going to school. So, these are things that are important for me to hear and see what I can do to help navigate some support.
SANDY DANN: You're in Boome today, catching up with youngsters?
MALARNDIRRI McCARTHY: I am and 'oldsters' or Elders, with everybody Sandy, so this morning I've just been out with the Yawaru Rangers as well, just talking about the marine park and the work that they do in terms of the Indigenous Protected Areas. The challenges that they have with monitoring dugong and sea turtle and other fish life and how they cross over with the boundaries. What's native title, what belongs to the port. These are important learnings for me as well, so that when I'm back in Canberra talking about these issues and trying to assist, especially around the Native Title Act with the Attorney-General, I have a better understanding and I'm certainly hoping to catch up with more organisations this afternoon, including the Kimberley Land Council as well.
SANDY DANN: Minister, we did mention food security a little earlier on. The housing front, any movement there?
MALARNDIRRI McCARTHY: Yes, I'm working with Clare O'Neil who's our federal Housing Minister and seeing what we can do in terms of housing more broadly across the other states. Obviously, with the Northern Territory, there's a different arrangement and I am conscious to hear from organisations here as to what the situation is for housing and working in conjunction, obviously with the state government as well.
SANDY DANN: Closing The Gap, where are we going with that one?
MALARNDIRRI McCARTHY: Well, there are a couple of areas that we're doing very, very well, Sandy, but the areas that we're not doing well are the ones that I'm focussed on and that is the high rates of incarceration of our people. Also, the high rates of out-of-home care of our kids, the fact that our kids are still being removed. And this work with families now and the reason why I travel so much to spend time with communities and families is to really get a deep sense of what those particular areas need. Not every solution will fix every problem, but if we can work with each of the regions and identify with local mob as to what they actually need, the practical things that matter to them, then that's what we should be getting behind and supporting and I'm trying to do that. Clearly, there's also guidelines in how you can provide grants and funding, but I also look at ways to support people who are doing well.
SANDY DANN: Lastly, where will your travels take you from here?
MALARNDIRRI McCARTHY: I certainly am going to have to get home and see my family. I miss seeing my little gang, my girls started back for the fourth term of school, so looking forward to being home and spend some time with them for the weekend and then I'll be off again.
SANDY DANN: Thank you, Minister.
MALARNDIRRI McCARTHY: Thanks, Sandy.
