PRIME MINISTER:
Thank you very much Chief Minister, David Tollner the Federal Member for Solomon, Nigel, thank you very much for your very gracious welcome on behalf of the Larrakai people. I'd like to congratulate your community on the great strides forward that have occurred over the last six years and contribution that the cooperation between your community and the Territory Government has made to the advancement of the welfare of your people. This is, as Claire said, a very important day. This is the first agreement of what I hope are many between the Commonwealth and the various States about the delivery in a more practical and effective way of assistance to indigenous Australians.
As the Chief Minister has said, 30 percent of the population of the Northern Territory consists of Indigenous Australians. And it's therefore appropriate that the first of the agreements be between the Commonwealth and the Government of the Northern Territory. This agreement is focused on what I believe Australians overwhelming want and that is cooperation between Governments, an absence of blame shifting and name calling and a determination to deliver practical improvements and practical outcomes for indigenous Australians.
I have a very strong belief that the greatest thing that we in Government can offer indigenous Australians is a share of the bounty of this country and a share of the success and the future of this country. And the only way in which that can happen is to focus effectively on delivering practical outcomes in areas so critical to all of us; health, education, employment and housing. They are four things that matter to all Australians - doesn't matter whether you're an indigenous Australian or you're another part of the Australian community - delivering those outcomes is very important.
This agreement has three schedules. One of them very importantly focuses on the issue of housing and there's a very pragmatic agreement being reached between the Federal Government and Government of the Northern Territory about the provision of housing - where there's... in return for financial adjustment there is a responsibility on the Northern Territory Government to provide it. Now that to me is a practical way of doing it - Northern Territory Government working with the communities and working in an overarching way with the Federal Government is better able to understand what's needed and what should be provided. Once again there's a focus on the practical. But what pleases me about this agreement is that we have been able to reach it speedily and I want to thank the Chief Minister for all her commitment. I want to thank Amanda Vanstone, my Indigenous Affairs Minister who's very committed to the policy of delivering practical outcomes and I want to thank the Head of my Department and the Head of the Northern Territory Chief Ministers Department for the energy they have put in to it.
Governments notoriously take quite a while to negotiate things; not only internationally but internally and the fact that we have been able to negotiate this very quickly is a tribute to the commitment of people. And I think, importantly, it's a tribute to a new mood of a no- nonsense desire to deliver outcomes and to get results. The time for making long speeches about these things is finished and the time for actually delivering some practical outcomes on the ground has arrived. And today's ceremony is part of it and I look forward of course to going to the Wadeye community and to... I'll be making one or two announcements there that will be important, particularly in relation to the ongoing wonderful education story. It's one of the best indigenous stories in Australia, what's happening in that community and having access to education and using education and valuing education is so important to the future of every young Australian, whether they're indigenous or not. And the fact that we have been able to make some progress there, through a spirit of cooperation involving both Governments and the local community is terrific. I give the greatest credit to the local community because it's they who've assumed the responsibility at a local level and without that assumption of responsibility at a local level you're not going to get an outcome. So it's a good news day for the indigenous Australians in the Northern Territory and it's an example I hope other Governments emulate and I do thank you Chief Minister for a last minute re-arrangement of the programme to bring it forward a little bit to accommodate my need to do a few things and get back to Canberra at 7 o'clock tonight to meet the Malaysian Prime Minister. It's great to be here and again to you Nigel and your Larrakia people, thank you very warmly for such a gracious welcome.
Thank you.
[ends]