Today, the first day of Parliament in 2024, I took the chance to highlight the amazing work of some of the community stars in Durack. I always enjoy speaking about the hard work and accomplishments that inspirational community members in Durack achieve on a daily basis. Thank you for all that you do for your communities!
Opinion Piece - PM missing on booze crisis
Crime, poverty, child neglect and youth suicide are all exacerbated by severe alcohol abuse.
This is not news to those living in the north-west of our State who have watched tragedy after tragedy for many years.
While obvious to some, the release of the Kimberley police dossier this week has rightly put this issue front and centre for all in WA to see.
Sadly, if this was taking place in one of our leafier suburbs, like Floreat, we would be determined to find a solution and it would remain front of mind until such time as one was.
Will we still be talking about alcohol abuse in the Kimberley next week?
Most harrowing are the insights into the final moments of too many young people who chose to take their own lives, many of whom were intoxicated at the time.
These children and young adults should have been enjoying the best time of their lives, but unfortunately become another tragic statistic.
These stories make it clear that combating alcohol abuse is about life and death.
Stricter liquor restrictions in Broome and Derby may help to curb alcohol abuse, and ensuring the Banned Drinkers Register is fit for purpose is clearly one way to control sale of grog to heavy consumers.
Regardless, desperate people will find a way to acquire alcohol and the ongoing supply of “sly grog” is testament to that.
Two years ago, I likened the youth crime wave taking place in the Kimberley to a war zone.
While I copped flak at the time that phrase has since caught on and is now quite mainstream.
Even with liquor restrictions I fear alcohol abuse will become normalised unless we tackle the social issues from multiple angles.
We need to be serious about working with the family structure and ensuring that the next generation is on the right track.
This means keeping kids in school and socially engaged and the home a safe place to be.
Whilst most of the responsibility lies with the Cook State Government, the Federal Government also has a role to play here.
It’s bewildering to me that the Voice was put forward as an urgent solution to closing the gap, but since referendum day the Prime Minister has been completely absent in this space. It seems that there was no plan B after all.
There are things that he and the Minister for Indigenous Australians, Linda Burney, could announce today that I believe could deliver tangible results.
For starters, announce an audit into Commonwealth spending for Indigenous specific programs.
We need a review, not just to reduce waste, but to also highlight the most effective programs that should be backed in. This is particularly important when it comes to youth diversionary programs.
Keeping at-risk youth engaged, developing respect for their local community and away from substance abuse will go a long way to ending intergenerational poverty.
Next, get serious about improving the environment children are growing up in.
This should include announcing a royal commission into child sexual abuse in Indigenous communities and reversing their decision to axe the cashless debit card.
The CDC preserved 80 per cent of welfare funds for essential goods such as food and rent.
This meant parents did not have access to cash to spend on alcohol, drugs and gambling. While the CDC was not implemented in Broome, it was rolled out across the East Kimberley.
Reinstating the card and expanding its coverage should be a priority.
Government should spend less time worrying about the optics and on the symbolic (and so should Woolies) and more on the practical actions that will improve the lives of our most vulnerable Australians.
As we saw in the Northern Territory, successful alcohol bans were removed when the then-chief minister called the bans “racist”.
After domestic violence and property offences skyrocketed, the restrictions had to be reinstated just months later.
Over the next fortnight the focus will inevitably shift to the annual debate surrounding Australia Day. We will see millions of Aussies celebrating our great nation, while others, overwhelmingly non-Indigenous, will gather in our capital cities to protest against the historical wrongs that occurred decades and centuries ago.
Wouldn’t it be great if the same level of passion and focus was applied to fixing the conditions today that cause this devastating generational cycle to roll on and on for many Aboriginal people?
*Published in the West Australian, 12 January 2024
The Hon Melissa Price MP
Federal Member for Durack
Opposition Whip
Prime Minister, You Are In Government. Do Your Job!
This week in Parliament I asked Labor when they will realise that they are in Government and no longer in Opposition. The time for action is now Albanese!
A Distracted and Missing Prime Minister.
This week in Parliament I spoke on the inability of our Prime Minister to do his job. He is missing in action when Australians need him the most. When will he care about keeping our borders secure and Australians safe?
Labor has no plan to bring down the cost of living.
Today in Parliament I spoke on the very real crisis that is facing Australians' under the Albanese Government.
Since Labor was elected, the cost of living has increased dramatically.
Just over the past 15 months;
• Food and grocery prices are up 8.2%.
• Housing prices have increased by 10.4%.
• Insurance is up by 17.3%.
• Electricity is up by 18.2% and gas is up 28%.
We know that millions of Australians have also been hit hard by the twelve interest rate rises that have occurred under this Government. So, I call on the Prime Minister and the Treasurer to get on with the job and come up with a real plan to combat the cost of living.
The End Of The Australian Dream. Labor Are Failing Young Australians.
🏡 Last week I highlighted how young Australians are hurting under this Albanese Labor Government.
According to a recent survey 9 in 10 have suffered financial difficulty over the past twelve months and 61% believe they will be financially worse off than their parents. Sadly just 41% believe they will ever be able to purchase a property in the future.
The crisis in housing we are seeing now is directly linked to Labor’s reckless management of the economy and immigration system. Australia’s population is growing at the highest rate in 70 years.
It’s commonsense that this would distort the market with rental vacancies hitting a record low of just 1.02% in October and the cost of housing increasing by 10.4% in the past 15 months.
Recently the CEO of one of the major banks said that home loans are becoming ‘only for the rich’. You shouldn’t have to be born with a silver spoon in your mouth to get ahead. Yet under Labor that is becoming a reality.
Labor cannot continue to take the youth vote for granted while they are crushing the Australian Dream.
Boosting home ownership has been a core belief of the Liberal Party since its founding. If returned to Government we will work to support more young people get into their own homes.
My latest Opinion Piece - The Voice Debate is Finally Over.
The Voice debate is finally over. The result was conclusive with every State rejecting the Prime Minister’s proposal. Heavy defeats occurred in WA and in my electorate of Durack with 63 per cent and 73 per cent respective No votes.
Debates as to why this proposal failed will continue for years to come. My conclusion is the failure was largely due to the Albanese Government rushing the process.
They dismissed practical concerns and questions and instead went all in on the vibe. The Government failed to demonstrate how inserting an untried Voice into the Constitution would deliver any meaningful change.
The Prime Minister has a lot to answer for. To lose in a landslide is an indictment of his leadership and judgment to not strike a compromise that could have succeeded. He made this his number-one priority during the most extreme cost-of-living crisis in decades. This was an unnecessary exercise costing $450 million, which delivered nothing but division.
Australians, by their very nature, are hardworking and tolerant of cultural differences. What concerns me is that this referendum has brought about unintended consequences. The Voice appears to be the straw that broke the back of political correctness. We have gone along with these unspoken rules for decades and my sense is that people are fed up. The result of this potential lack of tolerance remains to be seen. Regardless, Anthony Albanese must take responsibility.
The question remains how do we overcome Indigenous disadvantage?
We must begin by being honest about the problems that exist. This means not being afraid to challenge the politically correct climate and focusing on the programs that we know are needed to address the big issues of getting more kids into school and off the streets.
The biggest threat to the success of the next generation isn’t what happened decades or centuries ago, but what is happening today.
A royal commission into child sexual abuse in Indigenous communities would address the disgraceful abuse being inflicted today. Protecting children from harm should be our top priority, even if it highlights an ugly reality. This week the Albanese Government voted against this solution.
Billions of dollars a year are spent on addressing Indigenous disadvantage. An inquiry into the current expenditure, proposed by the Coalition, would be a good step in acknowledging the waste, mismanagement and sometimes fraud that has occurred in this space.
However, an audit will only take us so far. We need to look forward, not backwards. Give me a whiteboard and I’ll quickly write down several programs that should be backed in.
We should reinstate the cashless debit card as a matter of urgency. Income management delivers more food on the table for kids instead of grog for parents. Ending the normalisation of alcohol abuse will assist Aboriginal kids to grow up in a safe and stable environment. When kids feel safer at home, they are less likely to be on the streets causing trouble.
Between 2015-19, an Indigenous female was 7.6 times as likely to die by homicide as a non-Indigenous female. Yet we know far more attention is paid when the victim is a middle-class white woman. We shouldn’t be scared to highlight the scourge. Delivering support services for victims is not enough. We also need to scale up prevention and intervention programs for the perpetrators of domestic violence.
Attending school is critical to getting ahead in life. Programs like SHINE, which operates across schools in the Mid West, seek to keep young women engaged and build positive relationships with the school. Aboriginal students participating in this program have higher than average attendance.
I also know of some very successful diversionary programs such as SafeSPACE where activities are run before and after school at Roebourne PCYC. Aboriginal kids are given a safe place to have fun and learn important life skills, including cooking for themselves and washing their own clothes.
The activists are wrong when they proclaim the referendum result as the end of reconciliation in Australia. We cannot give up on improving the lives of our most marginalised. That is not the Australian way. We are a country that believes in a hand-up.
The one positive out of the failed referendum is the increased understanding of Indigenous disadvantage and that things must change. Investing in the most successful programs involving local Aboriginal people and addressing the root causes of disadvantage is our path forward.
*Published in the West Australian, 23 October 2023
The Hon Melissa Price MP
Federal Member for Durack
Opposition Whip
Protecting Indigenous Children
I addressed the House this week about the Royal Commission into Child Sexual Abuse in Indigenous Communities. As the member who represents the second-largest population of Indigenous Australians, I know, that sadly, Indigenous children are at risk of child sexual abuse. This was demonstrated through the hundreds of powerful submissions from the victims to the recent Royal Commission into Institutional Responses to Child Sexual Abuse.
The Voice Debate is Over. Now What?
This week in the House I spoke about the Prime Minister's proposition for an untried voice to be inserted into the Constitution and how it was rejected in every state of our nation. The result could not have been more conclusive.
Hamas Terrorist Attacks on Israel
This week in Parliament I spoke about the Hamas Terrorist Attacks on Israel. The day of 7 October 2023 will be forever remembered as one of the darkest days in Jewish and Israeli history. Not since the Holocaust have so many Jewish lives been lost in one single day.
Australia's energy security under threat from the Labor Government
Yesterday in the House I spoke about Australia’s energy grid, which is under imminent threat of blackouts this summer, as the Albanese Government’s energy plan drives the premature closure of baseload energy without any guarantee of replacement. Australians are already paying some of the most expensive energy bills in the world under this government. When will Labor learn?
Labor - Why have you scrapped the Coalition Government's Stronger Communities Grant Programme?!
Today in Parliament I spoke about the Coalition Government's fantastic Stronger Communities funding rounds and other highly successful regional grant programmes that have been scrapped by Albanese's city centric Labor Government.
Labor's ideological crusade to ban Australia's Live Sheep Export Trade.
Today in Parliament I addressed the House about the Labor Government's ideological crusade to ban Australia's Live Sheep Export Trade and demonstrated the impact this is having on not just WA farmers, but on all Australian producers.
Local Roads and Community Infrastructure funding programme
Last week I spoke to the House about the Coalition's highly successful LRCI funding program, an injection of hope into local communities during trying Covid times. Why, when our economic conditions are even worse than before, has the Albanese Labor Government cancelled this vital funding? When will Labor have the regions on their radar?
World Suicide Prevention Day
Last week in Parliament I spoke about World Suicide Prevention day, held on the 10 September 2023. Each year around 3,000 Australians choose to take their own lives. It is if particular concern to me, being the member for Durack, that people in rural Australia and Indigenous Australians, are twice as likely to take their own lives. We must do better.
My Opinion Piece on the Voice to Parliament - 'Oh No Farnsy'
This month the Yes campaign celebrated the release of a new advertisement to the tune of John Farnham’s Australian classic, You’re the Voice. I have much respect for John, I wish him all the best and I do really love that song. Who doesn’t?
It must be said however, that the reaction from the Yes campaign and some of its sympathisers in the media has been astonishing. We have heard how this advertisement has touched so many supporters, moving them to tears. Some have even said that this ad would be the turning point in the campaign.
It is frankly quite embarrassing how out of touch some are. Do they really believe there are a contingent of voters in the community who are thinking, “Oh I wasn’t convinced by Cate Blanchett, Shaquille O’Neal, Michael Chaney, Qantas, nor the AFL’s support for the Voice, but now Farnsy is doing it too, I’m sold”.
No amount of celebrity endorsements or studio ad craft can cover for the clear lack of clarity surrounding Labor’s proposal. Still all fur coat and no knickers. Basic questions, like how many people will be on the Voice, how will they be elected, how will this structure lead to better outcomes and what will the annual cost to the taxpayer be, have still not been answered.
I would say that this ad actually makes a pretty good case for the No argument and I’m not just referring to the irony in the line “You’re the Voice, try and understand it”.
The ad highlights a number of landmark moments in Australian history that are meant to pull at the heartstrings of Australians and demonstrate that this proposal is simply the next step in Australian social progress.
However, the Voice is fundamentally different from the moments in history that the Yes campaign is comparing it to.
For instance, it highlights the 1967 referendum campaign which allowed Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people to be counted as part of the population and for the Commonwealth to make laws for them.
That referendum question was very different to the one being asked today, particularly on two fronts. The first being that the 1967 referendum sought to deliver equal rights to Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people. Previously they had not been allowed to be counted in the census and were stuck under State and Territory protection regimes.
Naturally, the prospect of equal rights is fitting for an egalitarian society like Australia. This provides the context for the second big difference between the campaigns. The 1967 referendum was one of the most successful referendum results in Australian history with more than 90 per cent across the country supporting the amendments. We were unified.
At that referendum, Australians sought to right the wrongs of the past by providing Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islanders with equal constitutional rights. The question before us now is whether we go back to a time where the rights of Indigenous and non-Indigenous Australians are not the same.
As the member for the largest electorate in Australia, I understand very well the difficulties facing many vulnerable Indigenous communities in remote and regional Australia. I also understand that sometimes we might need to divert from the principle of equal treatment to close the gap, for example when it comes to getting more children to school. However, this should not be the long-term goal and therefore a permanent divisive structure in the Constitution, in my opinion, would be an abandonment of our egalitarian values.
Similarly, the ad highlighted how far we have come as a nation in terms of combatting racism. A powerful contrast was displayed between the abuse suffered by Nicky Winmar at Victoria Park and the overwhelming support given to Cathy Freeman at the Sydney Olympics. Of course, racism still exists in Australia and it should be called out whenever it rears its ugly head. My fear is that this debate has turned very toxic and has created more division within the community. Regardless of the result, my worry is we will struggle to get the genie back into the bottle.
Also included in the ad was the result of the same-sex marriage plebiscite in 2017. The decision Australians made in 2017 was about delivering equal marriage rights to all Australians and importantly was a legislated change. Whereas a constitutional Voice would be permanent, with its influence to be determined by the High Court.
Australians understand the importance of social progress and guaranteeing equality of opportunity. However, the promise of social progress is not enough. Likewise, voters feeling good and righteous will not help my Aboriginal constituents. Inserting a permanent and untested body that will divide Australians by race, into our Constitution, is not the next step on our path to a more equal society.
*Published in the West Australian, 16 September 2023
The Hon Melissa Price MP
Federal Member for Durack
Opposition Whip
Hydrogen or Hoax?
This week in Parliament I spoke about how our Prime Minister had promised to invest in Geraldton’s electricity grid, which is now at its ‘end of life’.
Shortly after, the Albanese Government broke their promise, back tracking their investment and once again ignoring Geraldton. Without a modern transmission line, the renewable energy dream could be over in the Midwest.
Labor - Is this Hydrogen or a Hoax?
Durack Agricultural Shows
I took the chance this week in Parliament to highlight the many successful Agricultural Shows in Durack. Every year my team and I attend these shows and I always enjoy the opportunity to talk to my Durack constituents about the issues that are most concerning to them. What I am consistently hearing on the ground is that they are not at all happy with the Albanese and Cook Labor Governments.
Live Sheep Export
This week in Parliament I spoke on the proposed ban of the Live Sheep Export by the Albanese Labor Government and the roll on impacts this is already having on WA farmers and the industry in general.
Black Spot Road Safety Programme.
This week in Parliament I spoke about regional road safety and the fact that the Black Spot Programme is falling short.