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Government Money is Not the Answer for Children in Custody · The Slippery Slope

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OK, Jay Fallon here. This is the slippery slope.
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Now I want to go through a video.
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This is what's Senator Thorpe. It was a when Senator Thorpe.
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Lydia Thorpe. I don't agree.
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I don't particularly like since Lydia Thorpe, but she was
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talking to asking questions to the, what's her name, the
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minister for Indigenous Affairs, Senator McCarthy, the Labour
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minister for Indigenous Affairs, Senator McCarthy.
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So she was talking to her, asking her some questions during
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Question Time in Parliament. We're going to have a look at
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this video. There's parts of it.
0:56
Look, I actually agree partly with with what Senator Thorpe is
1:00
saying, which is, you know, I don't agree with anything she
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says generally. But partly what I agree with is
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we do have a problem here in Australia and I've spoken about
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this before when it comes to a bail, bail issues and also
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holding young people in custody, holding them.
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I'm, I'm not against holding them.
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I think they should be held. We shouldn't be granting bail
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for a lot of the circumstances that we are granting bail for.
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However, children shouldn't be held in watch houses, shouldn't
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be children shouldn't be held in prisons that are made for
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adults. However, with the, with the new
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bail laws, with the restrictions that we have, we see in all
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these States and territories that children are being held in
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watch houses and it's a it's a big problem.
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Anyway, let's have a look at this, this questioning here with
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Senator Thorpe and McCarthy and just want to go through what
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what they're saying and what I think the real issue is.
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My question is for the Minister for Indigenous Australians.
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You recently met with state and territory Indigenous affairs
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ministers about the huge number of unsentenced children being
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held in prison around this country where we know their
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human rights are being abused. But despite your best efforts
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with these meetings, we know state and territory governments
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are moving backwards. Just this week, your Labour
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colleague in Victoria, Premier Jacinta Allen, announced she's
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reviewing the bail laws that have just been brought in so she
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can hold more kids in prison unsentenced.
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Why are state governments ignoring you?
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Thank you, President, and I thank Senator Thorpe for her
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question. Clearly, as we've said in the
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Senate on many occasions that the area of justice is a state
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and territory issue, but the senator is correct.
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President, when we did meet in November in Perth, I did meet
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with all Indigenous Affairs Ministers as well as the
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Coalition of Pete who represent around 800 Aboriginal
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organisations from across the country along with my Co Chair
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Pat Turner. And what we did do at that
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Ministerial Council President is call on every minister at that
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table to go back to their cabinet and to look at the issue
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of remand. We are deeply troubled around
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the rising rates of remand in this country, especially with
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our youth and the overcrowding that's taking place.
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And it's not just with our youth across the other jurisdictions.
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I'm also very concerned about the area that I come from in
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terms of the NT. So in terms of the question
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around whether the ministers have responded, that has been
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sent off to the ministers in terms of sorry, a letter has
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been sent off to the ministers following up on where they are
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at with it, and that is something that both Pat Turner
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and myself are following very closely.
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Great. Another letter, numerous legal
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experts told the Children's Justice Inquiry that your
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government could enforce standards on states to protect
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the human rights of children. You can use external affairs
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powers and funding agreements like we see in health and
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education. Why does your government keep
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saying there's nothing concrete you can do to protect children
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when clearly you can? Well, I certainly reject from
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the outset that our concern for children and our rules around
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children. In terms of the question that
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you put, Senator Thorpe, you may not have seen, but just a few
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weeks ago we did announce the Interim Children's Commissioner
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for First Nations children across the country, and
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certainly we want to see the successful applicant for that
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position announced very soon. So we are making endeavours, but
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we do recognise that the role and the Care and protection of
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Children Act across each state and territory jurisdiction is a
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state and territory jurisdiction matter.
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So the role of the First Nations Children's Commissioner is to do
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precisely that in terms of the areas that Senator Thorpe is
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raising. Will you tell the Prime
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Minister, minister and attorney General to use the legal powers
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and leverage we know you have to uphold our international human
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rights obligations and protect children from ongoing abuse?
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Or will we just see more chats and meetings that go nowhere?
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That's all we hear from you. OK, so a bit of Question Time
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there, Senator Thorpe and Minister for Indigenous Affairs
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McCarthy. Listen, my my mate take away on
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all of this. For one, I I do agree there is
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an issue with children being held being held in in these
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places. I've seen watch House and places
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that are not made for children and it does in my opinion, and I
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think the opinion of a lot of other people, a lot of them are
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so called experts. But anyway, it does violate
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human rights. The, the problem that I have
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with all of this, even though I do agree with some of the
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sentiment that Lydia Thorpe is saying.
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And I, I think it's disgusting what the, the government's doing
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and how they're allowing this to happen.
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However, when you look at what they're saying, she's talking to
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the federal minister for Indigenous affairs.
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Obviously she's doing kind of similar to what Almight, what's
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his name? The previous Prime Minister did
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Scomo, remember, everyone talked about, hey, are you going to
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bring in these rules for the mandates?
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And he sat there and said, well, this is a state and government
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state, a state and territory issue.
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The federal government has no intentions of doing this.
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And then he sat by while the state and the territories
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brought in some of the harshest mandates that we that the whole
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that we've seen across the globe, some of the harshest.
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And then he sat there and said, well, my hands are clean.
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My hands are clean. I haven't done anything.
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The federal government hasn't done anything.
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But, you know, just blamed everyone else.
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So they could have done everything.
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So all I'm saying is when it comes to human rights
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violations, and obviously the human rights violations are
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happening, I think within watch houses, standing up and pushing
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for the federal government to do something is not going to help
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because they don't particularly want to help.
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They don't want to take responsibility, but neither
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should they. And we shouldn't be expecting
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them to take responsibility. In my opinion, we should.
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We place far too much responsibility.
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We give them far too much power. We we need to take back the
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power. And what I'm saying with take
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back the power is take responsibility for where you are
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as an individual. When it comes to Indigenous
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issues and children being locked up, the problem really kind of
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starts back at home. We've had the breakdown of
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family. We've had mothers who don't
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particularly care about their children, unfortunately.
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OK, a lot of them, I saw it when I was in the police.
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A lot of them would rather be out doing other things.
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You know, as soon as they give birth, we get money.
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We get given money for, for having a child.
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Actually, if you if you abort, I put that video up the other
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week. If you abort your child in a in
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a late term abortion, you will still collect over 400 or $4000
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in payments from the government. It's disgusting.
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So we should stop for one, giving people money for having
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children. There shouldn't be like a
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reward. If you, if you want to help
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support families, well, you can support, you can still supply
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money in other ways, but by maybe making things cheaper or
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giving them credit so they can buy, you know, help with the
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support like you can still buy nappies or things like that.
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You can, you can get, but not just giving cash.
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That should be off the table straight away.
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But we need to take responsibility for our own
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actions and stop placing the burden and giving the power to
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government. But when we rely upon the
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government, all we're doing is we keep, we keep creating like a
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self professing, a self perpetuating prophecy.
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This is why I think people like McCarthy and Thorpe, I don't
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think they're, I don't think they really want to get to the
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bottom of the issue. If they were really concerned
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about indigenous issues, they would be looking at OK, the at
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the grassroots problem. This is what's happening.
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We've seen the decay of the family units over decades now.
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We have families that don't care for their children, fathers that
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don't take any responsibility for the children, fathers that
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don't work to make a living. We have mothers who don't take
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responsibility for their children, mothers who don't work
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or or or who don't stay home and support their children.
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People don't pay their own way. What was it that Paul said if
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you don't work, you don't eat? This is my opinion.
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This is the mindset we need to be taking.
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If you don't work, you're not going to eat.
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OK, If you don't work, but you're just going to spit their
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children, you're not going to get cash in your bank account.
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That just doesn't happen. People need to take
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responsibility, and this is the problem with people like Thorpe
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and McCarthy. They don't particularly want to
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see the problems stopped, the grassroots problems stopped
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because they are perpetuating the problem, continuing on with
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the problem. They continue attacking the
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government saying well, we need more funding.
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We need more funding because it helps their own personal
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funding. It gives them the grievances to
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keep going out and shouting to the public, it's all the
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government's fault, rolling up the people.
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It's all the government's fault. If it's the government's fault,
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if only the government would give us more money, if they're
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only the government would give us this, if only the government
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would give us that, then we could fix all the issues.
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But the government cannot fix the problem.
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It cannot fix the problem. First off, 100% as you know, I
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will always say we need God. But secondly, God gave everyone
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the ability to decide for themselves and to make their own
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decisions. If nothing changes.
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I said I had that episode ages ago.
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If nothing changes, then nothing changes.
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If you're looking at your life and you just, you know, you're
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just constantly in trouble with the law, you're constantly
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making bad decisions, you're just in a rust and you cannot
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get anywhere. You need to make the decision to
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bring about changes in your life.
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If all you're seeing is yet my granddad, my granddad, he was,
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you know, on the dole. He never worked.
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He never did anything. He never amounted to anything in
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his life. He's just whatever.
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My mother's exactly the same. My father's exactly the same.
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My brother's exactly the same. You need to think as a child, I
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need to change. I need to do things a little
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differently unless or I'm just going to have the same problem.
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But the same thing is for McCarthy and Thorpe.
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All they keep saying sprouting off is the same.
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They get the answers are always exactly the same.
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Well, it's the government's responsibility.
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The government should be doing this.
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The government should be giving us more money.
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No, the government should not be giving us more money.
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The government should be giving less money.
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Less money you can support in different ways without giving
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cash. OK, Give less responsibility,
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give the people back the responsibility, take care of
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yourselves, ourselves, not rely on government.
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We should have learnt this during the plan Damic.
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Like I said, the government, the government doesn't really care
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about us. The government as far as I can
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see as I can tell my believe the government has people who are in
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there for their own interests. I think this is what's happening
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with Thorpe and people like McCarthy.
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They're in there for themselves. That's why they're not attacking
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the problem at the roots. That's why they're not talking
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about the problem at the at the root.
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That's why they're not focusing on, hey, families are falling
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apart. Families have fallen apart.
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This is the issue. This is where we can fix it.
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We could stop, we could prevent children from going to prison in
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the 1st place, and then we wouldn't even have to be talking
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about funding. We wouldn't have to be talking
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about bail for children, but they don't want that.
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They just want more funding, more money.
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Just keep perpetuating the problem.
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How is it that Australia before, before Captain Cook, before the
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English came here, there was roughly 500 and something 550
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Indigenous countries separate little provinces, OK, across the
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nation. How is it that you heard it on
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the video? McCarthy just said there's 808
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hundred Indigenous organisations.
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How do we have 800 organisations representing Indigenous people
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in Australia when there was initially only 500 and something
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separate countries, Indigenous countries in Australia anyway.
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And sure, as I know, not all of those countries are thriving and
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have a real representation anyway.
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So there shouldn't be 800 there. That's what I mean by they they
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make the problem worse, but all they want is the money because
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it helps them individually. We have too many of these
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corporations that have been set up and they are funnelling the
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money for themselves. They're not really helping the
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people on the ground. They're not helping the
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children, they're not helping the families.
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They're not educating the people because they don't really want
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change. They just want the money for
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themselves. But getting back to it, stop
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relying on the government and don't be surprised when people
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like the federal minister there for Indigenous affairs says, oh,
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well, it's a state and territory issue.
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They're the ones. That's exactly what exactly what
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Scomo did with the plan, blaming, blaming them for the
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mandates. And that's what they're doing
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now. It's always, well, it's someone
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else's fault, someone else's fault.
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They're happy to take our taxes and I don't know about you, but
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I pay freaking way too much in taxes.
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They're happy to take our tax money, happy to spend it on
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rubbish because it's all about lining their own pockets.
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We give them way too much, way too much power.
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Way too much power if we all took responsibility for our own
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actions and show them that we don't need a big government.
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We should be cutting back on the bureaucracy in this country.
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Anyway, that's all my opinion. You let me know what you think.
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If there's any indigenous people out there, I'd love to know what
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you think. My name is Jay Fallon.
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Thanks for listening to the Slippery Slope.