Ms SCRYMGOUR (Lingiari) (09:18): on indulgence—I thank the minister, and I particularly want to thank Minister McCarthy, Senator Thorpe and members of their house. As the federal member for Lingiari, the place where two people have recently lost their lives while in custody, this issue weighs heavily on me. As an Aboriginal person from the Northern Territory, these deaths have been catastrophic for my communities. As a mother, as a grandmother, these deaths have weighed heavily on my communities. Again, I say to the families; to the Warlpiri, who I've met since that death; to the Luritja people; and to the community of Yuendumu, who have been hurting since the Kumanjayi Walker death: my heart is with you. I hear their calls for justice and for the actions I carry with me, not only in this building but every day when I'm doing my job as the federal representative. After Kumanjayi Walker's tragic passing in Alice Springs during NAIDOC Week, I called for the investigation with Minister McCarthy to look into his death and to have suitably qualified and authorised professionals from outside the Northern Territory police. We didn't take that decision lightly. We did it because of the systemic racism and the issues between our Northern Territory police and Aboriginal people. This is something that there is capacity for under Northern Territory legislation to achieve. My reason for making that call was a need to avoid a perception of bias, given the evidence of racism within the Northern Territory police which has emerged in the course of the Kumanjayi Walker coronial inquiry. The coronial inquiry findings detailed deeply disturbing evidence of institutional racism within the Northern Territory police. What's more, there was a serious lack of action taken in relation to apparent attempts by the Northern Territory police to cover this up. There were concerns shared by many Aboriginal Territorians and right across this country that the racism was of an institutional nature. Since I first spoke about this matter, the comprehensive published findings by Coroner Armitage in relation to the Kumanjayi Walker coronial inquiry have shown those concerns to be well-founded. The Northern Territory government rejected the calls by both myself and Minister McCarthy to look at this in an independent way. It is understood that the Northern Territory police investigation took place or is taking place. I have met with the acting commissioner of the Northern Territory police force in relation to these issues. Minister McCarthy has met with the acting commissioner. The cause of Kumanjayi Walker's death, of course, is still unknown, and it is premature for me to make any further comments on Kumanjayi Walker at this time. I will certainly have more to say in the future. But now it is absolutely the time for me to speak about Kumanjayi Walker and the findings from the coroner and the implications they have for the criminal justice system, governance and social harmony in the Northern Territory. Over the years, other people have come and gone, but what we all have to understand is Aboriginal people are always there, in the Territory. They have no other place. They comprise almost a third of the population. The formal findings of the institutional racism in the Northern Territory is an indictment on the failure of self-government arrangements in the Northern Territory to properly reflect the existence and the worth of the Territory's key demographic. The current Northern Territory government continues to demonstrate a calculated disregard for the voices of affected Aboriginal people and their representative organisations. It is clear we need to seriously consider remedial action. The Northern Territory has many trappings of a state, but it isn't a state. Its survival is dependent on Commonwealth funding. Why shouldn't the Commonwealth government place a condition on the ongoing funding for the Northern Territory police that institutional racism must be addressed within a stated timeline with key milestones to be reached and independently checked? One of the recommendations from the Royal Commission into Aboriginal Deaths in Custody was that each jurisdiction should have an Aboriginal justice advisory committee. It was scrapped for the Northern Territory. For many years, the AJAC did a really good job. Both Minister McCarthy and myself are looking forward to working with the Attorney-General to look at how we can implement the Aboriginal justice advisory committee back into the Northern Territory. That is one thing that the Commonwealth government can and should do—reinstate the Northern Territory AJAC. And I will work with the Attorney-General to make sure that outcome can happen. I will continue to work with my colleagues. I know that Aboriginal people in the Northern Territory have said that only a Labor government are big with reforms, and we need to do that. Aboriginal people in the Northern Territory need our government to be able to work alongside Aboriginal people and their organisations to deal with these issues. A key focus of this, which I'm doing with Minister McCarthy, is that we need to strengthen our families. We need to improve justice outcomes. We need to build more houses. We need to create jobs and work towards stronger remote communities. Aboriginal people in the Northern Territory deserve this, but so does everyone, right across this country. We deserve better than what is happening at the moment in the Northern Territory.