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SenateThursday 4 September 2025

QUESTIONS WITHOUT NOTICE

Senator McCARTHY (Northern Territory—Minister for Indigenous Australians) (14:26): I'd like to put on the record that I didn't attend a standing council on Aboriginal genocide. That's the first thing I'd like to put on the record to the Senate. And, yes, the August meeting of the Standing Council of Attorneys-General was an incredibly important meeting and a very difficult one.

It was difficult because, as I've said here in the Senate, there are two jurisdictions in particular that have come into government with the view that getting tough on crime means incarcerating everyone, and that means the Northern Territory and Queensland. So, addressing all the AGs all together in the room was incredibly important for me as well as for the Coalition of Peaks, who, at the joint council in June/July, had asked for that to happen.

It's not going to change straightaway, but I can commit to this Senate that I will keep going on it. The PRESIDENT: Senator Thorpe, first supplementary?

SourceSenate, Thursday 4 September 2025 — official recordTA-250904-senate-fa2e013eeda7:s164