Maningrida

Had a great, uh, time in the Northern Territory last week.

Three days, uh, in everywhere from Arnhem Land through to Kakadu, uh, visiting some of the ranges that we, we fund around Maningrida and Ramingining as well.

Uh, basically the purpose of the trip was to get a sense of how the Northern Territory is preparing for this strain of bird flu, and certainly what I saw gave me confidence, um, that the work that's needed is being done.

Uh, and then of course in Kakadu I wanted to inspect some of the facilities that we're upgrading.

The expansion of the Remote Community Connector program will provide local workers to help participants and families apply for the scheme and connect with services.

Communities including Alyangula, Barunga, Beswick, Numbulwar, Maningrida, and Mataranka will now have access to the support.

The federal government says the measures are designed to protect First Nations people with disability and reduce abuse of the NDIS.

And a Senate inquiry into artificial intelligence and data centers will hold a hearing for Darwin on November 3, giving Territorians an opportunity to voice concerns about the industry's expansion.

So I thought, hey, yeah, we've got to play this now.

Letterstick Band, indigenous Australian musical ensemble from Maningrida in northeast Arnhem Land in the Northern Territory, formed by members of the Anbarra clan, hence the name of the album.

They are widely celebrated for creating a style of music known as...

Now, are you waiting for this? known as Saltwater Ska.

It's got all elements of the three styles there.

So that came out in 98.

There was a debut and they followed up with Diyama in 2003, which also served as the foundation for the documentary film Diyama, Soundtracks of Maningrida.

So there you go.

Do you think we're prepared for if and when it arrives

here? Yeah, I do think we are, and not only do I sort of feel that based on what I'm told in Canberra, but as you said, I've spent the last couple of days in remote parts of the Northern Territory, Maningrida, Ramanginning, Kakadu yesterday, and bird flu was a It was really interesting to spend some time with some of the Indigenous rangers in Maningrida who are doing great work travelling out to some of the remote islands to literally take samples of bird poo on those islands, excuse the French, to then be tested for bird flu.

And they're also... monitoring those kind of remote places to see whether there have been large deaths of birds in which which is obviously a warning sign about this as well it's something we have been preparing for for quite some time as a government and in partnership with state and territory governments as well we've spent hundreds of millions of dollars in recent years trying to build up the populations of some of our most endangered species including birds now that's good for the environment just generally but it's also been very good preparedness work for bird flu Because as I was explaining just before we came on air, if you think about an endangered species, if there's 5,000 of them to begin with and you lose 500 from bird flu, you can probably recover from that.

So you want to keep the numbers as high as you can.

Burarra, Burarra woman, Jess Phillips." So Jess is our first lady from Arnhem Land.

She grew up near the Blyth River near Maning- Maningrida, Maningrida.

I actually don't know these Aboriginal words at all, so I apologize if I am butchering this, which I totally am.

Um, Maningrida in Arnhem Land.

This is a mob with only five members across the entire territory.

What were 40 of them doing on the Katherine pre-poll? How were they in Wadair, Maningrida, Galiwinku and Nullumboy? Where did they come from? Who sent them? Who paid for their flights and accommodation? And what did they expect in return? We know there was coordination between the Liberal Party and the Brethren ahead of the 2025 election.

It came from the then opposition leader's office.

It came from the top of the Plymouth Brethren Church.

to deliver services with costs being much higher, distances being much further.

But the really eye-opening thing for me was last Wednesday I flew to Maningrida and spent a day with the Malala Aboriginal Medical Service looking at their aged care.

Petrol is double what it costs in the rest of the country.

Everything's shipped in on a barge.

It costs almost as much to ship something as the product costs to buy.

And they were doing an amazing job for their elders and for that community.

I saw, you know, we all talk about the closing the gap, but that gap is very, very real in places like Maningrida.

And they're doing an amazing job despite not having much resource to do it with.

You know, we need to fund those.

Like Malala Health in Maningrida does an amazing job.

Unfortunately, 200Ks down the track, Goonbalanya don't have that.

So they all have to fly in.