Jill Hall (Shortland, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Hansard source

I would like to pick up on what the member for Batman said in his contribution to this debate. I am, and have been for the last two parliaments, a member of the House of Representatives Standing Committee on Employment, Workplace Relations and Workforce Participation. In a previous inquiry, that committee received evidence that detailed some of the activities of Rio Tinto in the Northern Territory in training apprentices to work in their mines and also, after the training had been completed, providing ongoing employment. I think that those types of activities and commitments should be recognised and replicated throughout Australia and that they should be used as role models by other employers.

The House of Representatives Standing Committee on Employment, Workplace Relations and Workforce Participation is currently doing an inquiry into tourism. The thing that has been most evident there is that there is a resource—our Indigenous Australians—that is being well and truly underutilised. I would like to encourage all of those employers and operators throughout Australia that work in the tourism industry and quite often make a living from the works of Indigenous Australians—and also from the fact that Australia has an Indigenous population—to make a bigger commitment to our Indigenous Australians and provide them with the opportunity to actually obtain employment with them. That is one area that has not been developed nearly enough, even given the comments that the member for Batman made—he highlighted the activities of a very good employer that was making a commitment in this area.

The Indigenous Education (Targeted Assistance) Amendment (2007 Budget Measures) Bill 2007 amends the Indigenous Education (Targeted Assistance) Act 2000 by appropriating additional funding of $26.1 million over the 2007 and 2008 calendar years for Indigenous students in schools and also for the vocational education and training and higher education sectors. This funding will be used for the expansion of the Indigenous Youth Mobility Program and the Indigenous Youth Leadership Program, the provision of infrastructure funding for boarding school facilities and, where government and non-government education providers agree, the conversion of Community Development Employment Projects—CDEP—places into ongoing jobs in the education sector.

I do not think that anyone in this parliament would disagree with more money being given to Indigenous education. I think that for a very long time it has been an area where there has not been enough spending and there has not been recognition of the implications of having an Indigenous population that does not have the same educational opportunities as other Australians. I am a firm believer in the idea that education is the key to success in life and that those people who can access and are able to obtain a good education are those people who have the opportunity to succeed and enjoy a fuller life in our society. Unfortunately, many of our Indigenous Australians—most of our Indigenous Australians—actually have not been in this position.

Also, I was very disappointed to hear the Minister for Families, Community Services and Indigenous Affairs talking last week about forcing all Indigenous Australians to learn English. To me that showed a lack of understanding of the issues. I think that, rather than helping with education, it will create more problems and work as an obstacle or barrier to Indigenous Australians undertaking education.

I would like to refer to the amendment moved by the member for Jagajaga. The first point that she highlights in that amendment is the 17-year gap in life expectancy between Indigenous and non-Indigenous Australians. The amendment points to that and highlights that. The Labor Party is committed to eliminating that gap within a generation.

I would like to bring to the attention of the House the fact that the first inquiry I was involved in in this parliament was an inquiry that produced a report called Health is life. That report detailed the level of disadvantage that Indigenous Australians have and the morbidity or mortality rate that existed back at that time—the report was actually tabled in this House in 2000. At that time all of the members of the committee were overwhelmed by the level of disadvantage and the poor health outcomes that actually existed in those communities. There were a number of recommendations. It was a bipartisan report and it was one that we all felt very strongly about. I look at the issues that were raised there, I look at the issues that are being raised today and I look at the action of the government. I really think it is a disgrace that here, in a country like Australia, we have our Indigenous people living in Third World conditions and at the same time having Third World access to education.

Today in question time the Minister for Education, Science and Training referred to the Labor Party’s new directions statement, An equal start in life for Indigenous children, and sought to ridicule it. As I see it, in adopting that approach she is, to an extent, not taking Indigenous people seriously. The directions statement details the problems that exist for Indigenous Australians: the health gap that currently exists; the high rate of infant mortality; the high rate of low birth weight amongst Indigenous babies; the continued presence of Third World diseases such as rheumatic fever; the high rate of hearing loss; the high rate of chronic diseases such as renal failure, cardiovascular disease and diabetes; the continued high rate of poor health among Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander infants; far too frequent occurrence of middle-ear infection; the continued tendency of poor access to primary health care; the high rate of sexually transmitted disease and the high rate of unhealthy and risky behaviour.

I again refer to the Health is life report. The health issues identified in An equal start in life for Indigenous children are exactly the same issues that we looked at in the inquiry. It is so sad that I am standing up in this parliament today referring to figures about diseases that are affecting our Indigenous population which have not changed in seven years. If you look back beyond the Health is life report, a similar report was brought down by a committee chaired by the Attorney-General. It came up with very similar recommendations. And the same issues still exist. An equal start in life for Indigenous children highlights a number of approaches that are needed to address these issues. Of course, one of those issues is education, because we recognise just how important education and access to education are for establishing a healthy lifestyle.

When we looked at the experiences of other countries, we saw that they were very different to that of Australia. New Zealand, Canada and the United States have made significant improvements in the health of their Indigenous populations, whereas that has not occurred in Australia. An equal start in life for Indigenous children also highlights that the life expectancy difference between the Indigenous population and the remainder of the population is seven years in the United States and Canada and 7.5 years in New Zealand. So action has been taken in those countries and it has worked. I encourage the government to look to overseas examples to see ways in which they can change what is happening in Australia. They can actually move forward—not just talk about it—and look to do more than what is outlined in the bill that we have before us today.

The Health is life report refers to a Commonwealth strategy that had been released: the Education Strategy for Indigenous Students. The strategy was to look at a number of the issues that are important for improving education. It focused on the literacy and numeracy skills of Indigenous students and other factors influencing their level of achievement. An equal start in life for Indigenous children highlights the problems that Indigenous Australians have and the difference in the levels of literacy between Indigenous and non-Indigenous Australians. The document shows that the literacy and numeracy levels of Indigenous students are much lower than those of the rest of the population.

The proportion of Indigenous students in year 3 achieving reading, writing and numeracy benchmarks is much lower than that of non-Indigenous students. Twenty-two per cent of Indigenous students do not meet year 3 benchmarks. In year 5, the percentage of students falling below it is even higher. And by year 7, one in 10 students achieves the benchmark. One in 10 students is below the benchmark for reading, one in 12 students does not meet the benchmark for writing and one in five students does not meet the benchmark for numeracy. If you equate that to students looking for employment, you will see that education has failed Indigenous Australians and, by failing Indigenous Australians, the education system is inhibiting their opportunities in life.

The strategy I spoke of earlier highlighted six key elements, including the lifting of the school attendance rate to national levels and addressing hearing and other health problems. One of the key things to think about when you are looking at literacy and reading is the ability to hear. Unfortunately, the problem that our Indigenous Australians still experience in relation to hearing has not gone away. Seven years after the report, the recommendations it made are still unaddressed and the Commonwealth strategy has not delivered.

The strategy also talks about enhancing preschool opportunities, and I would draw members’ attention to the Labor Party’s plan to give all four-year-olds access to 15 hours a week of preschool. I see this as an opportunity for Indigenous Australians to have that preschool experience. We all know that education in those early years is absolutely vital. Quite often if children miss out in the early years then they miss out all through their lives. I think that both access to preschool education and intervention in cases where a child might have a hearing problem are absolutely vital for Indigenous children.

Whilst the legislation before us does address some issues in relation to Indigenous education, I do not think it addresses the fundamental issues that I have highlighted throughout my speech. We need to ensure that all Indigenous students have real access to education. Instead of paying lip-service to this issue, the government needs to actually get out there and do something about it. The government is very good at coming up with rhetoric but it is not very good at solving problems, and it is not very good at helping Indigenous Australians overcome the health problems that they have had for years and years.

The member for Jagajaga rightly highlighted issues surrounding the mortality rate of Indigenous children and the need for that to be addressed. The report An equal start in life for Indigenous childrenwhich I think is very important—refers to the issue of maternal and child health. I would refer the minister also to the ‘child and maternal health’ section of the Labor Party document that I know she has in her possession. I am currently involved in an inquiry that is looking at breastfeeding and the need for mothers to breastfeed their babies. It has been very interesting during the inquiry to have contact with Indigenous communities and Indigenous mothers living in the Cairns area. I believe that it is fundamental to ensure that Indigenous mothers have the right support, antenatal care, and information about baby care and nutrition. Mothers need to have proper accommodation when they have a baby, and support systems need to be in place, including home visits. These things need to be addressed in the beginning. We need to make sure that the baby is healthy when it is born. Once you have a healthy child, you have a child that will grow, flourish and be able to access and process the educational information that they are given. The same things were identified in the Health is life report—problems with child and maternal life—and nothing has changed. It is time to stop talking. It is time for action and it is time to do more than what is outlined in this legislation.

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