Kevin Rudd (Griffith, Australian Labor Party, Prime Minister) Share this | Hansard source

I thank the honourable member for Solomon for his question. Here in this parliament barely a month ago we engaged in an important symbolic act: an apology to the stolen generations. As a consequence of that apology, we as the government have been seeking, through a new attitude of mutual respect, mutual obligation and mutual responsibility between Indigenous and non-Indigenous Australia, to embark upon a national program, Close the Gap— closing the gap between Indigenous and non-Indigenous Australians. The national apology was a necessary first step. Bridging the gap between Indigenous and non-Indigenous Australians could only begin when there was an attitude of mutual respect between us. Having achieved that, in part through the actions undertaken in this chamber, we can now embark upon a critical piece of national action in closing the gap in adult life expectancy, infant mortality, health attainments in general for Aboriginal people and children as well as education outcomes.

Currently the 17-year gap which exists between Indigenous and non-Indigenous life expectancy is unacceptable for a country as wealthy as ours. That is why today the government signed a statement of intent to ensure that we bring down this gap within the next generation, consistent with the ‘closing the gap’ arrangements which have been put together by various Aboriginal advocacy groups over the course of the last year. These are by way of our national goals, our national aspirations and our national targets. The challenge now is: what practical action now ensues? That is why the government has already funded $260 million to assist further with child and maternal health services and also to improve literacy and numeracy outcomes in the early years for young Indigenous kids across our country.

Today, in signing the statement of intent, I confirmed two further courses of action on behalf of the government. The first relates to how we tackle the challenge of chronic diseases. Chronic diseases are contributing hugely to the current life expectancy gap between Indigenous and non-Indigenous Australians. Within that, 20 per cent of this health gap is because of smoking. The incidence of smoking in Indigenous Australia is roughly double that in non-Indigenous Australia. This is a huge contributor to the problems with overall life expectancy. That is why $14.5 million over four years will be funded for a very practical program to bring down the smoking rates and particularly to work on other forms of tobacco intervention and tobacco control within communities.

Secondly, there will be $19 million to strengthen the Indigenous health workforce. The Indigenous health workforce is in the front line of helping local families in Indigenous communities improve their overall health standards. As the Minister for Health and Ageing and the Minister for Education would be aware, there is a real challenge across the country—it has been there for a long time—about how you boost the number of trained Aboriginal doctors, nurses and those in the allied health professions. This $19 million is of fundamental importance in ensuring that we get the right number and distribution of doctors and nurses from Indigenous communities trained and deployed. This will be done with the active support of the Indigenous Doctors Association and we will be working in close partnership with them.

In this overall challenge of closing the gap, we would like to thank Tom Calma, the Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Social Justice Commissioner, for the work that has already been done. On top of that, we acknowledge the strong advocacy from Catherine Freeman and Ian Thorpe, who have taken this on as part of their mission for the country in the years ahead. I congratulate them on their efforts, using their sporting profiles to get behind this very important program.

Closing the gap now becomes the hard bit. The national apology has occurred. We have built a bridge of respect between Indigenous and non-Indigenous Australians. That still has a way to go. Close the Gap forms the practical framework for action for this government in the years ahead. We have to be serious about it. The announcements of funding commitments today represent one small but practical step in the direction of ensuring that all Australians have equal life opportunities.

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