Malcolm Turnbull (Wentworth, Liberal Party, Leader of the Opposition) Share this | Hansard source

On 13 February 2008, Indigenous and non-Indigenous Australia was given the opportunity to reconcile the past and together embrace the future. On that historic day at this table in this parliament 12 months ago, all sides of politics made a commitment to the shared future of our country. The apology, which meant so much to so many, was a critical element of our commitment to Australia’s future. But if we fail to reinforce the words of last year with actions and results and a renewed focus on Indigenous issues then we will sadly relegate that apology to nothing more than another well-meant historical event with fine speeches from which little of substance came. I know that all members of this House are determined that we must not let that happen. The words of goodwill and the very strong emotions of that day must be emboldened with a practical commitment to end Indigenous disadvantage and enable all Australians to share equitably in our nation’s future.

There is no shortage of goodwill in Australia to promote an end to Indigenous disadvantage. Everybody is committed to closing the gap. There is no shortage of goodwill, there is no shortage of good intentions and there is no shortage of financial resources either. But everybody who has come to grips with these challenges, both Indigenous and non-Indigenous Australians, knows the challenges are very hard indeed. There have been a lot of well-meaning policies and well-meaning people whose well-meant objectives have not been met and whose policies on all too many occasions have been counterproductive. No-one here doubts the importance of words. How could we doubt the importance of words in this place? Words and symbols are important and have their place, but symbols without substance are of no use to anyone. Soft soap and warm words are no substitute for action, hard decisions and results.

As a nation, we will fail future generations if we do not demand and deliver real improvements to the health, education, jobs and overall living standards of Indigenous Australians. All sides of politics must be committed to an Australia where opportunity is available to all and denied to nobody; where an Indigenous child can aspire to any job, any profession, any calling that they want; where Indigenous life expectancy is the same as the life expectancy of the rest of the community; where an Indigenous child is encouraged and supported, as all children should be, through the educational years; where those children have the hope of a bright future with food on the table, a home that is safe and secure and, most critically of all, a childhood that is the birthright of every child, free from neglect and safe from abuse. As the men and women charged with making decisions on behalf of all Australians here in our national parliament, this is surely not asking too much of us.

As Leader of the Opposition I reaffirm the coalition’s commitment to delivering a new future, with hope and opportunity for all, to Indigenous Australians. We make it plain that we will do everything we can to support the government in delivering on their commitments to closing the gap in Indigenous life expectancy and to improving educational attainment, employment and life in remote communities especially. But as Leader of the Opposition I will not fail to hold the government to account where the pace is slowed or commitments are not met, and in that context I must note the memorandum of understanding that was signed between the Howard government and the Northern Territory government in September 2007 to provide $647 million to build 750 new houses in 16 communities and improve living conditions in town camps as part of the Strategic Indigenous Housing Infrastructure Program. We are advised that not one house has been built under that program in a remote community in the Northern Territory. That is a great shame. That is a great example of the point I just made. You have good intentions, real and substantial resources committed to a program with a worthy objective, but nothing has happened.

Ending Indigenous disadvantage must be a constant call on every minister and every portfolio. It must permeate every office of the bureaucracy and be a continuing theme, an emphasis, indeed a mainstay of public policy development. Ending Indigenous disadvantage cannot be confined to fine prose here or to a single ministerial portfolio. It must be part of our entire national agenda and an ongoing commitment beyond the term of this, or any, Prime Minister or government. Importantly, if we are to succeed in giving real and practical effect to the promises of last year we must continue to encourage Indigenous Australians to help guide the way ahead. It is, after all, their future. They are the ones who are disadvantaged and they have the greatest interest and the greatest commitment to ending that disadvantage—and they must get our unstinting support in doing so.

For too long Indigenous Australia has been delivered policy from Canberra and has been asked to follow it. We have some truly inspirational Indigenous leaders such as Noel Pearson and others and we must ensure that they have a voice and are heard. Even though their views in all quarters are not always politically correct in the development of Indigenous policy, they speak great wisdom. I sat with Noel Pearson and we talked with Aboriginal communities in Weipa many years ago, when Peter Beattie was the Premier of Queensland. I looked at Noel Pearson as he grappled with those apparently insoluble problems and I thought: ‘Here is a man of great courage, great vision, who is prepared to speak the truth—blunt, unvarnished, tough.’ We listened to him very carefully, and I would say to the Prime Minister that he should listen to Mr Pearson very, very carefully indeed. Indigenous people must be part of this way forward and must fully embrace the rights and responsibilities that will come with the renewed commitment to closing the gap that we make today.

I noted that the Prime Minister referred at length to Indigenous communities and to remote parts of Australia but also noted the very many Indigenous Australians who live in our cities. I was pleased to see the commitment to additional health services in the cities as well as in remote communities. This is of enormous importance. I cannot pretend that I come to this position with a long history in Indigenous affairs—not at all—but I have worked closely with my wife, Lucy, with the Aboriginal communities in the inner city of Sydney, in Redfern and in Woolloomooloo, and people have been crying out for support for some of the challenges there, such as the health problems. Lucy was very active in working with other committed people—Susie Carleton and others—to establish a foundation that provided resources to enable Aboriginal women in particular to get health services for their children,  when, without that support, they would not have been able to do so. There are a lot of very practical things that need to be done on the ground. There is so much goodwill and so many resources. It needs the right leadership, policies that are effective and, above all, the engagement of and support for Indigenous people themselves. The most critical thing is to ensure that the leaders in Indigenous Australia, wherever they may be, are empowered for good and are given support to provide leadership for their communities

Since becoming Leader of the Opposition last September, I have worked hard to engage with these issues. On a recent visit to Western Australia I saw firsthand some of the challenges facing remote Indigenous communities—and I think this is where my path and the path of the Prime Minister have crossed somewhat. I spent some time in Western Australia with Andrew Forrest, better known as Twiggy, a man who has a well-demonstrated commitment, a lifetime commitment, to Indigenous Australia and creating job opportunities for Indigenous Australians. Twiggy and I travelled to Halls Creek and Fitzroy Crossing, communities where we must recognise that policies—many of them, perhaps most of them, well intentioned in years gone by—have proved to be quite counterproductive. The number of children born in those places with foetal alcohol syndrome is incredibly large, in the sense that it is almost impossible to believe that in a country such as Australia so many children could be so disadvantaged at birth.

During my visit I heard a powerful plea from a woman in Halls Creek about the damage that grog was doing to her community. It was at a meeting at the hospital. Like everyone here, I have heard many impassioned speeches in my life and many of them have been very compelling and persuasive. I have heard no speech or address more compelling than what I heard at Halls Creek from the matron of the hospital, and she was echoed by other leaders. Her eloquence came from a life’s knowledge of what had gone wrong and what was needed to set it right. It was a cry of pain but also a call for leadership. There can be no doubt that underlying so many of the problems that the Prime Minister has spoken about and that we have all spoken about here is the curse of grog, the curse of alcohol. Tackling grog in these communities must be at the centre of anything and everything we do to close the gap. That is the truth. We know that; we must act on it. I thought to myself as I sat there listening to this compelling speech from the matron: how many people in Sydney, Melbourne and Canberra would think differently about these issues if they heard them from people on the ground firsthand? There is no substitute for being there.

Today, as the Prime Minister hands down the first of the annual Closing the gap reports to the parliament, I use this opportunity to reaffirm the coalition’s commitment to continuing the courageous work undertaken by the former government—the Howard coalition government—to end the systemic abuse, dysfunction and dislocation so evident in many remote communities. I note that the Rudd government has acknowledged the importance of that work and is continuing, in very large part, the important work of the intervention that the Howard government so boldly undertook, recognising that drastic action was needed to correct terrible wrongs.

To close the gap and end this dysfunction we must deliver change that is real, practical and above all at the grassroots level. It must be felt in every school, in every home and in every community. It cannot be something that just makes people in Canberra feel good. All of the beauty and indeed the majesty of the apology will be lost forever—it will be betrayed—if it is not followed up by action; if we do not deliver on the promise. The coalition will carefully examine this first progress report on closing the gap. With my shadow ministers, I will examine changes to the rate of four-year-olds in remote communities who are engaged in appropriate early childhood education. We will examine the gaps in literacy, numeracy and employment outcomes as well as the gap in infant mortality rates between Indigenous and non-Indigenous children.

Twelve months on from the apology, we must ensure that we have embraced the new opportunity that consensus and goodwill provides. We must continue to support those communities and indeed those individuals who move forward constructively and who are doing their bit to change their own situations and to be an active partner, if that is what they want. We must provide that support, and there is so much good work being done. I think of Mark Spinks, a man who works with the Aboriginal men’s group in Redfern in Sydney. He works with the Walla Mulla community in Woolloomooloo in inner Sydney. He is a Commonwealth public servant who, in his own time, puts an enormous amount of work into providing leadership on the ground. He is a charismatic Aboriginal man who is proud of his people and determined to make changes for the good. These are the types of leaders that we need to support.

We must see real and tangible benefits from policy changes. The Prime Minister spoke about housing. I provided a disappointing fact about housing earlier. The truth is that very little has been achieved to date on housing, despite lots of news grabs and photo opportunities. That has to change. The government has to do more and it has to do better. The Prime Minister has said he is committed to do that and we will, in the most constructive way, hold him to account for that. Progress on closing the gap and ending Indigenous disadvantage is not measured by the number of agreements, ministerial visits, photo opportunities or announcements but by real and tangible outcomes—and it is not easy. It requires leadership from government and support from those who are willing to do the heavy lifting. It will involve some tough decisions, it will involve some unpopular decisions, and it will demand a genuine commitment to moving on from a past that is riddled with missed opportunities.

This government, and all of those that come after it, must also be brave enough to report on real progress—on what has actually been achieved or not achieved, as the case may be. We have to do that. We have got to be truthful, honest, about the facts on the ground. If we do not do that, we will achieve nothing. We will do no better than others who have had good intentions and lots of money but have achieved so little before us. I am a practical person. I have spent much of my life in business, where words and decisions, policies and programs, have to result in real action, in real results. We in the coalition want to see real results.

The Prime Minister talked about ideology in his speech. This is no place for ideology. Ideology has bedevilled this whole area. What the Indigenous people of Australia need is action. They need support to be able to change their own lives so that they have the same dignity and the same opportunities as every other Australian. We will give them that support and we will give the government—so long as it is the government—that support. The coalition stand committed to a real future for all Indigenous Australians. We will demand results from the government. Our criticisms of the government may at times appear harsh, but we will be doing our job, and we will be doing the job that Indigenous Australia needs us to do in holding the government to account—just as, when the political tables are turned and we are in government, we will expect the Labor Party to hold us as accountable.

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