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

It is with great pleasure that I stand to speak on the Prime Minister’s Closing the gap report. This is the Prime Minister’s second annual Closing the gap report, and the speech that he made in parliament in February details the advances that have been made and the challenges that still exist in closing the gap. Three basic principles have been set out in the report: the clear acknowledgement of previous wrongdoing and failure of policies, which was set out in the apology in February 2008 and is the basis for this report; a practical commitment to closing the gap, which is where this report gets its roots; and a commitment to transparency and accountability.

When I was first elected to this parliament I was on the House of Representatives Standing Committee on Family and Community Affairs, which undertook an inquiry into Indigenous health and produced a report called Health is life. It was a very detailed report which highlighted a number of areas and actions that needed to be taken to bring about improvements in health—exactly what the Rudd government has been doing in closing the gap. It highlighted the need for investment not only in health but in education and employment and in programs that would improve the whole lives of Indigenous Australians. When we were preparing this report we visited Indigenous communities throughout Australia both in remote and non-remote areas.

The member for Newcastle highlighted that 20 per cent of the Indigenous population in New South Wales live in Newcastle. The largest percentage of the Indigenous population lives in Sydney. The member for Lyne made an outstanding contribution to this debate when he highlighted that we must not forget the needs of people in regions other than remote and rural areas. I grew up on the North Coast of New South Wales. At school I experienced firsthand that Indigenous students did not have the same opportunities as I did in education. Their health was nowhere near as good as my own health and that of my fellow non-Indigenous students.

As far as employment was concerned, the challenges that they faced were much greater than the challenges I faced. My expectations of what I would achieve out of life were very different to their expectations of what they would achieve out of life. I think that that is right across the board in Australia. The expectations that Indigenous students have had for a very long time are very different to the expectations that non-Indigenous students have. Those expectations are not only from their own perspective but also from a whole-of-community perspective. People generally tend to live up to the expectations that they and those around them have. A number of experiments have been conducted not only in an Indigenous environment but in environments throughout the world that have shown that people tend to achieve at the level of expectation that is directed towards them.

The Closing the gap report is placing new expectations on Indigenous Australians as to what they can and will achieve and new expectations as to what the government can actually commit to to help them achieve these expectations. Whether or not they live in a rural and remote area, which is what the Closing the gap report concentrates on, we must be very careful, as I have already said, that we do not forget those other regions because, no matter where an Indigenous Australian lives, their mortality rate is higher. They die younger and get a lot sicker than non-Indigenous Australians, so their mortality and morbidity rates are much different to those of other Australians. More Indigenous Australians are in jail and fewer Indigenous Australians are in highly trained and professional jobs. But it is changing.

The Closing the gap report is one of the tools that the Rudd government is using in its commitment to deliver to Indigenous Australians, and it is about time. The Health is life report was tabled in the parliament in May 2000 and not a lot happened after that. The Closing the gap report has measurable outcomes and it really holds the government to account. We are looking at halving the mortality rates for Indigenous children, under age five, by 2018, and ensuring access to early childhood education for all Indigenous four-year-olds in remote communities by 2013. We all know the importance of education: the start that children receive and that what they learn in those early years is paramount to their success in the future. These are all measurable outcomes that the Rudd government is looking at. We aim to halve the gap in reading and writing and numeracy achievements for Indigenous students by 2018. That means that all Indigenous students will have the opportunities that other students have, because literacy and numeracy provides the opportunities for a secure future. Without good literacy and numeracy skills, your opportunities in life are much less. You must be able to read, you must be able to write and you must have good numeracy skills to obtain those jobs that actually have the greatest returns. You must be able to undertake leadership roles in the community and be able to have the same expectation that a non-Indigenous student can have.

That is why the Closing the gap report is so vitally important. We aim to halve the gap for Indigenous students in year 12 or equivalent in attainment rates by 2020. Year 12 is the key to linking in once again to those jobs at the higher level within our community. Indigenous students need to have the expectation that they can achieve that. This is what the report is doing—that is, it is giving Indigenous students the same expectations that non-Indigenous students have. We aim to halve the gap in employment outcomes between Indigenous and non-Indigenous Australians by 2018. Once again, that means that not only Indigenous students but Indigenous people in Australia will have the expectation that they can enter the employment market on a level playing field with non-Indigenous Australians.

I still visit the North Coast of New South Wales on a regular basis. I have nephews up there who have a number of Indigenous friends—Indigenous friends who completed high school and Indigenous friends who had leadership roles within the school. That would not have happened when I was going to school up there. But Indigenous students, once they leave school, find it very difficult to obtain employment. I visited the local supermarket. I still found that the overwhelming majority of the people working on the checkouts or stacking the shelves were non-Indigenous. Maybe there were one or two Indigenous people or maybe they were not at work on the days that I visited the supermarket. There is a long way to go on employment of Indigenous Australians. I know that the department is working very hard to address that. The department is following through on the policies of the government to get around that problem, to make sure that those young Indigenous students—whose ability is equal to that of the non-Indigenous students—actually have the opportunity to get those jobs, to work in the supermarket while they are going to school to supplement their income and to obtain a job when they leave school. There are programs that this government is putting in place to address that.

The Rudd government’s performance will be measured against whether or not that is achieved. It will be measured against whether or not those young Indigenous people move from school to employment and whether, as they move into employment, they access the higher level jobs. It will be measured against whether or not this support develops the expectation that they can achieve the same sort of lifestyle that non-Indigenous Australians have. Along with improving their education and the employment goals come the expectations that they will enjoy good health, that they will live as long as non-Indigenous Australians and that they will have access to all the services that they need.

I have not noticed too much disagreement in the House on the report we have before us today. The report we are speaking to is the blueprint for raising the expectations of Indigenous Australians and non-Indigenous Australians, for bringing the communities together—which in itself is an expectation—and for ensuring that the outcomes identified in the report are achieved. I commend the Prime Minister, the minister and everybody else involved in putting together the report and putting together the programs in the communities. I commend them for their commitment to achieving this goal. I will do everything in my power to see that those expectations for Indigenous Australians are raised.

Debate (on motion by Mr Secker) adjourned.

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