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

Thank you, Mr Deputy Speaker Goodenough, and congratulations on your appointment as Deputy Speaker. I would like to commence by acknowledging the traditional owners of the land and their elders past, present and future. In addition, I would like to congratulate the Leader of the Opposition, the Prime Minister and every member who has spoken in this debate on the contributions they have made to this really important issue, an issue and a journey that started six years ago to close the gap between Indigenous and non-Indigenous Australians.

It has been a very long journey to get to where we are today. It has been a journey that over the decades has been strewn with many hiccups along the way. But I think that there is a real resolve within this parliament—on both sides of this parliament—to see that the gap is closed. It is not good enough just to have that resolve within the parliament; there needs to be a resolve in the partnership between Indigenous and non-Indigenous Australians to see that this gap is closed and that we do it together. The important thing about it is that it is a partnership between non-Indigenous Australians and Indigenous Australians. If we honour and work towards that partnership I think we will have fantastic outcomes.

I would also like to associate myself with the constitutional changes that the Leader of the Opposition mentioned yesterday and the additional target that the Prime Minister has also identified. In doing so, I acknowledge that these things are important for moving towards closing the gap.

In looking at the Closing the Gap statement that we have for 2014, it is interesting to note that it is a much smaller document. To a degree, I think that reflects the distance we have come and the fact that the challenges are still there. We are reporting on what has been achieved and we are also looking at what still needs to be achieved. I also think there is another issue, and that is that the gaps that exist for Indigenous Australians are different in relation to remoteness and non-remoteness. But—and I think this is a really important point to make—no matter whether an Indigenous person lives in a remote area or in a metropolitan area, there is still a difference. There is still a difference in health and mortality, there is still a difference in educational outcomes and there is still a difference in employment—and that has to change.

With remoteness there are very special issues. There are issues in the Northern Territory that surround access to services. It is much harder to deliver a health package in a remote community than it is to deliver a health package to an Indigenous Australian who lives in my community. There are still issues around the types of packages and access to those packages in a metropolitan area—like the one that I am in—and in a remote area. While there is a still a difference in health outcomes for Indigenous Australians, we have a lot of work to do. This report particularly identified that we have not made any inroads in that area since the last report. So we have that challenge to get out there and do that.

One of the first inquiries I was involved in in this parliament was looking at Indigenous health. That really graphically demonstrated to me the differences and the challenges facing Indigenous Australians in the area of health: they were sicker, they died earlier and they had many other challenges. Those challenges are still there but, because of the resolve and the will of this parliament to work with Indigenous Australians in that strong partnership, there has been a change take place.

But I think the greatest key to change is education. Education is the key to everything. As long as there is such a big difference between Indigenous and non-Indigenous Australians in terms of educational outcomes and access to education, that will be reflected in poorer health and employment outcomes. In my electorate, the schools that have a higher number of Indigenous students are the schools that achieve the poorest results in the NAPLAN tests. A number of programs have been put in place to address those differences, including National Partnerships programs, and I think those have gone a long way towards addressing some of those inequalities. I encourage the government to continue with those National Partnerships programs. I think that the investments there, as well as simply the word 'partnerships', help to address the inequalities.

In terms of access to education by Indigenous Australians, there has been an improvement in preschool education and in the number of students that receive their HSC. But it is still not good enough. I read a moment ago about the percentage of students that attain their HSC. In remote areas it is 31 per cent, and in non-remote areas it is 54 per cent. That is not acceptable. Those percentages are reflected in the levels of employment that Indigenous and non-Indigenous people enjoy. I listened with great interest to the member for Fisher's contribution to the debate, which highlighted the lack of choice in employment, and the lack of employment, in remote areas. Twiggy Forrest has done a lot in that space, offering people employment in remote areas. But there is still a significant difference between remote areas and metropolitan areas in terms of Indigenous employment, and there is still discrimination against Indigenous Australians when it comes to employment. It is not good enough. We still have a lot of work to do.

Issues around closing the gap are issues of human rights—issues that I know every member of this parliament commits themselves to. One of the most important things that we can achieve is constitutional recognition. We must get that right. We need to recognise the history and the culture of Aboriginal people. We need to work towards reconciliation. Constitutional recognition could be a starting point. It could pull Indigenous and non-Indigenous people together to form a stronger partnership that recognises the contributions of Indigenous Australians while, at the same time, giving us a point to work from to undertake the practical changes that we need to make. I commend the report to the House and commit to working towards closing the gap.

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