Andrew Giles (Scullin, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Hansard source

I start my contribution by acknowledging the Ngunawal and Ngambri people, the traditional owners of this land, and pay my respects to their elders past and present. It was a great privilege to be in the parliament when the Prime Minister and the Leader of the Opposition made their contributions in this debate. It is also my privilege to have been here for almost all of the contribution of the member for Hasluck, which I found inspiring. I hope that I, as a local member, can rise to some of the challenges he has posed for all of us in this place.

Although the electorate of Scullin has a relatively small Indigenous population, I believe that closing the gap is an important matter for all Australians—and I know that it is an important matter for many of my non-Indigenous constituents. I want to thank all of those who have spoken already on this motion and those yet to speak. That our parliament continues to recognise the need to act in a bipartisan manner on this matter is very, very important.

I am pleased at a local level that, in October 2009, the then Minister for Early Childhood Education, Child Care and Youth, the member for Adelaide, was able to announce with my predecessor, Harry Jenkins, funding for the Bubup Wilam Early Learning Aboriginal Children and Family Centre. 'Bubup Wilam' means 'children's place' in Woi Wurrung language and was opened in February 2012. It is the first and, for now, only Aboriginal early years centre in the City of Whittlesea. I am pleased to say—continuing the broad spirit of bipartisanship that I touched on earlier—that every level of government contributed something to this project—with the federal government contributing $8.2 million; the former state Labor government contributing half a million dollars; and the City of Whittlesea providing the land itself. It is a beautiful as well as functional space.

I am very, very indebted to Marcus Stewart, the former CEO, for taking the time to lend to me a deep understanding of the work that is done there and its status as a focus for community activity. I was particularly taken by its connection to primary schooling in bridging the gap from the early years into formal education for Aboriginal children in Melbourne's northern suburbs. The ethos of this centre is one that seeks to instil and strengthen children's strong sense of Aboriginal identity and personal self-esteem as their foundation for lifelong learning, health and wellbeing. It seems to me that it is doing a tremendous job in that job. This equates to children, and with the support of their parents and extended family, taking the lead responsibility in owning and developing their play, their space, their interaction, their learning and their engagement with others in a confident but supported way.

I just mentioned the contribution by the City of Whittlesea to the Bubup Wilam project, and I should also mention their other ongoing efforts in this area. In particular, I draw the parliament's attention to the Whittlesea Reconciliation Group. The Whittlesea Reconciliation Group is a community-based committee that meets regularly to discuss issues, opportunities, initiatives and programs that impact Aboriginal people living in the City of Whittlesea. The Whittlesea Reconciliation Group is a key reference group to council and in 2012 the council and the group adopted a reconciliation action plan outlining 18 measurable outcomes that will be implemented in our community over three years.

This is reconciliation in action. It shows that the criticisms of reconciliation that used to be so prevalent have faded away in the face of the practical steps at a community level that have been taken once real steps to reconciliation had been taken.

The now famous apology to Australia's Indigenous peoples by former Prime Minister Rudd in 2008 set the bar high. I am glad it did so, because there is much to do. We must aim high. The former Prime Minister invoked:

A future where we harness the determination of all Australians, Indigenous and non-Indigenous, to close the gap that lies between us in life expectancy, educational achievement and economic opportunity.

Arising out of this, the Council of Australian Governments agreed to six ambitious targets to address the disadvantage faced by Indigenous Australians in life expectancy, child mortality, education and employment: to close the gap in life expectancy within a generation, by 2031; to halve the gap in mortality rates for Indigenous children under five by 2018; to ensure access to early childhood education, such as through centres like Bubup Wilam, for all Indigenous four-year-olds in remote communities by 2013; to halve the gap in reading, writing and numeracy achievements for children by 2018; to halve the gap for Indigenous students in Year 12 or equivalent attainment rates by 2020; and to halve the gap in employment outcomes between Indigenous and other Australians by 2018.

The recently released Closing the Gap report shows that there is still much work to be done. Disturbingly, the report found: 'no improvement in Indigenous school attendance over five years,' and that 'existing strategies are having no overall impact on school attendance.' The report also found no progress on the employment target, and that, while Indigenous life expectancy has improved, the pace of change is far too slow to close the gap by 2031.

As it stands, in 2010 to 2012 Indigenous life expectancy was estimated to be 69.1 years for males and 73.7 years for females. The gap in life expectancy between Indigenous and non-Indigenous people was 10.6 years for males and 9.5 years for females.

There were signs of hope amongst this gloom, including that the target of halving the gap in child mortality within a decade is on track to be met, as is the target to halve the gap for Indigenous people aged 20 to 24 in year 12 or equivalent attainment rates by 2020. The NAPLAN results indicated that progress is being made in the area of education, although the lack of progress in remote areas remains concerning.

We know how important the early years are in childhood education, and, to the extent that early learning centres like Bubup Wilam in the Scullin electorate contribute to advancing the worthy goals of the original COAG targets, I welcome them and urge this and future governments to emulate their success around Australia.

As I started my contribution I said that closing the gap is important for all Australians. This is because the true test of whether we have in fact closed the gap is whether we, non-Indigenous Australians, would accept the conditions and standards currently experienced by so many Indigenous Australians for ourselves and our loved ones. Clearly, much has to change before we could honestly say that we would. And, while the statistical measures are all important, as an echo of the contribution of the member for Hasluck, our ability to empathise and act purposefully on these sentiments is the real marker of our progress as a nation.

Closing the gap is all of our business, but those of us here have a great opportunity to effect change. We also have an obligation to lead. I pledge to do all that I can to make a difference to closing the gap in my community and more generally, and I hope that I can be seen as taking up the challenge posed so eloquently by the member for Hasluck a few moments ago.

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