Tony Abbott (Warringah, Liberal Party, Prime Minister) Share this | Hansard source

This annual Closing the Gap statement is an important occasion for our parliament. Improving the lives of Australia's first people is a challenge beyond partisan politics. Two centuries of occasional, partial success and frequently dashed hopes have taught us that neither side of politics can achieve meaningful progress without working with the other. So none of us should seek to score a point, or defend a legacy here—just to reach out across the aisle because that is the only hope of success.

For so many of us in this place, few things matter more than the lot of Indigenous people. For so many of us, this is personal—not political. So we speak and act not in the service of party, but in the service of country. We know that until Indigenous Australians fully participate in the life of our country, all of us are diminished. On days such as this, we should acknowledge where we have failed. Equally, we should acknowledge where we have made progress and stir ourselves to keep persevering on this vital but difficult journey. Long after most of today's debates and squabbles pass, this journey will continue.

Last year, when I presented the Closing the Gap statement, I said that our challenge was to turn good intentions into better outcomes. It is now one year into our plan to address the intractable disadvantage experienced by Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples. The past year was about developing practical reforms to give us a platform from which to deliver improvements.

At the invitation of respected Gumatj leader, Galarrwuy Yunupingu, with senior ministers and officials, I spent almost a week last September running the government from North East Arnhem Land. We listened and saw first-hand, some of the challenges facing Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples living in remote communities. My Indigenous Advisory Council, chaired by Warren Mundine, has been regularly consulted on practical ways to get kids to school, adults to work and communities safe. Because we know getting kids to school, adults to work and communities safe is what matters most.

This year will be one focussed on action that will, over time, accelerate progress towards the Closing the Gap targets, including the new target of closing the school attendance gap within five years. Much more work is needed because this seventh Closing the Gap report is profoundly disappointing. Despite the concerted efforts of successive governments since the first report, we are not on track to achieve most of the targets.

There are some improvements in education and health outcomes. We are on track to halve the gap in year 12 attainment rates for Aboriginals and Torres Strait Islanders aged 20-24. The target to halve the gap in mortality rates for Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander children looks achievable by 2018. The new target of closing the school attendance gap within five years should be achievable; I look forward to reporting good results on this in the years to come.

However, the other targets—to close the gap in life expectancy within a generation; to ensure access to early childhood education for all Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander four-year-olds in remote areas; to halve the gap in reading and numeracy for Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander students; and to halve the gaps in employment outcomes—have either not been met or are not on track to be met. This is not because of any lack of goodwill or effort by successive governments. We are trying to change entrenched and multigenerational disadvantage. This will not happen overnight and may not ever change unless we place high demands on ourselves of what we can achieve together.

When I presented this report last year, I also noted that for every step backwards, there could be two steps forward. There are backward steps in this year's report—too many—but there have been many steps forward. At Bwgcolman Community School on Palm Island, success is ensuring that when students graduate, they not only have a Queensland Certificate of Education, but they also have a boat licence, a first aid certificate, a learner driver's permit and industry-specific qualifications.

At Elliott in the Northern Territory, success is the school and the community working with the night patrol and the Commonwealth's Indigenous Engagement Officer to increase attendance at school. On Bathurst Island, success is introducing year 13 for mature-age students who want to increase their employment options. And, in Sydney, success is a vocational training and employment centre run by an Aboriginal owned and operated organisation, which connects Indigenous job seekers with specific work in the health sector.

Each community is different, but in every community the foundations of success are the same—education, jobs and a safer living environment, underpinned by better health. These foundations are self-evident. These success stories, and others like them, suggest that it is the practical delivery of programs and policies that is the key. Government programs can be a catalyst but success—where it is achieved—is due to Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people who want better for themselves.

Governments can fund and governments can urge but governments cannot change attitudes and behaviours. It is those who make the choice to send their children to school, those who make the choice to attend school and stick at it, those who make the choice to get a job and stick at it, and those who choose to abide by the law who are closing the gap. Closing the gap is not something that Canberra can do on its own. Closing the gap is not something to be granted by this parliament to Indigenous Australians. Closing the gap is to be grasped by them. Closing the gap starts with getting the kids to school. It starts with expecting much of them while they are there.

Dr Chris Sarra tells the story of getting 75 per cent in a test in year 11. His teacher said: 'Sarra got 75 per cent. Must have been an easy test!' At the time, he laughed along with the rest of the class. It was only when he was studying to be a teacher that he questioned whether or not his teachers' low expectations had stifled his sense of self and what he could achieve. As he said, 'I was being sold short; therefore, I sold myself short.' Too many young Indigenous students are being sold short through the tyranny of low expectations.

Schools attendance is fundamental. It is foundational. It is hard to be literate and numerate without attending school; it is hard to find work without a basic education; and it is hard to live well without a job. While most Indigenous families make sure their children attend school regularly, too many are still missing too much school—especially in remote areas. The government is determined to break the cycle of truancy and to ensure parents and carers take responsibility so that children get a great education.

Once those children have graduated, they should have jobs to go to. We are already acting on the recommendations of the Forrest report. We will partner with Australia's largest employers to get more Indigenous Australians into jobs—because a job is more than a pay cheque. A job is the key to social relationships, and to a sense of personal achievement and wellbeing.

And, if we are asking the private sector to take on more Indigenous employees, then we must do the same in the Commonwealth Public Sector. We intend to use more of the Commonwealth's $39 billion procurement budget to encourage Indigenous businesses to grow. We will provide job seekers in remote Australia with pathways to real employment through the reformed Remote Jobs and Communities Program and end sit-down money with continuous Work for the Dole. We will put in place stronger incentives to encourage potential employers to look to the bush for workers. And we will fund new enterprises that provide jobs and work experience opportunities in remote communities.

We will address violence in communities by focusing on the prevention and treatment of alcohol and drug problems; improved policing in remote areas and better support for victims of crime. Without good physical and mental health, it is hard to go to school, work, raise children, contribute to the community or live a long life. The National Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Health Plan does capture the voices of the community and the experts and through this plan we will continue to support families and communities to manage their health and wellbeing, to access health services when they are needed and to reduce harmful behaviours.

These are some of the practicalities of closing the gap between Indigenous and non-Indigenous Australians—but there are other gaps to close. We continue to work towards constitutional change acknowledging the First Australians. Minister Scullion will have responsibility for progressing an extension to the recognition act.

It is always our responsibility to acknowledge the contribution of Indigenous Australians to the nation that we have become today. In coming months, we will be commemorating the centenary of the Gallipoli campaign. We will remember all who served. Among them we will remember Richard Norman Kirby from Quambone in New South Wales who joined the 1st AIF in July 1915 and served at Gallipoli and in France. For his actions in 1918, he was awarded the Distinguished Conduct Medal. The citation read:

For conspicuous gallantry and devotion to duty during an attack. He rushed a machine gun post single-handed and, although wounded in the attempt, succeeded in capturing and holding two machine guns and 14 of the enemy until the remainder of his section came up. He set a fine example of courage and initiative to the men with him.

He died nine days later from his wounds and is buried in France.

Lance Corporal Kirby's gallantry is remarkable because that was a time when Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people were not even counted in the census. Yet, despite so many slights and mistreatments, Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people served our country with distinction. When they returned home they were denied the same entitlements as their mates. The door was shut on every day but Anzac Day. While abroad the Aboriginal soldier was a valued brother; back in Australia he returned to an unequal life and was gradually forgotten by all but his kin and closest mates.

We owe it to Lance Corporal Kirby and his brothers to build the Australia that they fought for, that they hoped in and that they shaped, which is both free and fair. We do have much work to do, but there is a superabundance of goodwill. We must strive and strive again to ensure that the First Australians never again feel like outcasts in their own country. If we do, our parliament is at its best, our country is at its best and we are at our best. I present a copy of the report.

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