Steve Irons (Swan, Liberal Party) Share this | Hansard source

I rise to add my contribution to this MPI on the need to accelerate progress on closing the gap and advance constitutional recognition. I appreciate the Leader of the Opposition for raising this MPI. I think his intention was genuine. It was good to see that the member for Aston recognised that his contribution was not partisan, but I must say that I saw the member for Blair, the member for Lingiari and the member for Throsby spending some time in this MPI criticising the Prime Minister. Maybe the time that you spent criticising the Prime Minister should have been spent making more of a contribution towards this MPI; but, instead of doing that, you wasted time having a shot at the Prime Minister and being partisan.

I have a long history with the Indigenous population. My father was the assistant director of the ministry of Aboriginal affairs in Victoria. Years ago, we spent many days at an Indigenous camp, down at Lake Tyers, which is in south-east of Victoria. From the time I spent playing with the kids and going in canoes with them to seeing the developments and mistakes made by both sides of government over many years, I think the intent of this MPI is a good and genuine one. It needs to have a positive aspect to it, as my good friend the member for Hasluck said. He spoke about bringing people together: we should all work toward the same thing and make it a partisan situation. I also heard the member for Lyne talk about the Clontarf Foundation, which is in my electorate in south Perth. The Clontarf Foundation has done enormous things from young Aboriginals. It is part of not only closing the gap but breaking the cycle as well, which is an important part of making sure that the wealth, health and welfare of the Indigenous population is greatly improved.

The Prime Minister was the first to admit in his Closing the Gap speech that:

Despite the concerted efforts of successive governments since the first report, we are not on track to achieve most of the targets.

We are, however, on track toward halving the gap in Year 12 attainment rates for Aboriginals and Torres Strait Islanders aged 20-24, halving the mortality rates for Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander children by 2018 and closing the school attendance gap within five years.

I highlight that during my time as an elected representative in this place, I have not met with any Indigenous organisations that have come to me and said, 'We can't achieve our targets because we haven't got enough money.' It is more about getting the programs out to the people at the coalface and making sure that the money is not the issue; it is the implementation of the programs they are talking about. It is trying to develop a framework for achieving these targets which can actually be implemented on the ground. It is about getting the money to those frontline services, rather than this vital funding being caught up in bureaucracy. We, in the government realise—and I am sure the opposition realised when they were in government—that a lot of wastage is in the bureaucracy. We need to make sure that is minimised.

Despite this, the coalition government has invested significant funding toward a range of initiatives aimed at supporting these targets. This includes $860 million through the Indigenous Advancement Strategy grants round, which will support 964 separate organisations, including 233 Indigenous organisations, to deliver 1,297 projects across Australia. Importantly, this funding specifically focuses on getting children to school, adults to work and making communities safer, which are three of this government's key priorities. I recently attended an event which was sponsored by Woodside down in Fremantle, where they run a program for people to teach the parents how to get their kids to school. It is a fantastic program. It is an effective program. The people who are on the ground at that particular event, who actually graduated from the program, said it is the best program they have ever been involved in, and they understand now how important it is to get kids to school, to help break that cycle, and close the gap.

In regard to the constitutional changes, as a member in this place I have witnessed the apology to the Stolen Generation, and in December 2013 the member for Fremantle and I wrote a joint opinion piece in the West Australian newspaper supporting the recognition of Aboriginals in Australia's Constitution. So I think it is very clear that this is something that has bipartisan support, despite those opposite sometimes claiming that we are not doing it quickly enough.

I believe a couple of things we said in the article are worth stating in this place. The major one is:

Recognition will be a powerful act of inclusion for many people who have long been made to feel like outsiders in their own land.

The DEPUTY SPEAKER: Order! The discussion is now concluded.

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