Joanne Ryan (Lalor, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Hansard source

I would like to begin by acknowledging the First Australians as the traditional custodians of this land and paying my respect to their elders, past and present. As Bill Shorten so eloquently said yesterday, this is and always will be Aboriginal land. I would also like to particularly acknowledge the Woiworung, the Wathaurong and the Boonwurrung people, the traditional owners of the land that encompasses our community in Lalor. Our community has a rich Indigenous history. The iconic Werribee River was once a meeting place for Indigenous elders and a border between the estates of Aboriginal clans. The name Werribee is derived from the word 'wirribi', which means 'backbone' and refers to the Werribee River winding its way through the landscape.

Change is often painfully incremental; however, the progress we have made has been diminished by this government's cuts and its lack of genuine engagement with Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander communities when it comes to closing the gap. Just two of the seven targets are on track to be met.

I would like to spend a moment to talk about the importance of closing the gap and having those aspirational targets—having them front of mind as a parliament and as a nation, and then reflecting on where we are in terms of those targets. It is only through setting aspirational targets and monitoring our performance that we will increase that slow incremental pace.

There have been long-term gains made, but the report shows that progress in closing the gap in a number of key areas, including employment, life expectancy, reading and numeracy, has stagnated. There is just one target that Australians can be confident is on track to be met, with progress being made in reducing infant mortality rates by more than 33 per cent. We should pause and acknowledge this. Part of setting targets is establishing a culture where we use and collect the information and reflect. Most importantly, in a process where we are setting targets, it provides us moments to celebrate—to mark improvement. It is important that we mark that most impressive improvement in infant mortality rates. They have been reduced by 33 per cent.

But more needs to be done. The report is a clear warning to this government that continuing on a path of massive cuts and lack of genuine engagement and partnership with Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander communities will put at risk the gains we have made in closing the gap. The government must reverse some of its shameful cuts.

As a former teacher I know that education is critical to improving the lives of all Australians. We must change the narrative in schools surrounding our Indigenous students. Labor's 'Your Child. Our Future' will do more to close the gap than any policy or decision in two generations, if it is implemented in full. We must ensure that every child is given the best education opportunities to succeed in later life, and that is why Labor is committed to fairer, needs-based funding for schools, with extra support for Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander students.

Aboriginal students in education is a really important area. Targets around numeracy, literacy and school retention are critical. What many do not understand—and the research bears this out—is that parents' experience of school is the key driver in their attitude to the schooling of their children. The levels they attained at school and their experiences at school colour their interactions with school.

In Victoria we implemented what was called the Wannik strategy, and it had enormous success. This strategy required that every Aboriginal child in a Victorian school had an individual learning plan—not as a stick to hit a family with, but as an engagement tool to get parents through the doors of our schools for a positive conversation about what their child's levels were and what the schools were going to do in partnership with parents to move that forward. It changed the way many parents perceived school. It set schools up as welcoming places focused on the education of every child, including Aboriginal children. It focused the conversations around the child's capacities and needs.

It was a circuit breaker. If your school experience had always been that your parents were called to the school when you were in trouble, and the only conversations that were had with you and your parents were when you were in strife, then every time the phone rang and it was the school on the other end you immediately assumed that there was a problem. This strategy spun that on its head and had families consciously, actively engaged with the school across the year—setting targets for their child's learning, setting targets for attendance. It formed partnerships and it changed lives. I want that on the record in any conversation we have about education and meeting the literacy and numeracy targets.

Another thing that I have seen done very successfully in schools has been introducing cultural programs that make it more welcoming to claim Aboriginal and Torres Strait heritage. I have seen this on the ground and the improvement in those children's self-esteem and their connection with their heritage. It has worked to assist the school in appearing as a welcoming place for them and their families.

There is another thing that I think setting targets does: it shines a light on some of the success stories. When I think about school retention, I can think about Victoria. I have young teacher who has worked in my electorate who is now working in remote Australia—a girl with Indigenous heritage who is now working in a remote school. She comes home back to Lalor for holidays and shares stories with us. The best story I have heard her share is one where she said that the last time she returned to Alice Springs after being home in Melbourne for a break, she found her entire class of students sitting outside her front fence the day before school started, waiting to say hello. The retention in her classroom is high. The attendance is high. She has engaged those students and they are enjoying their learning. So I think it is important that we stop and mark those breakthroughs.

In November last year I attended the address of Bill Shorten, the Leader of the Opposition, to the University of Melbourne detailing Labor's plans to close the justice gap in the Indigenous community. Nowhere is the story of unfairness more conspicuous than in the justice gap between Indigenous Australians and the rest of us. The appalling rate of incarceration among Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people demands that we create justice targets. A Shorten Labor government will set justice targets to help close the gap on incarceration rates in Australia. We will work closely with state and local governments and through law enforcement agencies, corrections and community services to establish these targets and work to close the gap. We will work with community leaders, elders and Aboriginal representative organisations.

Through COAG will work with the states to create a national coordinating body for collecting data and measuring progress. Importantly, we will learn from those communities who are already doing this work. Where we find success we should try and grow that success, and that is what a Labor government is committed to. There would be transparency and accountability around those targets and around both monitoring of our progress and also recording and learning from those that have had positive outcomes.

We are a long way down this road. It was in 1992 when Prime Minister Keating made the Redfern speech. There have been many moves towards symbolic recognition. Closing the gap is a very important part of that, because it is not symbolic. It is about practical outcomes on the ground. It is about holding the parliament of Australia to account for how we are progressing against those targets. We talk in the macro in Canberra, but on the ground, with the right attention, we will change individual lives.

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