Graham Perrett (Moreton, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Hansard source

Thank you. I rise to speak on the Closing the gap report and in so doing acknowledge the traditional owners of the land on which we meet and the continent we share, and thank the elders past, present and future for their continuing stewardship. The place that I call home always was, is now and always will be Aboriginal land, and I acknowledge the keepers of the world's oldest cultures and traditions generally, but I specifically wanted to mention two of my friends that I caught up with out in St George in January: Peter Brown and Wayne Long. I had not caught up with Wayne Long for a while, about 10 years. He took me on a car trip that I think took about 10 years off my life, but I do say a special hello to Wayne and Peter.

Obviously, the Closing the gap report is a very important event for this parliament, as is the work done by many other committees in trying to improve the lives of Indigenous Australians. I just wanted to mention two of the reports I have been involved with on committees. One report was by the Social Policy and Legal Affairs Committee, which I chaired, looking into foetal alcohol spectrum disorder—the report called FASD: the hidden harm. The other report was by a committee chaired by Shayne Neumann, the member for Blair. It was called Doing time—time for doing and looked at Indigenous youth in the criminal justice system. The reports of those inquiries, along with the current inquiry of the Standing Committee on Indigenous Affairs, which is looking into Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander educational opportunities, are very informative.

I started this speech by acknowledging the traditional owners, but I particularly wanted to do that as we come to the 10th anniversary of the Closing the Gap initiative, as that initiative changed the situation from being one of fine words to practical deeds. There has been an enormous amount of work done over the past 10 years to help eliminate Indigenous disadvantage. I acknowledge the work of communities, the private sector and non-government organisations in this endeavour—and both sides of the political spectrum.

The Closing the gap report 2016 was delivered to the parliament by the Prime Minister this week. I particularly note that he delivered his opening remarks in a local Indigenous language. That was a fine choice. Unfortunately, after that, the words he delivered were confronting for Australia. We sadly found out that only two of the seven targets to close the gap are on track. However, focusing on the good news, child mortality declined by 33 per cent between 1998 and 2014. The target is for child mortality to halve by 2018, and we are on our way to achieving that. Obviously, I would like to see us go beyond that target in reducing child mortality of Indigenous Australians.

The target to halve the gap in the attainment of a Year 12 or equivalent education standard in Indigenous Australians aged 20 to 24 years is still on track. However, there is no updated data from the last report, so it is hoped that progress is still continuing on this target. Sadly, with the other five targets, the news is not so good. The target to enrol Indigenous four-year-olds in remote communities in early childhood education has not been met by its expiration, and the new target is to enrol 95 per cent of four-year-olds in early childhood education by 2025. We know as parents how important early childhood education is. This is a very important target, because it will set communities up for years beyond its attainment. I hope these figures improve quickly.

Still on education—something I am passionate about, having been an English teacher for 11 years—an improvement of less than one per cent was recorded in the target for school attendance of Indigenous children. Sadly, this does not come close to meeting the target of closing the gap between Indigenous and non-Indigenous school attendance within five years. So more needs to be done there.

The gap in the reading and numeracy achievements of Indigenous and non-Indigenous students was to be halved by 2018. There has been mixed progress with this target. NAPLAN reports show that students are on track in only four of the eight areas measured. As a former teacher who is particularly passionate about English and reading, I am slightly biased, but I consider that education is the key to future success for all students, so let us hope that we see better results next year.

The next target may be a direct reflection of the slow progress being made in education—that is, the target to halve the gap in employment outcomes between Indigenous and non-Indigenous Australians by 2018. I am sorry to report that there has been a decline in employment outcomes since the 2008 baseline.

Finally, there is the horrible statistic with regard to life expectancy. The target to close the gap in life expectancy within a generation is not on track. There has been some longer term progress, but that has been limited.

These are all very important issues for Indigenous Australians. Everyone in the parliament cares about these issues and wants to see an improvement. It is good to see support broadly on both sides of the aisle, though I did note that two-thirds of government members were not able to stay in the chamber for Bill Shorten's speech, in which he put forward some great policy initiatives.

Labor has already announced our new education policy 'Your Child. Our Future' which will guarantee individual attention and targeted programs for all students, particularly Indigenous students, so that they can do their best at school. If rolled out, our education policy will do much to close the gap in education between Indigenous and non-Indigenous students. It will give every child, in every school, every opportunity they need to succeed.

There is no greater gap in our community than between the incarceration rate of Indigenous men and non-Indigenous men. If you are Indigenous, you are 15 times more likely to be imprisoned than if you are non-Indigenous.

As I mentioned, the report Doing TimeTime For Doing: Indigenous youth in the criminal justice system came out of the inquiry into the high level of involvement of Indigenous juveniles and young adults in the criminal justice system held by the House Standing Committee on Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Affairs, chaired by the member for Blair. The inquiry involved going to prisons and interviewing stakeholders. It was quite a moving experience.

For Indigenous women, who now make up 15 per cent of our female prison population, there has been a 74 per cent increase in incarcerations in the past 15 years. They are staggering statistics of the lives that are changed forever, and the effects linger for years and years. The re-imprisonment rate for Indigenous young people is higher than the school retention rate. This is a disgrace and it reflects badly on this parliament and Commonwealth representatives. Labor has committed to set new targets to close the justice gap at the first COAG meeting under a Labor government. These targets will tackle these disgraceful incarceration rates, preventing crime, reducing violence and victimisation and boosting community safety. I want to particularly acknowledge the Queensland Attorney-General Yvette D'Ath, who has taken the initiative of reinstating some of the intervention strategies rather than only relying on incarceration for Indigenous Queenslanders.

It is hard to believe that Indigenous Australians are six times more likely to suffer from blindness than non-Indigenous Australians, but this is the sad truth. This is even more shocking when Australia leads the world in eye health. The amazing works of Fred Hollows and Vision 2020 in our country is noted, but we still have Indigenous people who are suffering from preventable or treatable eye conditions and going blind. Trachoma is an infectious and wholly preventable eye disease which only exists among our Indigenous population effectively. It is present in two-thirds of remote communities here in Australia—not overseas but here in Australia. We are the only developed nation in the world where trachoma still exists. That is embarrassing and certainly something we need to do more about. In a nation that prides itself on the health care delivered and universal healthcare access, we need to do more to eliminate trachoma.

To address this issue, Labor has committed to an additional $9 million to close the gap in Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander vision loss. When people are able to have productive jobs and, rather than having to care for someone, people are able to return to school or be involved in schools, the economic benefits flow easily through communities. This money committed to by Labor leader Bill Shorten will be invested in optometry and ophthalmology services and prevention activities to close the gap in eye health and eliminate trachoma once and for all in this country.

To completely close the gap we also need to recognise our first Australians in our Constitution. They need to have their names on what is effectively our birthing document. Labor is committed to a referendum on Indigenous recognition within the first year of taking office.

Debate adjourned.

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