Sharon Claydon (Newcastle, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Hansard source

I would certainly like to begin tonight by acknowledging the traditional owners of this place, the Ngambri and Ngunnawal peoples, and pay my respects to their elders, past and present, and to their future leaders. I also want to acknowledge the traditional owners of my hometown, Newcastle, and the wider electorate, the Awabakal, Worimi and Wonnarua peoples, and pay tribute to their extraordinary resilience in the face of more than 200 years of dispossession and injustice.

The annual Prime Minister's report on closing the gap and the Australian parliament's acknowledgement of our progress is, as many speakers have pointed out, a symbolic yet extremely important reminder, in this parliament, of the collective effort and shared responsibility that is required if we are to seriously redress the entrenched inequality faced by Australia's first peoples.

There are a number of achievements worth noting, and I will do so in this speech, but it is important at the outset to acknowledge that there are serious challenges requiring our sustained commitment and resources—if this parliament is serious about making inroads into closing the gap. This year's Closing the gap report provided an updated snapshot of the inequality that remains for Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples. There were some bright spots in the report, as has been noticed, but it is clear that we really do have a long way to go in so many of the targets we have set ourselves as important markers for closing the gap.

The report shows some progress in the target, for example, to halve the gap in child mortality by 2018. We are on track to meet that target. Since 1998 Indigenous child mortality rates have declined and the gap is narrowing. In part, this is due to the greater proportion of Indigenous mothers attending antenatal care and to reduced rates of smoking during pregnancy. To continue to make progress, however, and meet that target, we must continue to ensure that the high-quality prenatal and postnatal care and education programs that have been available to parents and carers continue to be in existence. That will help those families and those kids to thrive.

The target to halve the gap for Indigenous Australians aged 20 to 24 in year 12 attainment or equivalent by 2020 is also on track to be met. The attainment rate was improved from the 32 per cent in the late 1990s—a truly appalling rate—to 60 per cent in 2014. New data is due to be released in April this year, which will give a greater and more accurate indication of the progress that has been made in this area.

However, of the seven Closing the Gap targets, these are the only two targets that are on track to being met. I think it is worth reminding ourselves in this House that meeting those targets or being on track to meeting those targets does not mean that we have addressed social inequality. What it means is that we have managed to reduce its occurrence by half. The targets, when eventually reached, are really about us only getting to the halfway point. We still have an enormous road to travel, even meeting these targets.

As I said earlier, the report really does highlight the many other areas of challenges that remain. We have made little progress in really key areas like education, life expectancy and employment outcomes. On the target to halve the gap in reading and numeracy for Indigenous students by 2018, across eight measurable areas in years 3, 5, 7 and 9, just four have had national standards being met. The increase in school attendance rates has now stagnated, with just a 0.2 per cent increase from 2014 to 2015, with the current rate of 83.7 per cent still well below the non-Indigenous student attendance rate of 93.1 per cent.

In regard to life expectancy, we are not on track to meet the target in any way, shape or form. The gap of 10.6 years for males and 9.5 years for females still exists, and accelerated progress is absolutely essential if we are to go anywhere near meeting this target that we have set for ourselves.

Finally, when it comes to those employment outcomes, no improvement has been made towards those targets since 2008. That is utterly shameful. Those of us on this side of the House understand fully the dignity that is afforded to people through work, and it is shameful that as a nation we cannot meet those targets for employment for Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples.

The brutal reality is that in Australia today an Aboriginal or Torres Strait Islander person is still likely to die younger, receive less education and indeed, as I said, find it much more difficult to find work. Clearly, greater effort is required for us to improve this situation. As many speakers before me have noted with distress, we have failed to meet these targets year after year after year. I utterly concur with the comments of the member for Hotham earlier when she said we cannot underestimate the power of insisting that our Prime Minister and our Leader of the Opposition—whoever might occupy those jobs at the time—and indeed this parliament, each and every year, must have this discussion. Certainly there is no more sweeping under the carpet that we have failed to meet even our own very modest aspirations in these areas. What is abundantly clear is that for many, many years, whilst not meeting those targets, we have been able to spend a little bit of time reflecting on why that might be. I would like to quote Dr Tom Calma, who I think has really nailed the point, over consecutive years I have to say. He stresses:

… governments can’t make progress in Indigenous affairs unless done “with and by Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people”.

“It's about mutual respect and having the faith and confidence—

to work together. Indeed, this remains one of our nation's greatest challenges. There is so much unfinished business in our relationships with Indigenous peoples in Australia that is yet to be seriously addressed by not only parliaments but the whole of our community.

I welcome the commitment by the Leader of the Opposition and Labor to adding new targets in to the reporting mechanisms of this parliament. I absolutely agree that nothing could be more important than adding a justice target into the reporting mechanisms of this parliament. I am sure I am not alone in recollections of the Royal Commission into Aboriginal Deaths in Custody back in the 1980s and the frustration that many of those recommendations have not been implemented. We have failed really to adequately address those issues that are now decades-old and that we have seen played out again here in Australia with the obscenely high incarceration rates for Indigenous peoples in Australia. It is a national disgrace. I do not know how the government thinks it is going to meet these targets when at the same time it enables cuts of $3.6 million from family violence and protection legal services just last year alone and has of abandoned its bipartisanship that we had previously to reduce Indigenous incarceration rates and improve community safety.

There is much work to be done. There can be no more important social, economic and cultural commitment than closing the gap that this parliament and indeed our nation can make to address the gross entrenched inequality that continues to exist in Australia today.

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