Matt Thistlethwaite (Kingsford Smith, Australian Labor Party, Shadow Parliamentary Secretary for Foreign Affairs) Share this | Hansard source

At the outset, I acknowledge the Ngunnawal and Ngambri people, the traditional custodians of the land in Canberra, but also the traditional owners of the wonderful community I represent in Kingsford Smith, the Bidjigal and Gadigal people.

Closing the gap begins with respect—respect for Aboriginal people, respect for their history, respect for their culture, respect for their connection to their country and respect for their precolonisation contribution to the development of Australia. At the moment, in our nation, Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people still face discrimination in our community. In respect of the Closing the gap report that we are debating here this evening and the targets, there is still a hell of a lot of work to do before Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people are considered on a par with the health, welfare and educational standards of non-Indigenous Australians.

On average, Indigenous Australians die 10 years younger than non-Indigenous Australians, and this has not changed, fundamentally, since 1998; there has been no significant decline in child mortality rates since 2008; we are not on track to halve the gap in employment by 2018; and there is still a 10 per cent difference in school attendance. With reading, writing and numeracy it is only in year 9 that numeracy is on track to halve the gap by 2018. There is a long way to go and a lot of work to do if we are going to close the gap, and more work to do to respect Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people.

This morning many of us attended a very humbling and important event in the Great Hall of Parliament House—the handing over of the Redfern Statement to the Prime Minister by leaders of Australia's Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander community. The Redfern Statement is a statement that was drafted in June 2016, in the lead-up to the last election, by the National Congress of Australia's First Peoples and signed by another 17 organisations that work in and around the Aboriginal welfare, health and education space. The policies of this document and its statements, basically, are encompassed in a few words: policies made with communities—rather than to communities.

The document calls for the restoration of the $500 million in cuts that were made by the Abbott government in their 2014 budget that have been maintained, and are supported, by this Turnbull government. These cuts are resulting in disadvantage for Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people and are some of the reasons we are not meeting the targets that were set by the Close the Gap initiative many, many years ago. These include cuts to Aboriginal legal services, cuts to health programs, cuts to domestic violence programs and diversionary programs for at-risk youth.

The document includes a new justice target for Aboriginal incarceration. It is shocking that, upon graduating from high school, a young Aboriginal man is more likely to go to jail than to attend university and get a degree. That is something that Australia needs to be ashamed of and that we need to rectify. I am very proud to be part of a Labor team, led by Bill Shorten, that has recognised this and has said that, if we are elected to government, we will include a new target in the Close the Gap initiative: a justice target to specifically work to reduce the rates of Indigenous incarceration in this country.

The document also includes a commitment to justice reinvestment and diversionary programs that are working in many communities, and a standalone department of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander affairs. Currently, the work of government, in respect of delivering programs in this policy space, is part of the Department of the Prime Minister and Cabinet, and we have seen what an absolute disaster that has been under the Abbott and Turnbull governments, with resignations, in-fighting and the Aboriginal community despairing of the way that this policy area is being managed by the Turnbull government.

The catchcry of the Redfern Statement this morning for those present was a very powerful one and a very insightful one, and something I certainly support—that is, we have the solutions. Aboriginal people and their communities have the solutions to many of the problems that have been identified in Closing the gap and that we all know about in terms of welfare, life expectancy, and educational and health outcomes. Aboriginal people have the solutions to many of these problems and they are sick and tired of being told what is good for them.

It goes back to the issue I mentioned in the opening of this speech. It is about respect. It is about having respect for Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people, their ability to identify problems and issues within their communities and their ability to work together and to work with government at all levels to put in place solutions to deal with these issues and to get better outcomes. If we cannot trust Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people to do this, if we cannot show them the necessary respect to give them this autonomy to find solutions to these problems, then we are not going to be able to work to close the gap on the issues and on the indicators that we are shockingly missing targets on at the moment.

I am very glad that this was a theme that was touched upon by Bill Shorten in his reply speech to the Closing the gap report this morning. He spoke about empowering communities, empowering Aboriginal people and, most importantly, listening and showing respect. This was demonstrated this morning when Senator Pat Dodson spoke to the Labor caucus about the campaign for Indigenous recognition and for closing the gap in this country. It has been proven that respect for Aboriginal people, listening to them and providing them with autonomy to come up with solutions does work. I point to two programs that I am very proud are located in the community of Kingsford Smith.

Peter Cooley and Sarah Martin are two Indigenous entrepreneurs who run a company called First Hand Solutions. They are the instigators of the Blak Markets at Bare Island, which have been very popular, and the Catch N Cook program. Peter came to see me to tell me some months ago about a program that was very important for young Aboriginal men who were falling out of the education system. It is again about Aboriginal people providing the solutions to these problems. Peter's focus is on getting those kids to connect again with their country and getting them to connect again with their culture. That culture and that connection with country—that inspiration about the Dreamtime, bush tucker and understanding of the land and country—can set people back on a path to education, bettering themselves and having pride in and being proud of their Aboriginal heritage and culture. I was very pleased that late last year Labor's education spokesperson, Tanya Plibersek, visited La Perouse Public School with me and spoke to Peter and some of the kids who have gone through that program and saw its success. It is something I am very proud of and am very proud is happening in our electorate.

The second program is the Aboriginal Health College, which is located at Little Bay in Kingsford Smith. Every year I go along to the wonderful graduation and see the many Aboriginal people who graduate from these programs with diplomas. There are training programs at all levels providing health education. They provide health programs throughout the country. Their catchcry is: Aboriginal health education in Aboriginal hands. There is no better way to put it. Each year I see the pride of the graduates, who have gone through and worked hard to get their certificates. The work they are doing in the community is inspirational. Once again it proves that Aboriginal people have the solutions. It is about respect, and that is what we should be focusing on in closing the gap.

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