Lisa Chesters (Bendigo, Australian Labor Party, Shadow Assistant Minister for Workplace Relations) Share this | Hansard source

I rise to speak to the Closing the Gap report that's been tabled in parliament. I will begin by acknowledging the traditional owners of the land on which we meet and paying my respects to their elders, both past and present. I also acknowledge the Dja Dja Wurrung people, who are traditional owners of my electorate of Bendigo in Central Victoria, and pay my respects to their elders, past, present and future.

'Closing the gap': it is language that is commonly known now, which is about bridging the gap between Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Australians and non Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Australians. All of us in this place have a responsibility. Our governments—our local, state and federal governments—have a responsibility, as do our communities, and in this contribution I'd like to acknowledge some of the great work that is going on in my community to help close the gap.

In that spirit, I'd like to start with some of the words of Aunty Julie, who has kindly let me share some of her Australia Day speech from 2017. Aunty Julie was the Mount Alexander citizen of the year for 2016, and in her Australia Day address in 2017 she reflected on the year she had been the area's citizen of the year. She said:

I have run formal cultural awareness days where we can share and yarn about issues. One of the activities I do when taking cultural awareness days is a timeline of the Dja Dja Wurrung history in the Mount Alexander shire. I have historically significant events on cards and ask participants to put them in order …

One of the cards explains how two-thirds of the Dja Dja Wurrung population was wiped out before a white person set foot in Central Victoria. Who knows why? The timeline shows what it was like before the arrival of others. It was basically a paradise, plenty of food, plenty of water, amazing sites to held Ceremony, et cetera.

Then came disease, massacres, poisoning, dispossession of land. Of the whole Dja Dja Wurrung nation in the Mount Alexander shire, which numbered around 2,000 before invasion, only 70 were left on country by 1863. In less than 30 years nearly a whole nation of proud people was decimated by greed. This is part of the history which must be understood, not dwelled on, but understood so that we, as a People, can be understood.

Those are powerful words by Aunty Julie, and I thank her for allowing me to share them with this place. It goes to the heart of why we must continue to work to close the gap.

We are fortunate in Bendigo and Central Victoria that we have reached settlement without having to go to the High Court. On 15 November 2013, the Dja Dja Wurrung people and the state of Victoria celebrated recognition and settlement. I want to acknowledge the great spirit in which the Dja Dja Wurrung people approached this. The settlement acknowledged that, before European colonisation, the natural places within the Dja Dja Wurrung country were well known, and names and songs were celebrated as part of their culture.

Their vision is for the health and wellbeing of those people to be strong and underpinned by their living culture. As the first peoples of the land, their vision is to be included and politically empowered, establishing a place in society and being capable of managing their own affairs from a strong and diverse economic base. They are working with the Bendigo community and businesses to achieve their own economic independence.

It's always inspiring to catch up with the Dja Dja Wurrung, to learn of their successes, the way in which they're working, the pride that they have in restoring country, their businesses, their enterprises and what they're achieving. They're a demonstration of what can happen when we do stand to the side and allow them to be empowered and to work collectively and collaboratively together.

We've also had amazing success with BDAC, Bendigo & District Aboriginal Co-operative, and the work that they're doing in regard to health, wellbeing, and family and community services. It's important, when acknowledging Closing the gap, to note the tireless work that they do in our community to ensure that the people who they support the most are achieving the best outcomes. But they're also pragmatic and realistic about the challenges that they have.

BDAC now employs more than 50 people, and 80 per cent of their staff identify as Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander. They have been honest and frank with me in the way that only they can about the struggles that they've had with a number of government programs. They say that their clients and their community struggle with the changes to My Aged Care, with packages that are unfair and which don't meet the costs of support. They say that they struggle to help make sure that their clients and their community aren't ripped off by people who charge exorbitant administration fees. By that I mean that their clients and community aren't receiving the best support that they need. This is an example of where government policy is making it hard for us to close the gap.

The Dja Dja Wurrung community includes regional Bendigo, where just under 2,000 Aboriginal people live. They reside in districts like Boort, Redesdale and Creswick. More than half the Aboriginal people in Bendigo are under 24, and therefore there are a number of programs BDAC are working on, such as the men's shed, the youth service facilities, and making sure that we have record numbers of health checks and ongoing health care. Their Prouses Road development is another way in which they're helping to close the gap.

Another program is the way in which BDAC is working to reduce the number of children in out-of-home care. It is quite innovative; it is an Australian first and it was recognised last year. In Victoria, the number of children in the Victorian child protection system has risen 70 per cent over the last three years. According to the Australian Institute of Family Studies, the rate of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander children in out-of-home care was 10 times higher than the rate of non-Aboriginal children. This is an overrepresentation of children, and the reason why a new approach was called for by Aboriginal leaders. Raylene Harradine, the chief executive of BDAC, said to her staff and to the community:

It's around trying to keep our kids in our community and in the care of our own people …

So they stepped up. It's about having a range of services across an organisation that enable options for children in our community.

One couple shared their experience with a dramatic new child protection approach being trialled in Bendigo, known as section 18, or Aboriginal guardianship. Yorta Yorta man Simon Penrose said it was important that Aboriginal foster children had access to culture. Mr Penrose and his partner have fostered children for just over two years, and in the past six months have been fostering local Aboriginal children into their family. This new trial and approach towards Aboriginal children is, basically, the state government, through the Department of Health, saying, 'We will work with BDAC and these local families to take care of their own.'

But, for all the successes, there is still a lot of work to do. Incarceration rates of Aboriginal people in Victoria remain too high. Statistics for 2016 show that Aboriginal men make up eight per cent of the male population in the corrections centre. The prison rate for Aboriginal women is 10.3 per cent of the female population, and it's high for youth. A lot of these prisons are in my electorate. We have prisons in our electorate for youth, women, and men.

We must do more as a society. We must do more as a community. We must do more as parliamentarians to help close the gap. It's not enough just to have rhetoric saying that we will work with them. We need to demonstrate it through funding. We need to demonstrate it through empowerment. We need to make sure that we're doing all we can to help close the gap.

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