Linda Burney (Barton, Australian Labor Party, Shadow Minister for Families and Social Services) Share this | Hansard source

One of the most remarkable days of my life was in February 2008. In this building, the Prime Minister, Kevin Rudd, said sorry and announced a decade to close the gap in seven areas. It has been 12 years since we commenced this national effort to close the gap in the quality-of-life outcomes between Indigenous and non-Indigenous Australians. It hasn't happened.

While we have made some progress, these latest results are unacceptable. The target to halve the gap in child mortality by 2018 was not met. The Indigenous child mortality rate is still more than twice that of non-Indigenous children, Tragically, 117 Indigenous children died in 2018. The target to halve the gap in reading, writing and numeracy by 2018 was not met. Reading, writing and maths results and school attendance figures are still nowhere near good enough. One in four Indigenous children are performing below minimum standards for reading and one in five below the minimum standards for numeracy. If kids aren't attending school and if they can't read, write and do maths, they are denied a lifetime of opportunity. This has not been helped by the Liberals having cut billions of dollars of funding from schools that need the most help, including many remote schools with high Indigenous enrolments. I and my colleague the member for Sydney acknowledge that many teachers and many schools are doing terrific work with Indigenous children, but they are getting precious little support from this federal government.

The target to close the gap in school attendance by 2018 was not met. While enrolment for early childhood education was on track, we are concerned about the significant variation between jurisdictions—in particular, Queensland, the Northern Territory and New South Wales. While attendance rates in early education remain favourable, we are particularly concerned that the Northern Territory rate is almost 20 percentage points behind, at 73.1 per cent. It is deeply concerning, but unfortunately not surprising, that out-of-pocket costs are listed as a barrier to access to early education for Indigenous children. We know that out-of-pocket costs are soaring under the Morrison government, and it is often vulnerable and disadvantaged children who are most severely impacted. This disparity is more pronounced in remote and very remote areas.

The target to halve the gap in employment by 2018 was not met. At the expiration of this target, the Indigenous employment rate was 49 per cent, compared to 75 per cent for non-Indigenous Australians. In the decade to 2018, this gap has barely changed.

The target to close the gap in life expectancy—a gap which cannot be understood in a country like Australia—by 2031 is not on track. Indigenous Australians live eight years less than other Australians, and this gap is even wider—absolutely a chasm, as Anthony Albanese said this morning—in remote and regional areas. Alarmingly, Indigenous cancer mortality rates, well understood by our shadow minister for health, are worsening. Indigenous cancer survival is actually going backwards in absolute terms—not just in comparison to non-Indigenous Australians. This year's result is virtually the same as last year—and it is just not good enough.

These are not statistics; these are people. They are sons and daughters, brothers and sisters, aunties and uncles. The first Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander justice commissioner, Mick Dodson, said it perfectly. He said:

A certain kind of industrial deafness has developed. The meaning of these figures is not heard—or felt. The statistics of infant and perinatal mortality are our babies and children who die in our arms.

The statistics of shortened life expectancy are our mothers and fathers, uncles, aunties and elders who live diminished lives and die before their gifts of knowledge and experience are passed on. We die silently under these statistics.

We have all heard them—the figures of death, and of disability. Every few years, figures are repeated and excite attention. But I suspect that most Australians accept them as being almost inevitable.

The human element in this is not recognised. The meaning of these figures is not heard—or felt.

The Leader of the Opposition today spoke about truth-telling. Most of us on this side of the House and, I am sure on the other side of the House have heard the minister speak about the extraordinary truth-telling of the Myall Creek massacre. On 10 June 1838, a gang of 11 stockmen, led by a squatter, brutally slaughtered a group of some 28 Aboriginal men, women and children who were camped peacefully next to the station huts on the Myall Creek cattle station near the Gwydir River in central New South Wales.

Even though the Myall Creek massacre was just one of the countless massacres that took place right across this country, from the earliest days of British settlement in 1788 and, as we heard today, right through to Coniston in 1928, it stands alone in its historical significance. It is significant because it is the only time in Australian history that white men were arrested, charged and hung for the massacre of Aboriginal people. Because the massacre was so thoroughly investigated and documented, it provided irrefutable documentary evidence not just of this massacre but also of how commonplace such massacres were at the time.

The consequences of past wrongs have transcended generations, and they can still be felt today. We can see it in the child who doesn't have a safe roof to live under. I have visited remote communities where the town has literally run out of water, let alone clean water. I have seen dams empty and children given soft drinks instead of water. These disparities plague First Nations people right across this continent, including the islands of the Torres Strait, but it is in our remote and regional areas where the disparity is particularly pronounced, where the significant obstacles to closing the social and health gaps between Indigenous and non-indigenous Australians are most felt—and I'm sure the member for Lingiari will speak about that. Mick Dodson went on to say this about social justice:

Social Justice is what faces you in the morning. It is awakening in a house with an adequate water supply, cooking facilities and sanitation. It is the ability to nourish your children and send them to school where their education not only equips them for employment but reinforces their knowledge and appreciation of their cultural inheritance. It is the prospect of genuine employment and good health: a life of choices and opportunity. A life free from discrimination.

Understanding this truth is critical to understanding the challenges, the disparity and the gap that we can see today. It is also critical that we understand that First Nations people best understand the challenges and solutions to the issues affecting them. It is for this reason that Labor supports the three components of the Uluru Statement in full. We also welcome the partnership that the minister spoke about today between the Coalition of Peaks and the government.

Labor looks forward to supporting new and ambitious targets to close the gap, including, as our leader indicated today, the important area of justice. We also want to see targets around child removal and out-of-home care. A direct and secure voice to decision-makers will build on the work of the peaks and ensure that the issues and perspectives of First Nations people are not left to languish on the fringes. Genuine commitment means that services and programs are adequately resourced and properly funded. It is difficult to accept a commitment as genuine when half a billion dollars has been cut from the Indigenous affairs budget by the present government. We are only halfway through the original target for closing the gap in life expectancy, but these failures are not inevitable so long as there is a genuine commitment from government to listen and lead.

Once again, we offer bipartisanship from this side of the House. There are differences on issues, particularly around a voice to the parliament, but we all understand that we cannot grow as a nation—we cannot call ourselves a complete nation—when the disparity that I've outlined, the disparity that we all understand, the disparity that we see in our electorates exists for First Nations people, the first peoples, as the High Court reiterated yesterday, of this land.

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