Julian Leeser (Berowra, Liberal Party) Share this | Hansard source

They say that the definition of stupidity is doing the same thing and expecting a different result. And yet, in the Closing the Gap policy area, that is what we have been doing for more than a decade. The original Closing the Gap report started with the noble aims of the then Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Social Justice Commissioner, Tom Calma, to set targets and report back in this place each and every year. Five prime ministers and opposition leaders have made beautiful and passionate speeches on this topic, some of the most beautiful and passionate speeches ever delivered in this place. I remember Prime Minister Morrison's speech last year, where he illustrated the old thinking of control, which governments have exercised over the lives of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples for generations. He movingly read from the archival file of what was then called the Department of Native Welfare. He told to the House the story of a young boy, referred to in a patronising way as 'a good type of lad', asking for 75c more pocket money. Powerfully, the Prime Minister then revealed that this same person was today the Minister for Indigenous Australians. What an interesting and powerful illustration of the old thinking. But, despite the fact that those sentiments were written in the 1960s, the old thinking has continued to pervade these areas of policy, and, because of the old thinking, we haven't been able to shift the dial on the Closing the Gap targets anywhere near as much as we would have liked.

Last year, two of the seven targets were on track: to halve the gap in year 12 attainment and to have 95 per cent of Indigenous four-year-olds enrolled in early childhood education by 2025. But halving the gap in child mortality, school attendance, child literacy and numeracy, and employment, and closing the gap in life expectancy within a generation were not on target.

Those days of control should be well and truly behind us. That is why what the federal government has done—in partnership with the states, territories, and local government and, most importantly, the Coalition of Peaks—has been a complete change in the way in which we approach the Closing the Gap targets. For the first time, Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples have not just been the subject of the Closing the Gap targets but they have set the targets themselves in conglomeration and in cooperation with the states, the territories and the Commonwealth. This is so important for two reasons. As I began to do more work in the Indigenous policy space and as somebody who became interested in this space because of my interest in constitutional law, it surprised me that, despite the fact that in 1967 Australians overwhelmingly voted to give the Commonwealth power to make laws with relation to Indigenous people, most of the policies and laws that affect their everyday lives are made at the state, territory and local levels. Yet the old thinking left the entire responsibility for closing the gap in the hands of the Commonwealth.

This new refresh of the Closing the Gap targets brings people together, including Commonwealth and state governments but most importantly the Aboriginal community-controlled sector. I want to pay tribute to the distinguished, tenacious Aboriginal leader Pat Turner, who is in the gallery today, who led the 51 Coalition of Peaks organisations to put together proposals to change these targets so that they had the buy-in of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples and, importantly, the buy-in of the states and territories.

New targets don't mean easier targets. In fact, many of these targets are hugely ambitious. But you would not want anything less than hugely ambitious targets, many of which are to be achieved in the next decade, when we are talking about improving the lives of and improving outcomes for our First Australians. What we've done in bringing the Coalition of Peaks together to help design and implement the new Closing the Gap targets is give Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people a say, for the first time in their history, over the policies, laws and programs that affect them. This is truly a watershed moment in the history of our country and in the history of black and white relations in our country. It's important that this is not a Canberra-knows-best idea or a state-and-territory-governments-know-best idea but that this is truly a partnership between the Commonwealth, the states, local government and, importantly, Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples who are delivering the services, who are a part of the community, who have the capacity and the accountability to the local communities to change lives on the ground. I believe that this is a really important year in closing the gap.

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