Katie Allen (Higgins, Liberal Party) Share this | Hansard source

I rise to speak on what is an incredibly important day for Australia and for all Australians. Australians need to have a strong sense of peace about our past, and that includes understanding, embracing and caring about our Indigenous people. The First Nations people have been an important and essential part of our culture and our heritage. But closing the gap remains a part of our Australian community which is something we need to address. What I would say about closing the gap is when I went to Arnhem Land nearly 30 years ago to see for myself how the Indigenous population was dealing with what is a very difficult situation, I was absolutely appalled by some of the health inequities that I was seeing. It's sad to say that many of those health inequities remain. Unfortunately, the gap in mortality rates between Indigenous and non-Indigenous peoples remains extreme. Unfortunately, we have some problems that are persisting: health, education, jobs. We need to do more. Today is about making practical measures in order to improve the outcomes for Indigenous people.

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