Ken Wyatt (Hasluck, Liberal Party, Minister for Indigenous Australians) Share this | Hansard source

I acknowledge the traditional custodians of the land on which this parliament sits, the Ngunawal people, and pay my respects to elders past and present. I also acknowledge my own country, the Noongar people of Western Australia, and say in our language, kaya wanju—hello and welcome. I acknowledge my Aboriginal parliamentary colleagues, the Hon. Linda Burney, Senator Pat Dodson, Senator Malarndirri McCarthy, Senator Jackie Lambie and Senator Olivia Thorpe. I also want to acknowledge the Prime Minister, who last week renewed his commitment to walk together with Indigenous Australians; to continue to listen, to learn; and a commitment to work together.

Two years ago, the Commonwealth signed a new partnership agreement with the states and territories, the coalition of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peak organisations, and the Australian Local Government Association. That document said, 'From now on we will work together, no matter what,' and we are. From that partnership, our new national agreement was born, setting out our new priority reforms and the 17 outcomes and targets agreed to by all and ushering in a new era of action, evidence and accountability. Governments can do a lot, and we will, but we can't do it all. I acknowledge the work of Pat Turner and the other leaders of the peak bodies and note how critical our partnership and their efforts will be in this new era. I acknowledge the work of the National Indigenous Australians Agency and the incredible staff in that organisation, particularly the former CEO, Ray Griggs, and all public servants who were involved in the agreement's preparation.

Each of the states and territories and the peaks and the Commonwealth presented their own implementation plans last Friday, when we met as the Joint Council on Closing the Gap. Each one of those plans directly responds to the new priority reform areas and the new outcomes and targets. All governments will report to their respective parliaments on their progress towards achieving the targets and, critically, all of our efforts will be scrutinised more closely than ever before—not by us, ourselves, as we've done in the past, but by the independent Productivity Commission and the Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander led reviews that will occur. We're not going to waste this opportunity. We will build on the past. We'll be guided not by what we think works but what the data tells us. We will only continue to fund initiatives that we now know can deliver, ensuring the money spent goes as far as it can.

When I was sworn in as Minister for Indigenous Australians, I promised that policy would not be made solely in my office; instead, I would only develop policy in partnership with Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Australians, and I meant that. From visiting communities and speaking with elders around the country, this has become clear and urgent. Last year I had traditional owners at Katherine ask me, 'Why do you insist on acknowledging traditional owners and elders but you're not involving us in everyday things to do with our country?' They said, 'You as governments acknowledge us, but we don't see us sitting at the table talking about the importance of country and why we are the rightful owners and why we shouldn't have a say. So why do you acknowledge us but don't include us?' It's a simple question, one that governments have struggled to answer for far too long.

So, yes, I've been challenged—challenged to think more deeply about how to honour my original promise, how to make our partnership's efforts more than just words in a report or ideas in a speech, how to make them real for our people. To make them mean something to every person in every community, what we need most in Indigenous affairs is pragmatism and real outcomes, practical actions that result in meaningful change for Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples and change through working in genuine partnership. That is our paradigm shift, which is now embedded in the Commonwealth Closing the Gap Implementation Plan. We are being rigorous with the evidence, we are listening, we are learning and we are pursuing what works.

This is the latest step to do away with the old top-down approach without losing or downplaying the heart and intention of the commitments made by Prime Minister Rudd 13 years ago. But much has changed since then. What hasn't changed is the collective aspiration of our people to see Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander children getting the best start in life and the same opportunities—schooling, health care and life outcomes—as their peers; to see more children in school and fewer children in custody; to see more Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people living healthier lives and fewer dying young. We want to see more opportunity and optimism, and more freedom to hope and to heal.

I want to take a moment to reflect on the Territories Stolen Generations Redress Scheme the Prime Minister has just announced. I want to acknowledge Fiona Cornforth—who has done a brilliant job—Maisie Austin, Eileen Cummings and the Healing Foundation for their work to address trauma passed from generation to generation, in too many cases caused by the forced removal of children from their families. When I spoke with them, on several occasions I recalled my mother and her siblings who were members of the same experience. My mother spent her childhood years in Roelands mission out of Bunbury. Not only were all her siblings taken away from their parents, they were also separated from each other and spread hundreds of kilometres apart. As a child, and as a child of anybody who has been in an institution, I used to listen to their stories that they shared between themselves, and they expressed how they felt. I've read my mother's native welfare files, which include letters from her parents which make it very clear that her mother and father had not given up on wanting them back. They had not relinquished their parental rights. They'd never given her up. They continued loving and yearning for her all those years, and her for them. When I was talking with Maisie and Eileen, it brought back those memories of what they went through, and that's why we've done the right thing.

The new redress scheme represents an important practical step forward to healing in this country and reflects our government's commitment to support a process of truth-telling as part of our nation's journey to reconciliation. All of us in cabinet share responsibility to create a better future for Indigenous Australians. In a sense, we are all ministers for Indigenous Australians.

It is my hope that over the 10 years of this new Agreement on Closing the Gap, as well as through our efforts to co-design the Indigenous voice, my colleagues and I can work even more closely together to acknowledge the past, to build a better future as one, but, more importantly, to implement all of the initiatives that are outlined in the $1 billion commitment in the Commonwealth's implementation plan. I think the strength of this approach of a partnership with 51 peak organisations, with Indigenous communities, but where state and territory governments are now accountable in their own parliaments, makes our task as a Commonwealth to be facilitators for a better future, that it addresses all those elusive areas in which gaps have continued to exist. Out-of-home care, incarceration rates and the general ones that we've always focused on are all critically important. And, whilst the challenge in some of the circumstances that people live in remote and isolated communities will be tough, nevertheless I know that both sides of this chamber are committed to ensuring that we collectively close the gap that exists. It gives us an incredible opportunity to work in a bipartisan approach over the next 10 years to see a future in which a child born today at the age of 10 will have better opportunities, better pathways and enjoy the same privileges that an Australian child does in any other context.

I also want to acknowledge the contribution of my long-term friend Linda Burney for the work that she has done over our years of being advocates in a number of areas, and the member for Barton knows full well how important these gap closures are if we are going to see a change in the quality of lives. Even in capital cities, those gaps exist. What we have to do is look for solutions that will ensure that the challenges are addressed and we see the outcomes that we seek through all of the implementation plans and the Closing the Gap implementation agreement. Thank you.

Honourable members: Hear, hear!

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