Linda Burney (Barton, Australian Labor Party, Minister for Indigenous Australians) Share this | Hansard source

I recognise country and I congratulate the Prime Minister on his very, very, very fine words, and I acknowledge the Leader of the Opposition's contribution as well.

There is no shortage of goodwill in this place towards closing the gap. But our actions must match those fine words. I am frustrated by the lack of progress, frustrated that change has been too slow. I think about Cassius Turvey and the family and friends who miss him so much. I think about the missing and murdered women from so many of our communities and about the young boys at Banksia Hill and the justice system that has let them down. I think about how far we still have to go to close the gap.

The numbers in this report tell an important story—a story, as the Prime Minister has said, of mixed progress. It's a story of heartening advances. As has been mentioned, more babies—89 per cent—were born at a healthy birth weight. That is on track, and much needs to go right for that to happen. On track also: 96.7 per cent of children enrolled in preschool in 2021. There has been heartbreakingly slow progress in areas that have already been mentioned: children being developmentally on track when they start school; the out-of-home-care rates, which many people describe as another stolen generation; adult imprisonment; and deaths by suicide. It's worth noting that for the majority of socioeconomic targets there is so little new data available to reliably track trends, although important work has commenced to improve this data.

Of course, Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Australians are not numbers. We have names, families, cultures and languages. We belong to communities and to country, and we have hopes and dreams. Recently, I was in the APY Lands, and an old woman from Pukatja told a story that I think reflects the feeling of many First Nations communities at this time. It was a story about the black-footed rock-wallaby. It is looking for food one day, along a rocky outcrop in the red dirt, when suddenly the wallaby falls into a crack between two large rocks; it's body thrashing around. The wallaby tries to inch up closer to freedom, and, after one last thrust, the wallaby slides back down again into an even deeper hole than before. This, the old woman said, is what her situation feels like—progress then setback, hope then despair.

I say to First Nations peoples across Australia, like the amazing communities from across the APY Lands, we do hear you and we are determined to do better. We hear your frustration and your aspirations, and the Australian government is committed to doing something about it.

I will not repeat what the Prime Minister has talked about in terms of commitments, except to highlight one, and that's the $81 million into 30 communities through the justice reinvestment initiative. The Prime Minister spoke about the outcomes in Bourke and the fact that there are models out there if we only just look and work in partnership with First Nations people. He spoke about establishing an Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander voice, which has been well discussed over the last few days. In response to the questions around the Voice, one only needs to look at the detail out there and be part of a campaign that's coming, because giving Indigenous Australians a say in matters that affect us is essential to closing the gap.

We will close the gap by working with parties to the national agreement, including the Coalition of Peaks, led by Pat Turner and represented here today by Dawn Casey—hello, Dawn!—all state and territory governments and the Australian Local Government Association, as well as by forging, bathed in self-determination, new ways to improve the lives of Indigenous Australians and to help close the gap, including, importantly, the four priority reforms.

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