Sharman Stone (Murray, Liberal Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

Australia is frequently called the lucky country, but too often you are out of luck if you are born an Australian Aborigine in a rural or remote community, that is if you consider life expectations, in particular your length of life, your health, your opportunities to have a job, and the likelihood of you completing your secondary school education and going onto higher education. There is an enormous difference, a gap, between the life experiences of Australian Aboriginals and Torres Strait Islanders and other Australians, whether they are newly arrived in Australia or have been born here. You are only marginally more fortunate if you are born an Australian Aborigine in one of Australia's great cities.

There has been investment of hundreds of millions of dollars by state, federal and territory governments in Indigenous programs aiming to improve health, education, business development outcomes, employment and life chances in general. Unfortunately, while there has been some movement in, for example, the numbers of babies surviving infancy in the Indigenous community compared to the rest of Australia, we still have, as I said before, an enormous gap despite these hundreds of millions of dollars being invested. There have been endless inquiries, surveys and analyses of what works, what has gone wrong and where dollars have gone missing. Endlessly we see a parade of short-termism, with projects typically called pilots. Even if they work, they are not given ongoing funding.

Fortunately there are some amazing success stories—for example, the Clontarf program, which we celebrated in parliament last night. This is a program aimed specifically at boys—young boys and youths—and it aims to attract them back into education via their love of sport. It was an inspiration to be at the celebration of Clontarf in Parliament House last night, where numbers of the young men involved in the program were examples of some of the finest young Australians you would see anywhere.

But, sadly, while fewer Indigenous babies now die compared to the rest of Australian society, we are now seeing increasing numbers born permanently and irreparably brain damaged as a result of their mothers' consuming alcohol during their pregnancy. These babies' capacities to live a life realising their full human potential are not what you would expect of a baby born to a mother who has not had any alcohol during her nine months of pregnancy. I am in particular referring to the incidence of newborns now being brought into the world suffering from foetal alcohol spectrum disorders. This spectrum includes permanent brain damage.

FASD, as it is called, is not just a tragedy confined to Australian Indigenous populations, of course. It is found also across all populations in the Australian community, particularly where now we have a culture of binge drinking amongst our teenage girls, where the culture of drinking is seen as more important than responsible drinking and where, particularly through our sporting obsession in Australia, young people are targeted with the idea that consuming alcohol in excess is not irresponsible; it is just having a good time.

We in Australia, then, have a real problem with babies being born who will not have a right to a full life of intellectual development or of employment. Many, particularly the young boys, will find themselves incarcerated at an early age. Many of the young girls with FASD will find themselves mothers at a very early age, and in turn their babies will often be victims of FASD because, as young mothers suffering from this condition, they too drink during their pregnancy.

Indigenous women have been at the forefront of challenging the destructive alcohol consumption in their communities. I refer in particular to the brilliant women like Marmingee, June Oscar and Emily Carter at Fitzroy Crossing. They are now internationally renowned for the stand they have taken against the abuse of alcohol in their remote Western Australian communities. Unfortunately, their example is not found across the broader Australian society, and other Indigenous communities struggle to be able to control the alcohol consumption which not only leads to babies being born brain damaged but also leads to violence and behaviour which means that, as a community, they suffer hugely from even more poverty and disadvantage.

In November 2012, the House of Representatives Standing Committee on Social Policy and Legal Affairs tabled FASD: the hidden harm: inquiry into the prevention, diagnosis and management of fetal alcohol spectrum disorders. In particular, one of the recommendations was:

… that the Commonwealth Government raise with the States and Territories the critical importance of strategies to assist Indigenous communities in managing issues of alcohol consumption and to assist community led initiatives to reduce high-risk consumption patterns and the impact of alcohol.

For Indigenous communities like those at Fitzroy Crossing, this is not just a matter of making sure that each baby born has an opportunity—in fact, the right—to develop their full potential. It is also about the potential loss of culture. Given that a lot of the traditions and culture of Indigenous communities are still orally transmitted, if your next generation cannot learn, cannot retain information and cannot be held responsible for their actions at all times, you are in fact looking at cultural genocide.

So we need to address very seriously in all of our closing the gap rhetoric the fact that one of the great hidden tragedies in Australia right now is the incidence of FADS in Indigenous communities. Already some of the recommendations from this report from the Standing Committee on Social Policy and Legal Affairs have been missed by this government in terms of strategic actions we called for. For example, in recommendation No. 10 we said:

The Commonwealth Government should determine the appropriate format and design of the labels by 1 March 2013 …

This was to assist the alcohol industry in adopting best practice principles and preparing for the mandatory implementation of labelling on alcohol, which they have already determined will be happening later this year. We felt it was important that guidance was given to the alcohol industry, whether beer, spirits or wines, so those wanting to take up this labelling in advance of the mandatory period commencing would have advice about what was going to be the required labelling. Unfortunately, the deadline of 1 March 2013 has now passed and this government did not issue any guidance to the alcohol industry. Many in the industry are being responsible—the small wineries, the brewers of Australia are wanting this guidance.

We have also, sadly, not seen the placing of the matter of including health warning labels on alcoholic beverages on the agenda of the Legislative and Governance Forum on Food Regulation. We wanted it included on the December agenda last year. That did not occur. So I am concerned that, while this report received an overwhelming positive response from the government and from the coalition, who were agreeing that there was a hidden disaster in Australia—the hidden harm of foetal alcohol spectrum disorders—unfortunately the recommendations, all 19 of them, still sit there without much attention being paid.

The budget is coming up in a few short months and we know it is going to be a budget with very little real money to spend, but some of these recommendations were not expensive recommendations. I am concerned that the budget will not pay any attention to the advancing of public awareness about the dangers of alcohol consumption during pregnancy. I am also concerned the budget will not do anything about ensuring the new FADS diagnostic tool is properly introduced and tested. We were most concerned that a diagnostic tool, which the government has already funded, should be further developed with training and a user manual. But, unfortunately, that will require some funding. Let us see the if it is in the budget. I certainly hope for the sake of all Australians that it is.

We also, of course, had recommendations about making sure that all Australians, particularly health professionals, are fully aware of the National Health and Medical Research Council's guidelines that advise women not to drink while pregnant. We want to make sure that alcohol consumption impacts on pregnancy and the developing foetus are incorporated into all general practice and midwifery training. We wanted to ensure that all are trained in discussing the National Health and Medical Research Council guidelines on alcohol consumption with women, because we are told regularly and repeatedly that general practitioners and midwives feel quite reluctant to talk to women about their alcohol consumption during pregnancy, while they are more than happy to ask them about their smoking habits or intake of something like fast food.

So we have got to make sure that there certainly is not a misunderstanding about FADS, where we leave ourselves to imagine that is a problem only affecting Indigenous communities and their newborn. We have a problem of foetal alcohol spectrum disorder occurring with greater prevalence across all of Australian society. But in particular I am addressing in my remarks today the problem in closing the gap in life experience of Indigenous and other Australians, so I want to focus and stress that alcohol, when it is abused and misused, has serious consequences for all in that society, particularly if it is a small and remote society. But for the unborn, if a mother chooses to drink while pregnant, the risks that that baby will be born with permanent irreversible brain damage are risks too high to be borne.

It is particularly tragic where the mother is not informed about the risks or, if she is in fact an alcoholic, is not given support during her pregnancy to try and minimise, or altogether eliminate, the use of alcohol at a time when her baby's development is in danger. I repeat: Australian society cannot rest and simply believe that the hundreds of millions of dollars spent on Indigenous programs has delivered any real improvement in the lot of Australian Indigenous communities. In my electorate of Murray, where I have a significant number of first Australians, particularly the Bangarang and Yorta Yorta peoples, at least I can celebrate the fact that this year we have more than 70 Koori students in year 12, the highest number ever in our final year of secondary education. That is a triumph for their families, for the Rumbalara Cooperative and for all of the communities who have done so much to try and assist our Indigenous families. We need to make sure that those young people complete year 12 successfully and move on to higher or further education, or employment, and that their lives are as fulfilling and as full of prospects as those of any other Australian in the 21st century.

Jane Prentice (Ryan, Liberal Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

I thank the Prime Minister and the Leader of the Opposition for their statements this year on the progress of Closing the Gap and increasing opportunities for all Indigenous people across the country. I would like to echo the words of my colleague the member for Hasluck, who said that, although progress has been made in some areas, 'we still have a distance to travel to close the gap in Australia and that efforts need to be focused on the best ways to initiate long-term, lasting change'. The member for Hasluck has a very strong commitment to closing the gap and has also worked tirelessly for over two years on the Expert Panel for Constitutional Recognition of Indigenous Australians.

We must acknowledge that in some areas there has been progress. Year 12 attainment is increasing, and mainstream economic employment for Indigenous Australians has increased by two per cent since 2006, with a 10 per cent increase in the Northern Territory. It is particularly pleasing to see Indigenous Business Australia approve its 15,000th loan this year, helping Indigenous Australians build for their family's future in their own home. In some areas, however, we have gone backwards, which reminds us that we must constantly be vigilant to ensure that we are indeed achieving genuine progress.

I want to discuss two on-the-ground projects which are making a real difference to the lives of Indigenous Australians. Evonne Cawley has been a strong advocate for Indigenous issues for decades and has seen her tennis camps for young Indigenous Australians go from strength to strength. Evonne and Roger Cawley started her foundation and the Goolagong National Development Camp for Indigenous Youth in 2005 and have since become involved with 'Learn, Earn, Legend' and the Tennis Australia National Indigenous Program. These initiatives give strong support to the three key Closing the Gap targets on Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander reform. This program is not only about finding tennis players or unearthing athletic ability; it is about encouraging social responsibility. To be a part of Evonne's tennis camps participants are expected to not only attend their school classes and tennis camps on time but, more importantly, must both attend school and pass their grades. These camps give participants the opportunity to display their enthusiasm, determination and willingness to improve themselves. Furthermore, they empower individuals to make a difference in their own communities.

The Tennis Australia National Indigenous program, in conjunction with Evonne's foundation, has now been expanded to every state, culminating in more than 20 'Come and Try' days with more than 1,100 children having been involved so far. The most recent Goolagong Foundation national camp, held in conjunction with the Australian Open, had 26 participants—in addition to the success of the three state camps, with over 60 participants. This has been a very successful initiative for these participants and there are now 10 Indigenous coaches qualifying through Tennis Australia coach membership and continued coach education who will continue to give back through their local communities.

I discussed the program with Evonne and Roger Cawley earlier this year at the Brisbane International, and they enthusiastically spoke of their desire to increase the program and to help even more Indigenous students across Australia. It is truly refreshing that, after so many years dedicated to Indigenous issues, Evonne still has that burning enthusiasm as a result of the enormous success that the program has had so far—and can and will have in the future—for Indigenous students.

I would also like to mention Red Earth Connections, an organisation which was founded by two constituents in Ryan, Arthur Alla and Alex Harper. This has also continued to grow, with 10 schools from around Australia so far committed to making a trip to Aboriginal homelands this year and working on meaningful projects chosen by local elders.

I would also like to mention the Clontarf Foundation. I, along with many colleagues from both sides of the House, had the honour of meeting several of their participants yesterday. This particular program is targeting teenage Aboriginal males, and the foundation have approximately 2,800 young men actively involved in secondary education at academies in Western Australia, the Northern Territory, Victoria and New South Wales. Using the passion that Aboriginal boys have for football allows the Clontarf Foundation to attract the boys to school, but it is not just a sporting program. Each Clontarf academy, formed in partnership with a local school, is focused on encouraging behavioural change, developing positive attitudes and assisting students to complete school and secure employment. Fundamental to this is the development of values, skills and abilities that will assist the boys to achieve better life outcomes. Through a diverse mix of activities, the full-time local Clontarf staff mentor and counsel students, while the school caters for the educational needs of each student. It was wonderful to have the Governor-General here yesterday supporting the work of the Clontarf Foundation, and I commend all the people working with them on their wonderful outcomes.

These programs are but a few of many which are making a real difference on the ground for Indigenous Australians. Many constituents have contacted me to ensure that there is bipartisan support in ensuring that we do not waver in our commitment to meeting the Closing the Gap goals, which include halving the gap in literacy and numeracy achievements, year 12 attainment and employment outcomes within a decade. I know that every member of this parliament wants to achieve those aims, because, ultimately, Closing the Gap is not a Liberal-National project or a Labor project; it is a national project in the interests of each and every Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander who is missing out on opportunities afforded to so many Australians—and it is a project that we must all support.

Andrew Laming (Bowman, Liberal Party, Shadow Parliamentary Secretary for Regional Health Services and Indigenous Health) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

This nation's effort to close the gap is probably one of the truly important pursuits that unite both sides of this chamber—and of course chambers all around this great country, with state jurisdictions doing great work as well. I want to make an observation about where Closing the Gap is heading. We have heard a lot about the extra investment in Closing the Gap, but there is still not enough of a focus on outcomes. My great concern is that the prime ministerial reports that happen every year—and I hope they will continue to—clutch at small glimmers of hope but that, in a context where hospital investment has nearly trebled and where we now have billion-dollar investments, in places like Alice Springs, Palm Island, the Kimberley, the gulf and the APY we are yet to see the community transformations that particularly see young children given a start early in life. If there is one area where I think everyone would agree, it would be that. Every Australian citizen would believe that a child deserves the best possible start in life. There is no cultural disagreement on that; it is a social norm that transcends our boundaries and goes right around the world.

What we know at the moment is that children are still not going to school in adequate numbers, and there is basically a division about whether this is a responsibility of education or the police. We still have an issue where alcohol is not yet agreed upon between major jurisdictions, let alone communities. My strongest recommendation would be that, fundamentally, alcohol is something that can only be available in any community around the world if it stacks up on social impact. The social impact is quite simple: do kids go to school, are youth getting training and do people have jobs?

If alcohol reaches a point where it prevents that, then it does not cross any bar for social acceptability.

We have an expectation of the community that there is roughly two-thirds workforce participation for healthy adults who are not caregivers. That is a number that every community aspires to. No community anywhere in the world survives if it does not achieve a certain level of workforce participation; it is economic engagement 101. We can talk about delivering services to people, kicking the door in and going in and changing their lives, but as zealous as we get about these programs ultimately there is only so much you can do with services. Ultimately you have to create the opportunities and an environment where people can have a go.

It is very interesting that this year Australia's Aboriginal population will reach 600,000, and 100,000 of those live in what I would call remote and very remote locations. Half a million Aboriginal Australians now live in cities and regional towns, so we are seeing a complete shift in the demographics. With that goes political power, because half a million Aboriginal Australians will be demanding better services where they live—and I do not blame them. But the answer is, if we are going to close the gap, no gap will close without closing the remote gap. Let us not forget that.

There are multilayered and many poorly coordinated services in urban areas. We can work on that one. That is a doable challenge and a problem I want to have. But the problem I do not want to have is no services. The problem I do not want to have is no doctor in a community. The problem I do not want to have is not being able to get good teachers to schools in remote areas. Let us be clear: this is a uniquely Australian challenge. Canada, potentially, has the same challenge but not to the same degree. Australia is the second-most sparsely populated continent in the world, and we have the second-best health system. So we will always have a fantastic challenge: a massive challenge and huge expectations on our workforce to go out and do the tough jobs where most of us would never even conceive of living, let alone working. But we have a health system that will push our professionals to deliver those top-class services. That is the challenge for Australian lawmakers: fine.

But in the end what we need to remember is that we must not pat ourselves on the back, because in the age standardised death rates Aboriginal Australians fall slightly from 2,000 per 100,000 to 1,500 per 100,000—if they are mainly being driven by self identification of mostly healthy urban-living Australians who are identifying as Aboriginal at very high levels. There has been a 45 per cent increase in self identification since 2001. It is not all birth rate; it is self identification. So we need to examine true birth rates and acknowledge that the population in most remote and very remote areas is virtually stagnant. If you look at the one per cent growth in remote Queensland, the two per cent growth in remote Northern Territory, the fall in remote Western Australia and the fall in population in remote South Australia, it is roughly a 100,000-person problem that we have, but a massive challenge that I fear we are not addressing with the current close the gap agenda because we are simply taking national figures.

Perhaps it is a time to look specifically at the remote gap. Perhaps it is time to stop saying we are simply delivering better services in urban areas and, by simple weight of numbers, achieving a closing of the gap. Michael Marmot has done impressive work about early intervention with children. We have the adverse childhood experiences study from California. Everything tells us that the key window of opportunity is between the ages of 18 months and five years. I commend the government for doing their five-year-old health check and for including a biosocial component to it, but the reality is that five years of age is too late. The reality is we have already missed the boat at five years of age. So the question to everyone of us here and at both state and federal levels is: what are we doing for young kids from the age of 18 months?

I, as a former doctor, say it is not easy to diagnose vulnerable kids at 18 months, but you can certainly diagnose vulnerable families at 18 months. You can identify the families living in poverty, with closely spaced children and a caregiver who either has a mental health record or who has a criminal record and has spent time in jail. This is the incredibly challenging cohort we need to identify very early and be unapologetic about delivering great services to them. But at the moment we do not. It is all white noise of health service provision, mostly fee-for-service. You see someone, they go out the door and basically if things fall over it is the next practitioner's problem. There is no continuity. Aboriginal medical services do a fantastic job, but too often they have a state health facility down the road seeing the other half of the population or the half that get really sick and have to be evacuated.

It is time in smaller regional communities to have some cooperation between state and Aboriginal community controlled services. Of course communities love having an AMS, but there is no point if you have half the data held at the Queensland health facility and no collaboration. Maybe we need to get these systems working together. It is something that Medicare Locals cannot do alone. A Medicare Local covering a large expanse of some of these areas is simply too far removed to make a great difference.

The last thing we want in our health system, as good as it is, is another level of bureaucracy trying to talk to other providers. What we need are more people on the ground and an unshackling of local clinicians to tailor services for their community. That all sounds very glib, but, in reality, if we cannot get those opaque state community health services talking to the work that is being done in primary health care that is funded by the federal government, we will just keep having more blame shifting, more gaps and more people suffering those consequences. I strongly urge both sides of this chamber: if we are serious about closing the gap, let's do the following.

Let's agree on earlier benchmarks to measure progress. It is okay to congratulate ourselves on a fall in age standardised death rates, but they have been falling at the same rate since 1998, so the current do-nothing scenario is the current rate of fall. If you look at infant mortality or death rate targets for Close the Gap, we were going to hit them anyway with the existing slopes we were achieving before we started the CTG agenda. We need closer measurements and more frequent measures of success.

Secondly, we need more of a focus on outcomes, not outputs and certainly not inputs. We need to be measuring just how many people quit the fags. There is no point measuring how many public health promotions we roll out or community barbecues we put in or people on the ground delivering services—that is fine; that is a bureaucratic output. I need to know how many people quit smoking. This is vital information for us to know whether we are investing money in the right way, and it is a huge amount of money in Indigenous smoking.

Thirdly, we need to perhaps look at a new Close the Gap agenda item—a new target. I know that there is a target on employment, but there is no target for economic engagement and there is a very, very subtle but important difference. It is not enough to soak up Aboriginal Australians, particularly in remote areas, into jobs that are simply created in community that have no fundamental market basis or foundation behind them. We need to be engaging Aboriginal families in the real economy.

Everyone around the world is comfortable with the idea that, at some stage in your life, you leave your community for training and to get a job. We move. Aboriginal Australians are no different: they did it, too, for generations until we created the welfare trap. So I urge both sides of this chamber: if we are going to direct incentives, we should direct them to people who do the things we want—who go out and seek training or have a go at a job. Provide all the culturally safe services that underpin that, but let's support people who have a go. It is no longer good enough to put people through certificate II training in stockman work when none of them get a job and you train another 15 for a cert. II in stockman work. If we are not going to place these youth and give them the support to move together in cultural groups and work outside of their immediate country, we are not actually solving any problem at all.

Marcia Langton said it so well. She said we have a once in a generation opportunity called the mining boom. Before it slips through our fingers so ephemerally, we need to grasp something from it for Aboriginal Australia. If we are going to transform the wealth under the sands that are fundamentally Aboriginal ground, let's absolutely work in a forward way with mining companies to see what low-skill jobs can be taken up by Indigenous Australians—planning ahead. If there is one operation that plans ahead it is mining. They can tell you their mining time lines for years in advance. With, of course, the potential fluctuation of prices, they can tell you what their operational plans are. Let's help Indigenous Australians who are living in those regions—No. 1. Let's set goals not to pick a few happy faces out of a community and pat ourselves on the back because they are wearing high-visibility jackets; let's actually say that every person who lives in that community was given a chance at a job with that mining firm or that aquaculture operation or something in their region. And, if it is a big community, those youth will have to go further—we accept that. But government's job is to facilitate that, because there is no reason why the kids who leave school at the age of 13 cannot go into training. They are a relatively small cohort, but at the moment we just let RTOs swing through on fortnightly flights, stay there for half a day and sign people up to do training that ends in nothing. We have to have a denominator based approach that leaves no-one behind.

If you are a primary caregiver, there is no reason why you cannot turn up with your own child to the childcare centre, support your own child and possibly be inspired yourself to do some further education. If you are incapacitated, of course, that is fine. If you are a big brother that is actually looking after two or three young blokes that are going off the rails, that is fine, too—there is room for that. But for everyone else, let's give them a shot. At the moment, we are not doing it. We hear about Noel Pearson's good work; we hear about Twiggy Forrest.

There are efforts in Alice Springs but they have massive challenges because Alice Springs is fundamentally the bottom of the waterfall, isn't it? It is where everyone ends up when they cannot live in the community or do not want to live in the hub and spoke. Then you have Alice Springs, which is basically the catch-all. I would put to this chamber: if we have a once-in-a-generation challenge, it is to look after the children that end up in those Alice Springs town camps. Again, do not pick out two or three kids and pat ourselves on the back. I am saying that, if you receive a payment from the state, the expectation of receiving a parenting payment is: be a parent, come along and be part of a childcare centre that engages you.

Ms Hall interjecting—

Yes, I was there last year. Let's engage those children and actually give them the abecedarian model, if that is what the evidence shows us. We know one thing: engage these children roughly 24 hours a week—you do not need a PhD, you do not need a master's degree to do it—engage these children in bilateral, purposeful efforts to start them on the road to literacy and numeracy. Let us overlay a cultural component to it. For goodness sake, put some traditional language into that approach. But there is no excuse to give up and there is no excuse to simply say that the parents could not muster the effort to get those children along to a centre.

If you get a state payment, part of it is taking your kids along and giving them a start in life. That is a basic, fundamental positive social norm. It exists in Cape York. For anyone who has not visited the Aurukun school, I challenge you: go and see young Aboriginal Australians there who will look you in the eye at the age of eight years of age and say, 'I want to be a fireman. I'm going to be a rescue worker. I will be an ambulance worker.' Anyone who says we have lost a generation, I challenge you to go and see what is happening in Aurukun with direct instruction, because at 3 pm those children will still be in class and they will be asking to stay another half hour because they want to achieve their own objectives. The teachers says, 'These kids don't want to finish school until they finish their work.'

We can keep Aboriginal children at school after lunch. This old dogma that no-one in remote communities will stay in school after lunch is a fallacy that belongs in the last century. These kids are like everyone else—they want a shot. When you sit down with an Aboriginal child and sit there with their parents and that young boy or girl reads to their parents, there are tears in the eyes of those parents. I do not care what their background is. That is what the state can offer: a chance at a new future and a different future.

Those kids in Aurukun are going to change it. There is 75 per cent school attendance. We still have issues around the other 25. We have in other parts of Queensland—in Mornington Island, Doomadgee and others—tried extra IT as an inducement, but ultimately our challenge is the afternoon rollcall. Can we engage kids after the breakfast club in the morning where the roll is ticked off? That is a challenge, of course, for school providers in remote areas and to young teachers often straight out of graduation with very little experience. I say to them: you do the toughest job of all, but thank you for doing it. When you go there you are probably taking on one of the great educational challenges. I congratulate you for incorporating traditional culture and language where you can in that syllabus.

Too often we have swung from the extremes—from expunging Indigenous culture from educational curricula to trying to teach nothing but Indigenous language until grade 5. Both extremes were foolish. We can come back and find that middle ground. We can do that and close the gap. We can achieve that in education, we can achieve it and seeing young Indigenous Australians going to university. We will see improvements in infant mortality. We are slowly seeing improvements in death rates. This is a gap that Australia can close. (Time expired)

Christopher Pyne (Sturt, Liberal Party, Shadow Minister for Education, Apprenticeships and Training) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

Is a pleasure to follow the member for Bowman, who has a great passion for Indigenous health, in particular, but all aspects of Indigenous communities. As an eye surgeon and as a person who has volunteered his time in communities throughout Australia, I know that he feels very passionately about the need to close the gap. Closing the Gap is a statement that the Prime Minister makes each year, a report to the parliament, about the progress that we are making as a nation towards improving the welfare of Indigenous Australians and, in particular, Indigenous children. In my case, as the shadow minister for education, that is what I want to focus on in my brief remarks today.

As the Prime Minister said in her statement, education is the key to unlocking the potential of every child. It is a hackneyed term but it remains a truism. For Indigenous children that is just as much the case as for any other child. We heard the Prime Minister in her statement on Closing the Gap talk about national testing results and express her disappointment that the literacy and numeracy results being achieved by Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander students have not closed towards their non-Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peers nearly as much as she would have hoped or, indeed, any of us would have hoped. I know that members on both sides of the House have the same ambition as the Prime Minister that progress should be quicker for Indigenous students and we all share her disappointment that it has not been the case.

We have also seen, as a nation, increasing reports that Australia is falling further behind in international tests for literacy and numeracy in general. For example, the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development—the OECD—Program for International Student Assessment known as PISA revealed a significant difference in the range of scores between the highest and lowest performing students in 2006 to 2009. In 2006, the range of the scores between the highest and the lowest percentiles was narrower for Australian students than the OECD average but in 2009 the range had widened for Australian students and was wider than the OECD average. For Indigenous students that also remains the case.

These results have led many experts to conclude that the gap is widening in Australia for two reasons. Firstly, it is because our most gifted and talented students are falling further behind and, secondly, it is because student achievement from our most disadvantaged students is failing to improve. These PISA results are just one disturbing example about decline in student achievement in this country and governments simply must act to address this gap as a matter of priority. We need to both lift the achievement of our best and brightest students and also improve the outcomes for our most disadvantaged students if we are to reverse this gap. Indigenous students rank disproportionately amongst our most disadvantaged students.

The Prime Minister also highlighted to the parliament that, if we are to make progress in closing the gap, we need to improve school attendance. Most of us instinctively know that student outcomes can only be improved if we actually get these students inside the school gate, as the member for Bowman said in his speech. The Prime Minister foreshadowed in her statement that supporting regular school attendance and improved data collection will be one of the government's priorities in the so-called National Plan for School Improvement. We are yet to see the detail of the government's National Plan for School Improvement or, in fact, their response to the Gonski review.

I know that both the Leader of the Opposition and my colleague in the other place the coalition's Indigenous affairs spokesman Nigel Scullion strongly support the government's intent to improve the way we collect school attendance data so as to give a better picture of how and where we can improve Indigenous school attendance. We do need better information and statistics to inform us of the communities that are improving and those that are not. But we also need to be mindful that any statistical analysis and data collection are efforts that are important but remain behind meaningful, relevant and sophisticated policies to ensure school attendance. We do not want to lose sight of the very purposes of why we need to collect data or overcomplicate and unnecessarily overburden education authorities. I look forward to hearing the detail of the government's response to the Gonski review and the national school improvement plan in due course.

I also want to take this opportunity to share some of the more positive initiatives I have seen in my time as the shadow minister for education which really do give me some hope about progress in closing the gap that can be achieved much faster if governments of all persuasions get the policy settings right in our schools. We know that governments have been ever increasing the amount of funding being spent on students facing particular types of disadvantage but, at the same time, outcomes have been failing to significantly improve. The money is there but the way it is being spent has failed to improve the outcomes of our students. That is not a political statement. It is simply a statement of fact. I know that Labor sometimes are obsessively focused on the amounts of funding and large new spending commitments, but the issue of education is not the lack of funds. The issue is how the funds are being spent.

I believe an equally important subject in addition to how much the government should spend on students with additional needs is how the funding is actually being spent at the grassroots level. A recent analysis of national testing data undertaken by the Centre for Independent Studies has concluded that only two states have seen improvements in meeting Indigenous literacy and numeracy targets. They are Western Australia, following the introduction of independent public schools, and Queensland, through the joint reform efforts of the Cape York partnerships—and the member for Bowman mentioned the work of Noel Pearson. The success of these two states has been attributed to reforms to introduce school autonomy. This means that principals are provided with more flexibility in hiring teachers, budgeting, timetabling and organising their own school programs, as well as introducing what they know will work in their school. Initial results following the implementation of direct instruction teaching, for example, in Cape York, gives us all reason to believe that we can make rapid progress in improving student achievement in remote primary education across the board, as long as we give schools and education authorities the freedom and the opportunity to pursue the course they want to follow.

Direct instruction is an evidence based explicit instruction teaching method, recognised to be highly effective in the teaching of literacy and numeracy to children internationally. The member for Herbert has real experience, as the member who covers Townsville, of the importance of literacy and numeracy in north Queensland. The results in Cape York are showing us that students can catch up to their peers if schools are allowed to have autonomy in developing intensive curriculums and rigorous instruction and through their own strategies can develop a strong work ethos among staff. All of us have met with representatives of the Cape York partnerships over the last few months if not years. The passion and the enthusiasm that those young people and not-so-young people bring to their goal of improving the student outcomes for Indigenous students in Cape York is unmatched by any I have ever seen. In meeting many education authorities across Australia over the last four years, I have never seen the passion and enthusiasm that the Cape York partnerships bring to their role.

In Western Australia, government school principals are also making remarkable progress through independent public schools. I have been to visit many of these schools, where principals and their governing councils have been provided with complete control over their school budgets. It has resulted in providing principals with more opportunity to better spend government funding in a way that has a positive impact on improving outcomes for Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander students and their communities.

So the coalition strongly supports any moves the government makes to improve school attendance. But if we are really to improve educational outcomes for Indigenous students we need strong and meaningful action by this parliament as the government's reforms for school funding progress to ensure that any reforms that are passed are linked to school and principal autonomy. If we do this, maybe both sides can stand before the parliament in future Closing the Gap statements and actually celebrate real student outcomes, where people at the coalface of education have been given the opportunity and the freedom to actually close the gap.

Jill Hall (Shortland, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

I appreciate that the member for O'Connor was intending to speak next in this debate on Closing the Gap. I just really wanted to put some words on the record, and I promise him I will not keep him waiting too long.

Closing the Gap and the Closing the Gap statements that the Prime Minister has made since the first report are very important because, as a nation, we have to ensure that all people living in Australia have equality—and not just equality on the surface but equal access to all the things that everyone in our society enjoys. In this debate I probably speak from a different perspective from that of a lot of other people. I grew up in an area where there were a number of Indigenous Aboriginal students and Aboriginal people living in the community that I lived in. Some of them were my friends, but at the time I was at school there was very definitely a segregation within the town between people who were non-Aboriginal and those who were Aboriginal. I am also in a position where I have two Aboriginal grandchildren and I know that I want them to have the same opportunities in life as my other grandchildren that are not Aboriginal. They are fortunate because they live in an area where they have access to a number of services and opportunities, but there are other areas and other communities in Australia where simply being an Aboriginal child or person means that you do not have the same access to jobs, education, health care and aged care as non-Aboriginal or non-Indigenous people in those communities do.

It was interesting hearing the shadow minister for education speak and I was pleased to hear that he is totally committed to seeing young Aboriginal students get access to the type of education that they need, because education is the key. If young people can have a quality education—if they can get the support that they need in the school system—then they have a much better chance of succeeding in all those other areas of life. Education is the key that unlocks the door to employment. Education is the key that unlocks the door to quality of life. Education is the key that unlocks the door to choices, I believe, by ensuring that young Indigenous students—and I am looking at it from the time that they start preschool—have full access to services that other students have. Prior to even looking at education—I suppose it could be put in terms of education—we need to make sure that from the time they are born they have access to proper health care, immunisation and support services and do not just rely on mainstream services without being given extra assistance. It is not realistic to just expect somebody that lives in a very remote community to be able to access the services that somebody living in the area I live in can access. Even within the community I live in, some people are more able to access mainstream services than others. That is why it is important to have special services for Indigenous Australians—services that they can relate to—and for those services to facilitate their ability to get that education and those jobs that they need in the future. That is why the Smarter Schools National Partnerships program, and putting more money into education, is so important as well.

I know that when the minister and the Prime Minister spoke they spoke at some length about alcohol and alcohol programs in the Northern Territory. It is really important that, if we are serious about looking at issues like domestic violence and community safety, all sides of politics get together and support the alcohol policy in the Northern Territory. I focussed on education in the beginning. Education leads to jobs and jobs lead to financial security, but jobs also lead to a situation where a person has a meaningful role. A job does not necessarily only exist if you go off and work in a mine or a school or a factory. Jobs for Aboriginal and Indigenous Australians should not be just low-skilled jobs, as I heard one previous speaker refer to. Jobs can be within a community and they can perform a more meaningful role. They can be high-level jobs. Jobs for Indigenous Australians should not be restricted by any preconceived ideas we have.

We as the parliament should be providing people with opportunities, not trying to fit people into a mould that we predetermine they fit into. The best way we can achieve this is by making sure that young people get the education and access to education that they need. We also need to ensure that there are proper health programs available in communities throughout Australia, be they in remote, rural or metropolitan areas—of course, we must never forget that the majority of Indigenous people live in metropolitan areas. We need to make sure that the health programs link to providing services, education, immunisation and preventative health care. We need to support the alcohol policy in the Northern Territory.

We need to make sure that there are adequate and appropriate services for all people living in Indigenous communities and older people living in metropolitan areas. When aged-care services are provided they need to be relevant. When I was recently in Alice Springs I visited a number of aged-care facilities and saw some of the services being provided were culturally appropriate for Aboriginal people living in those residential facilities. I also looked at the services that were provided through the community sector. I looked at how the aged-care packages were delivered in remote areas. Similarly, within my own area Awabakal provides specialised aged-care packages and services to Aboriginal people. There is a need for specialised packages.

In closing the gap we need to embrace both mainstream and specialised services. It is all about making sure that all Aboriginal and Indigenous people living in Australia have a true opportunity to enjoy all of the benefits of living in Australian society. This can be done only by us working to close the gap. I congratulate the Prime Minister on her speech and her commitment—and the commitment of the minister—to closing the gap between Indigenous Australians and non-Indigenous Australians.

Tony Crook (O'Connor, National Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

I rise today to address the issue of closing the gap in Indigenous employment levels in my electorate of O'Connor and to express my disappointment that since May 2012 this government has recklessly undermined the progress of established Indigenous employment agencies. In May 1986 the Southern Aboriginal Corporation established its headquarters in Albany in my electorate of O'Connor. In its relatively short history the Southern Aboriginal Corporation has been recognised by both the Nyungar and the wider community as the most appropriate body to represent the interests of the Nyungar people in the Great Southern region.

Since the establishment of the reformed Indigenous Employment Program in early 2009, the Southern Aboriginal Corporation, in partnership with local industry and business, have established a proven track record in placing Indigenous Australians in training and employment under the Indigenous Employment Program. As proof of their success, the Southern Aboriginal Corporation has consistently exceeded key performance indicators set by government for the Indigenous Training Program and employment goals.

In May 2012, with no prior warning, the Southern Aboriginal Corporation were advised by the Department of Education, Employment and Workplace Relations that a moratorium was being placed on new funding for Indigenous Employment Program projects until further notice. With the same communication, DEEWR advised that the new initiative, called the Remote Jobs in Communities Program, was about to begin, targeting 59 very remote Indigenous communities. The locations designated by DEEWR as remote were partly based on Australian Bureau of Statistics maps. However, they excluded some areas previously identified as remote.

On 6 February 2013, as the Prime Minister was making her Closing the Gap statement in this chamber, my office was attempting to explain to our local Southern Aboriginal Corporation why the Indigenous Employment Program funding to their proven and incredibly successful employment program for Indigenous people in the south of my electorate had been halted. The Minister for Indigenous Employment, the Hon. Julie Collins, said in a media release on 20 June 2012 that the Indigenous Employment Program had delivered almost 33,000 work and training commencements in 2011-12, which is 15 per cent higher than the program's target. She also said that the Indigenous Employment Program is one of the most successful programs helping Indigenous Australians to get the training they need to get a job and supporting them to keep it.

In light of these statements by the minister I find it extremely difficult to understand why DEEWR are withholding, or redirecting, funds away from the Southern Aboriginal Corporation for this program. After nine months of inaction, in February 2013 DEEWR advised that the moratorium had been lifted. Their communication again created uncertainty, this time by indicating that there would not now be increasing pressure on Indigenous Employment Program funding and applications would need to be considered with new processes to be advised later in 2013.

With no indication available to date of what DEEWR's new criteria or priorities will be, a local Indigenous employment agency is once again left in limbo, with one extremely valued member of the Indigenous Employment Program team having to be retrenched recently and with the potential for more job losses to follow soon. In addition, potential business partner employers are now also feeling the uncertainty, and the vital momentum and hard-won trust that has been built with these businesses over many years is quickly being lost—once lost, it will be very hard to win back.

There is currently no locally based provision of Indigenous Employment Program services in WA south of the Perth metropolitan area. This is essentially the same region which contains no areas designated as remote, and therefore it will not be part of the Remote Jobs in Communities Program arrangements either. The current situation seems largely inconsistent with the concept of Closing the Gap and is made more alarming by the fact that the area comprising Nyungar country in my electorate has been overlooked for inclusion for support under the new Remote Jobs in Communities Program initiative. There is an obvious concern that the majority of the Indigenous Employment Program funds are now being redirected to areas designated as remote under the new Remote Jobs in Communities Program boundaries. Recently DEEWR advised the Southern Aboriginal Corporation, off the record, that the chances of new Indigenous Employment Program projects being accepted are quite slim because the money is very tight—surprise surprise—and a very large financial commitment has already been made to the Remote Jobs in Communities Program.

At 24.9 per cent, the unemployment rate for Aboriginal people in the Great Southern region of Western Australia is considerably higher than the 17.9 per cent Indigenous unemployment rate across the whole of WA. Individual towns in the region fare even worse, with recent statistics for the regional centre of Katanning showing Indigenous unemployment is at a staggering 27.8 per cent, compared to the non-Indigenous rate of 4.6 per cent. Demographically, the Great Southern region also contains the state's poorest populations, according to the ABS statistics. These figures clearly demonstrate an area of need for additional support. Are we defining remote as the distance removed from a capital city, or are we talking about geographical proximity in relation to economic and employment opportunities? The question becomes more perplexing when you consider the example of South Hedland, with its immediate proximity to the opportunities provided by the resource giants BHP Billiton and Fortescue Metals and by all the associated development. How can South Hedland be considered remote under the DEEWR definition for the Remote Jobs and Communities Program, while smaller towns in the Great Southern, with extremely limited opportunities for employment, are not being included? It appears remoteness has become an arbitrary factor, and one that has very little bearing on the actual access to opportunity.

We have just heard the member for Bowman, Andrew Laming, speak. He made some very valid points and I would urge members of this House, if they are seriously interested in what is happening in the Aboriginal communities, to run their eyes over that speech. The Great Southern region, the area I have just referred to, is 2,000 kilometres away from the furthest part of my electorate out in the lands. I was very fortunate a couple of years ago to attend what they call the Desert Dust Up, where all of the regional and remote schools come together and have three days of sport and education. I was very fortunate to sit on the grass one evening alongside some Aboriginal women who were really concerned about the CDEP program. They were really concerned that their communities were at a total loss with the CDEP program.

The member for Bowman referred to Alice Springs as the bottom of the waterfall; now that is a very good analogy, but I would just like to add a few more communities to that. The town I live in, Kalgoorlie, is also the bottom of the waterfall. What is happening is that young people are leaving remote communities—the control of their parents and their elders has been taken away—and they are coming to towns where they can get access to grog and ganja and can sniff petrol. Out in the lands they are dry camps—we have Opal fuel out there; I would like to thank Warren Snowdon for his efforts in ensuring that Opal fuel is delivered into regional and remote areas of concern. But the simple fact of the matter is that the CDEP program must be reconsidered. The notion of a one-size-fits-all scenario simply does not work. We need to re-empower these remote Aboriginal communities with the CDEP and let the elders in the communities take control of their children. As the member for Bowman said: all of these communities are self-empowering. Give them the opportunity and they can make a huge, huge difference. I would urge the appropriate ministers to reflect on that and reflect that the CDEP program did work. Is it perfect? Possibly not, but I think that there are lots of programs that come out of this building that are not. CDEP was certainly one that was working: it was making a difference. It was giving employment in these remote communities; it was giving the people a sense of purpose and it was giving the communities a sense of purpose. It needs to be reinstated.

I urge the minister to consider that if the current government is truly committed to Closing the Gap surely it makes good sense to support and encourage those local organisations and initiatives which are clearly making a positive contribution towards this goal. The Southern Aboriginal Corporation is one of those, it has been doing it in spades. I would urge that the minister review this.

Ed Husic (Chifley, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

When the Prime Minister gave a statement on Closing the Gap last month, she delivered a report card that showed the government was well on its way to reaching its targets. In fact, in her speech the Prime Minister was able to tick off the first of these Closing the Gap targets—that being providing access to early childhood education to all four-year-olds in remote communities. Former Prime Minister Kevin Rudd outlined this ambitious plan in 2008 and set the target for early childhood education to be achieved in five years. The year 2013 marks the fifth anniversary of the Closing the Gap plan. I am proud that our government has been able to bring this part of the plan to fruition. Providing early childhood education to Indigenous children will have generational benefits. It will help us to achieve longer-term targets like halving the gap in Indigenous year 12 achievement and closing the gap on life expectancy.

Chifley, which sits within Darug lands, has one of the largest urban Aboriginal populations in the country. I have seen firsthand the benefit that early childhood education has brought to my local community through the assistance of the Gillard government. Last month I attended a sod turning for a new Aboriginal child and family centre in Mt Druitt, called Yenu Allowah, which will replace their temporary premises. Yenu Allowah will bring together a range of early childhood health and family support services to improve the overall health and wellbeing of children and improve support for their families.

The Australian government has provided New South Wales with more than $74 million to set up nine Aboriginal child and family centres across the state. Now that we have achieved access to early childhood education for Indigenous children, supporting regular school attendance and engagement will be the challenge of the coming years, building upon this solid foundation.

Chifley electorate has historically suffered poor high school completion rates, not just among Indigenous students but across the broader population. That is why it remains important that we fully implement our national plan for school improvement. In 2008 the Prime Minister set us the challenge of halving the gap in year 12 attainment by 2020. For Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islanders aged between 20 and 24 in 2006 only 47 per cent had achieved year 12 or equivalent at qualification. In the 2011 census that figure had risen to 54 per cent, putting us ahead of schedule in meeting this Closing the Gap target. In that same period I have seen similar improvements in high school completion across the broader student population. I can point to the opening of a number of trades training centres across Chifley as having helped to start building on this figure.

While we have achieved great improvement in closing the gap between Indigenous and non-Indigenous students completing school, the gap remains nonetheless, so there is clearly more work to be done. Among all students the gap remains between advantaged and disadvantaged students, and that can only be properly addressed through our national plan for school improvement. Last month the Prime Minister reported that another target was within sight. That was to halve the gap in mortality rates for Indigenous children under five within a decade, which is probably our most significant of all targets. This has been brought about by significant investment in improving antenatal care, access to public health services, immunisation and neonatal intensive care. Is there a more critical target than this one?

Progress is being made to halve the gap within a decade in employment outcomes between Indigenous and non-Indigenous Australians. The 2011 census figures showed that the number of Indigenous Australians in mainstream employment has risen from 42.4 per cent to 44.7 per cent. Frankly, that is only a slight improvement. Although it is heading in the right direction again, we have to do a hell of a lot more there. There can be no greater role model for young Indigenous children than having a parent, caregiver or older sibling engaged in mainstream employment, with the routine and commitment that goes hand in hand with this. I want to talk about this later.

Given the economic conditions of the past five years and the employment pressures right across the economy, these employment participation results are perhaps much better than they seem. It shows the cost-benefit of having specific Indigenous employment programs and a dedicated minister overseeing them. I applaud the efforts of everyone involved in these programs, which are helping to close the gap. I am extraordinarily proud to be part of a government that his delivering such life-altering results.

Last year I was particularly pleased to showcase a terrific local community organisation named Marist Youth Care to the Minister for Indigenous Employment and Economic Development, Julie Collins, who visited the Chifley electorate. I have had a lot of dealings with Marist Youth Care over many years, and I have a great deal of admiration for the work they do. They are engaged in a broad array of programs aimed at improving circumstances for local Indigenous youth. We had the opportunity to meet with graduates of their Aboriginal Trainee Support Worker program, which is designed to provide guaranteed employment to between eight to 12 long-term unemployed Aboriginal people per year with low education and skill levels. The training program provides Certificate IV training in community services plus on-the-job paid work experience across Marist Youth Care's own services. In-house mentoring is offered to each trainee to overcome barriers and to assist with staying on track. Once the participants have completed their training they are offered permanent employment with Marist Youth Care, which is fantastic. So it is not just the training but the fact that they are then given an opportunity to go into employment within Marist Youth Care. Again, it is a terrific organisation. It is headed up by Cate Sydes and is located in Blacktown, but it also has premises and operations in Whalan in the Chifley electorate. Over the last four years 29 trainees graduated from the program. Nine new trainees started in November 2012 and of those 29 trainees, 23, or 78 per cent, remain employed with Marist Youth Care or have taken their talents as youth or support workers to other organisations. It is a perfect example of the work being done to close the gap in the electorate. Anecdotally, too, when the graduates completed their training and started working with Marist Youth Care, this then helped in families where some of these trainees had seen intergenerational employment firsthand and were now becoming role models. As I mentioned earlier, they are now showing others what can be done with the application of training to improve their skills. Their parents and even their grandparents are finding motivation through the success stories that had been triggered as a result of the fantastic work Marist Youth Care have been doing.

As much as there is good news, there is other news on the other targets that is not so good. We need to redouble our efforts to address these. Halving the gap in reading, writing and numeracy achievements for children within a decade has frankly produced results. The Prime Minister gave the example of year 3 writing, where 78 per cent of Indigenous children reached or exceeded the national benchmark in 2012, a gap of 18 percentage points compared with non-Indigenous students. However, the year 9 results were disappointing, and there is no sugar-coating that: the gap between Indigenous and non-Indigenous students, at 35 per cent, is almost double that of year 3 students.

The Prime Minister reported that some results, such as year 3 reading, actually declined in 2012 after improving between 2008 and 2011. Also, only three out of eight indicators in reading and numeracy are tracking as expected, and the other five will need more work. I think the fact that we are able to frankly and transparently report on success and also on areas where we are not doing so well is absolutely critical in giving people confidence about the way in which government initiatives are operating. I certainly commend the fact that it is so transparent and that Closing the Gap statements are delivered by prime ministers who will seek to hold government departments and other organisations accountable, including ourselves, in reaching success.

In a similar vein, last year I was involved in the inquiry into Indigenous languages in Australia. So many Indigenous languages in this country are just disappearing from day to day and it is a matter of concern. I was involved in the inquiry as a member of the House Standing Committee on Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Affairs. The inquiry found overwhelming evidence that giving recognition to Indigenous languages and incorporating them into mainstream education has an impact on literacy and numeracy learning outcomes for students. While we saw great work around the country in this area, again, more can be done to promote Indigenous languages. The chair, the member for Blair, reflected upon this during his contribution in this section of the discussion. I want to reinforce his words. He said that to keep alive some of the oldest cultures in the world and to better engage Indigenous students there is value in being able to promote Indigenous languages and also see placenames in Australia embrace Indigenous names more and more—as much as you do see this from time to time—so that we can help in our own way to keep languages alive.

The other thing is that the ability to keep these languages alive is important insofar as it provides a critical bridge between generations and also ensures that cultures remain alive. You cannot underestimate the value this plays in being able to maintain identity and ensure engagement with the broader community. I certainly encourage the government to better resource the teaching of Indigenous languages, because you will see the benefits flow from that.

I commend the Prime Minister on the statement and the efforts we are making to help close the gap.