Shayne Neumann (Blair, Australian Labor Party, Shadow Minister for Indigenous Affairs) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

I start by acknowledging the Ngunawal and Ngambri people, the traditional custodians of the land upon which we meet, and pay my respects to their elders. As shadow minister, I am pleased to stand in this place and speak on the achievements we have made together in a bipartisan way and the challenges that are before us as we continue to close the gap between Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people in this country and non-Indigenous peoples.

Six years ago all governments, Labor and Liberal, made commitments to closing the gap in Indigenous disadvantage. It has been a challenging journey, there being roads of red lights and green, tracks leading to both troughs and peaks—but a journey nonetheless embarked on together that has progressed us towards reconciliation. I mention reconciliation as we mark the sixth anniversary of the apology to the stolen generations—a watershed moment.

The Prime Minister's annual Closing the Gap report indicates positive outcomes in access to early childhood education, improvement in literacy rates for young people completing year 12 or an equivalent qualification and improvements in child mortality rates. Sadly, the report reminds us that there are other areas such as education outcomes, employment participation and the like which need further attention. Closing the gap is a journey no single government can make; it is a future that cannot be built alone. It must be a process that respects and includes the voice of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples in a genuine partnership. Change will not come from Canberra or from government department. It comes from participation, consultation and genuine partnerships with Indigenous people, for they are the drivers of change and innovation within their communities. As Les Malezer, the co-chair of the National Congress of Australia's First Peoples, recently said to me: 'Nothing about us without us.' Closing the gap is and must remain a partnership of mutual respect, trust and acknowledgement. We cannot achieve our goals without good policy, program design and delivery and having Indigenous people own the policy program design and delivery.

The Closing the Gap strategy has provided a clear and properly funded framework for governments of all persuasions since 2008. We are on track with the first target—the early childhood target. That means every four-year-old in remote communities having access to the foundation of opportunity in later life through early education. We know that children enjoy the experience of reading and that those who read prosper and do better at school. We know that more needs to be done and can be done. That is why the former federal Labor government built on this achievement with a new Closing the Gap target in June 2013—a new target to ensure that 90 per cent of enrolled children across the country attend a quality early childhood program in the year before they start school—building on previous sustained efforts. We backed that up with a $655.6 million contribution over 18 months to the new National Partnership Agreement on Universal Access to Early Childhood Education, to support progress on the new target. We are on track in relation to that, but more needs to be done. We are on the way to halving mortality rates for Indigenous children under five by 2018.

We have seen improvements in the proportion of Indigenous young people achieving year 12 or an equivalent qualification. We have even seen significant improvements in the reading results for years 3 and 5, but there is more work that needs to be done and now is not the time to cut back our commitment by cutting funding. We cannot cut our way to closing the gap. The report into closing the gap demonstrates the important interrelationships between health, education and employment outcomes for Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people. We cannot address one outcome without working to improve the others. For many Indigenous people, a quality education is the passport out of poverty, but we cannot ignore that improving health outcomes have had a positive impact on education and employment outcomes.

We cannot close the gap on employment, education and health while so many Indigenous people are incarcerated. Employment, education and health outcomes are adversely affected by the interaction of Indigenous people with the criminal justice system and incarceration. Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people are vastly overrepresented in Australia's juvenile and criminal justice systems. Our first people are among the most imprisoned people in the world. An Indigenous person is 15 times as likely as a non-Indigenous Australian to experience incarceration. While making up just three per cent of our population, Indigenous people account for about a quarter of the adult population in prison in this country. These statistics are horrifying, but they are worse for juvenile incarceration rates: a juvenile Indigenous Australian is up to 25 times as likely to be incarcerated as a juvenile non-Indigenous Australian.

Many wonderful people around the country are dedicated to addressing these statistics through implementing justice programs and mentoring, education and employment programs. The Gold Coast Titans rugby league club in Queensland has a program called Titans 4 Tomorrow, which addresses school retention, career aspiration, mentoring and case management for disengaged youth and youth who are experiencing the criminal justice system. Joshua Creamer, the chair of the Gold Coast Titans board and himself an inspirational Indigenous barrister, has made an incredible commitment to closing the gap. Likewise, the Brisbane Broncos have a mentoring program that involves Indigenous young people in year 12 and participating in schools—and I have seen examples of this as a local federal MP as well. The Gold Coast is not the only place where this work is being done; it is being done in Brisbane, Ipswich and elsewhere. The Broncos CEO, Paul White, is a great supporter of the Commonwealth-funded Learn Earn Legend program. In the last parliament I acted as chair of the House of Representatives' ATSIA committee. The committee recommended the extension of the Learn Earn Legend program to the lower years of high school and also into primary school. That committee's report, Doing Timetime for doing: Indigenous youth in the criminal justice system, found that sport and recreational activities were a way to deflect youth from antisocial behaviour and self-harm. I have personally seen that in my electorate in the work done by the Ipswich Jets Rugby League Club towards a reconciliation action plan and a commitment to strategic partnerships through the community. I have seen Jonnine Ford, a prisoner throughcare officer, working with the Jets, with programs through the local Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander legal service and with the Southern Queensland Correctional Centre to develop strategic partnerships for Indigenous youth. The Labor party remains committed to the justice targets which we need in order to close the gap. I urge the Prime Minister and the Minister for Indigenous Affairs to solidly commit to those justice targets and develop those with us.

Ipswich, my home city, proudly hosts the hard-fought Murri Rugby League carnival for men and women every year. A State of Origin carnival takes place between the Murri and Koori peoples—between Queensland and New South Wales. I find it striking that both males and females who participate have to undertake mandatory health checks before taking the field. These health checks are undertaken by Selwyn Button and his team at QAIHC. This is an innovative and effective strategy for engaging Indigenous people about their health and social wellbeing. I commend the program and I urge the government to continue it into the future. We are making investments in the future which need to address eye difficulties across the country. We have seen Third World disease, in terms of eye afflictions, rob Indigenous people of their sight. Trachoma is a terrible disease which has affected a large number of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Island Islander people. We need a commitment to eliminate this scourge in Australia by 2020.

I cannot speak of closing the gap without mentioning alcohol management. There has been a lot of media attention in relation to this, and alcohol abuse devastates the lives of many Indigenous families in this country. It is the centre of dysfunction and disadvantage for many Indigenous people. When we were in government we put in place a comprehensive approach to tackling alcohol abuse—one that addressed harm from alcohol, reduced alcohol supply and supported communities to drive local solutions. Our efforts resulted in a six-year decline in alcohol consumption in the Northern Territory. Tragically, the rivers of grog are flowing again. In the last year, alcohol-related violence in the Northern Territory increased by 15 per cent and domestic violence by 21 per cent. Currently there are 23 alcohol management plans ready and waiting for the government's approval, and I call on the minister and the Prime Minister to take action and approve these plans.

Integral to closing the gap is a recognition of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples as our first people in our Constitution. Labor is committed to pursuing meaningful change in the Constitution—change that unites and reflects the hopes, dreams and aspirations of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people. The change must recognise the unique history, language and culture of these peoples. The change must reflect our nation's fundamental belief in equality and nondiscrimination. I want to acknowledge the work of Recognise, a people's movement to bring all Australians along on this journey towards reconciliation. As an Aboriginal man recently told me, Australia loses nothing but gains 40,000 years of history and culture by recognising the special place of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people in our Constitution. I applaud the government's commitment to continuing the work of Recognise in the Closing the gap report.

Closing the gap needs to be undertaken. It seems a long way off, but there are just 17 reports to come. We cannot take our foot off the pedal now; we must redouble our efforts. Labor remains committed to a new Closing the Gap target for higher education, justice and access to disability services. I urge the government to continue that journey with us. (Time expired)

Mal Brough (Fisher, Liberal Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

At the outset I commend both the Prime Minister and the Leader of the Opposition on their addresses to the parliament yesterday and their quite clearly genuine commitment to this process. I would like to also reiterate, make very clear and put on the public record in this place my strong and unequivocal support for appropriate recognition of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people in our Constitution. My hope and wish is that the Australian public come together as one and celebrate the 40,000 years of Indigenous heritage on this land.

I also want to acknowledge, I guess, a journey that I have been on. I have always been one who very much believes in practical steps to overcome practical problems, and I will delve into those a little more in a moment. I felt—and I think that perhaps I was correct in this—that the weight was too much on symbolism. Whilst important measures such as walking across the Harbour Bridge were powerful measures of symbolism, they certainly did not help a child hurt in a town camp in Alice Springs tonight or at any other time. But I have come to realise that they are important. They are not a solution—and those Australians who perhaps have thought they were enough are wrong—but they should not be derided or belittled. Hence I think that the contribution that both the Leader of the Opposition and the Prime Minister made yesterday, in committing both sides of the parliament to ensuring that there is appropriate recognition, is a major step forward. It allows us to get on with the business of helping our fellow Australians, regardless of the colour of their skin, to prosper in this wealthy nation of ours.

An enormous amount of time and effort has been expended in the last little while on education, and that is appropriate. I had the privilege of running a national charity called Bluearth in my absence from this place. We worked with black and white right across this country, from the most remote parts of Australia to the capital cities. It was a human movements program that built resilience and respect and taught people how to have confidence in themselves and accept challenges. It helped kids to go to school, to stay at school, to be connected and to enjoy their school experience. We have heard the Prime Minister and others—including, for argument's sake, the member for Blair, the shadow minister, just now—using words and phrases such as 'hopes', 'dreams' and 'aspirations'. We heard the member for Blair say how the Labor Party in their last term instigated a program of early childhood learning. All of these things are positive. But they are missing a crucial element that no-one is talking about.

I would like everyone in this place and anyone who listens to this today to consider this circumstance. I am a father and now a grandfather. You say to your children: 'An education is important. It equips you for life. It gives you a great array of opportunities that may not be there if you do not study, if you do not get decent grades, if you don't get a tertiary education or a vocational education.' But why do we do that? We want to get those things so that we can have personal self-esteem; so that we can contribute to our own wellbeing and the wellbeing of our family; so that we can aspire to own our own home, or at least to live in a rented place that we choose to have; or perhaps so that we can own our own business, small or large.

Now let me put you into the circumstances of the people at Billiluna or Wadeye—or at Aurukun, as was spoken about yesterday. You can go and do your early years education. You can learn a passion for reading, and that is wonderful. You can go into primary school and high school. But, if you actually aspire to remain in the community that you love, were brought up in and have a connection with through your Aboriginal or Torres Strait Islander heritage, you cannot have anything but a limited public-sector job. There are no private sector jobs. I think this is something that is so foreign to most Australians that they do not understand that it comes down to land tenure issues.

Unless we are going to grapple with those issues that allow microbusinesses to commence and with what makes Australia great—which is for people to be able to become educated, to fight for themselves, to become independent, to start their own business or to work as an apprentice and get a job, and then to make their own way in the world—those opportunities will not exist, as they do not exist now in hundreds and hundreds of communities throughout Australia. For instance, Wadeye is a community of 3,000 people. There are no commercial bakers. There is no commercial real estate agent. There are no commercial restaurants. There are no commercial businesses, full stop. So where are the microbusiness opportunities? Where are the apprenticeship opportunities? Yes, there are opportunities for Landcare, for government jobs, or for working in government-funded aged care or child care. But, if we relied upon those opportunities in mainstream society, most young Australians would never get a chance.

So I am very much confronting the parliament with the reality that what we have done is to lock over 150,000 Australians out of our economy. We tell them to love their land, to respect their people, to want to be part of their community, to grow their community and to get an education, but we then deny them the rights that the rest of us have: to aspire to own a home in their own community, to invest through their own hard work and the sweat of their brow in their own community, and to have a job or, better still, to start their own business. They simply cannot do it. So, until we confront the reality that the hopes and the aspirations cannot be realised in these communities, we are actually setting people up for failure, or we are saying to them: 'Leave the place that you are connected with.' These are the hard realities. These are the harsh realities. But these are the missing elements that we are not confronting.

There are a myriad of things which all good members in this place will touch on in this debate: heartfelt, needed, committed—it is all there. But we need to actually grapple with decisions that were taken in good faith. I take you to the APY lands and the celebration that that community had when they won the right to have inalienable freehold on a piece of land bigger than the Northern Territory. They thought that was going to help them reach their hopes and aspirations, but it has not, because no-one can own the land—it is owned collectively, so there can be no value for an individual that comes out of the land, and therefore banks will not invest in them. So we trap people. We trap people in a false dream, and then we wonder why, at 13, 14 and 15, young people leave the education system—because, if they have seen someone that has aspired to and gone through to year 12, they do not see them getting anywhere; they cannot see the connection, unless they have moved away.

So I ask parliamentarians collectively to open their eyes, their ears and their minds to the need for us to have an honest dialogue with these communities. When you go there, which I have done as much if not more than any person in this place, as a parliamentarian and in post-parliamentary life, what you will hear is: 'We want to work. We want a job. We want our own home.' But the understanding that that is simply not a reality in their communities is lacking.

I put the challenge out there: recognise that free enterprise is essential—that the people of Aurukun, Willunga, Wadeye, Mimili, Balgo and myriads of other communities will not have the chances enjoyed by other young Australians who get a preschool education and can aspire to live in their own communities. Let us start that dialogue and let us be honest with people now. The challenge is long, but we should never put it off to the next generation. More can be done and should be done today to make sure that justice reigns supreme in this nation for all of us.

Cathy McGowan (Indi, Independent) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

I am proud to be the member for Indi and to represent the traditional owners and custodians of Indi's valleys, hills and plains. I would like to congratulate the Prime Minister on his powerful speech yesterday and acknowledge his commitment to closing the gap.

Prior to my election, following meetings with Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander constituents, I made the following commitment, which I will read to you and ask that it be recorded in Hansard:

I respect the traditions and culture of Australian Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people. I acknowledge their past mistreatment, and commit to involve and consult on the big issues that unite Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander communities across Indi.

1. I commit to form an advisory group comprised of Aboriginal people from Indi's communities to assist in providing advice to me on issues such as health, education, and employment.

2. I commit to make a public statement to recognize and acknowledge past mistreatments to the stolen generations, their families and communities as a result of the laws and policies of successive parliaments and governments that have inflicted sorrow on our First Australians, the Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people.

3. I commit to acknowledge the traditional owners of the land on which I meet and pay my respect to elders both past and present.

When the Commonwealth Mental Health Policy is reviewed in 2014, I will work to include recognition of the unique needs and opportunities for improved service delivery for rural and Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people.

The Closing the Gap initiative is active in Indi. Our health services have been particularly active in working towards the ambitious targets that have been set. Many people are doing fine work, including the Central Hume Primary Care Partnership, Ovens and King Community Health Services, Northeast Health and Women's Health Goulburn North East.

Workers tell me that the greatest need is for recognition and acceptance. One example I would share with you is a sign at the entrance to the hospital in Benalla, which has a population around 8,000 and is two hours north of Melbourne on the Hume Highway. As is highlighted by the Closing the Gap initiative, many barriers exist for Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people in accessing health care. The simple act of welcoming—placing a sign at the front door that acknowledges and welcomes Aboriginals and Torres Strait Islanders to the hospital—is an important first step towards improving health outcomes in their community.

Another hospital, Northeast Health in Wangaratta, has also erected welcoming plaques, commissioned a local Aboriginal artist to create an artwork that now hangs in their emergency department, and held a smoking ceremony in the emergency department. Northeast Health has appointed an Aboriginal liaison officer whose job it is to make contact with any Aboriginal or Torres Strait Islander patients presenting to the ED or to other services and to follow up with them to check if assistance can be provided in accessing any further services. Collecting data is essential. There were 82 occasions of service for patients identifying as Aboriginal presenting to the hospital's emergency department during the period November 2012 until April 2013.

Women's Health Goulburn North East is working towards the target of halving mortality rates for Indigenous children under five by providing reproductive health, wellbeing and pregnancy support for young Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander women living in the Hume region. I am very proud of the work of hospitals and healthcare providers in my region in making hospitals more accessible to everybody.

In Mansfield, the members of the Mansfield district Indigenous Network are doing great work. Today the network has organised the commemoration of National Sorry Day. They will release a community plan, to be presented to the Mansfield District Council, which will outline their strategies to achieve their key goals: to have a place to come together, to promote acceptance and recognition, to support Indigenous families and youth, and to have a successful network for our community. Community groups such as Mansfield district Indigenous Network provide the local and community leadership that is essential for achieving the Closing the Gap targets in our communities.

There is a great preschool in Wodonga, run by the Mungabareena Aboriginal Corporation, which connects local Indigenous families to the education system. It takes up to 30 young children at the three- and four-year-old level and is able to respond to movements in community as Aboriginal families come and go from Wodonga. It provides transport for the children to and from the preschool and provides morning and afternoon tea. I am proud to report that recently it has been assessed by the Department of Education as exceeding in all areas. Mungabareena Aboriginal Corporation are also empowering their community and planning for the future of the preschool by encouraging local members of the Indigenous community to train as childcare workers and supporting their learning by providing traineeships for them within the preschool.

The Prime Minister rightly highlighted that around the country communities are struggling to achieve the targets of halving the gap in reading, writing and numeracy. Aboriginal people in my electorate have told me that education is a key priority for them. The reality is that if we close the literacy and numeracy gap we will have a much better chance of closing other gaps too; education is key.

Of course, we still have much to do in achieving the Closing the Gap priorities, but I am pleased to report that in my electorate the will is there and people are working actively and creatively to close the gap in our communities. In Indi we have committed to take action to close the gap. Recognition of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people in the Constitution is something we must achieve. The Joint Select Committee on Constitutional Recognition of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Peoples, chaired by Mr Ken Wyatt MP, has met twice in order to achieve this recognition. I have spoken to the honourable member and have invited him to come to Indi to hold a meeting in the coming months.

I want to acknowledge and thank the Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people of Indi for their patience, their tolerance and their commitment to reconciliation. Thank you.

Fiona Scott (Lindsay, Liberal Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

I rise to echo the sentiments of the Prime Minister yesterday when he presented the Closing the Gap address to the parliament. I would particularly like to acknowledge the commitment to Indigenous affairs and emphasise the importance the federal coalition has placed on this issue. I am also pleased to note that the Prime Minister has delivered on his election commitment to move the responsibility of Indigenous programs to the Department of the Prime Minister and Cabinet. Together, the Prime Minister and the Minister for Indigenous Affairs are making significant inroads in delivering for Aboriginal people right across Australia. On 10 August 2013 the then Leader of the Opposition, now the Prime Minister, said:

What that requires is a new engagement between black and white people so that we can walk forward arm in arm as brothers and sisters.

This reminds me of a welcome to country of one of my local Darug men, Uncle Gary. He said: 'Australia is like a piano: you have white keys, you have black keys, but you only get truly beautiful music when you use all the keys together.' I believe the Prime Minister and Uncle Gary make excellent points as to what we as a community can achieve if we all work together.

I was pleased to see Warren Mundine, chair of the Prime Minister's Indigenous Advisory Council, attend the prime ministerial address. I am so proud to be part of the Abbott government, which seeks a truly bipartisan approach to this issue and is not just a government dictating to Aboriginal people but asking Aboriginal people to help us lead the way. By working together, we hope to find a pathway to truly solve our collective national challenges.

Dreamtime theology often speaks in terms of yesterday, today and tomorrow. By acknowledging our past and working in our present, we can unite for a better tomorrow. I am confident the Prime Minister's Indigenous Advisory Council will ensure that the Indigenous programs will achieve real, positive change in the lives of Aboriginal people everywhere and move Australia one step closer to its Closing the Gap targets. It is because of all of these elements that the Closing the Gap initiative is so vitally important.

I would like to recognise the efforts of the previous parliament in beginning the step to close the gap. The target to halve the gap in child mortality within a decade is on track to be met. As a nation, we are close to meeting the target of five per cent of remote children enrolled in preschool and we should soon know what percentage are actually attending as well as just enrolled. The target to halve the gap in year 12 attainment by 2020 is also on track to be met. These really are wonderful achievements, but there is still so much more work to be done.

I am concerned by other details of the 2014 Closing the Gap report. Particularly, there has been little improvement towards halving the gap in reading, writing and numeracy. As an extension of this, Indigenous employment has unfortunately slipped backwards. Furthermore, there has been almost no progress in the improvement of lowering the life expectancy gap that exists for the Aboriginal community. I say 'as an extension' because, as members of this parliament, we would all be too aware that it is hard for anyone to find work, particularly without a basic education. As the Prime Minister stated yesterday, it is also hard to live well without a job.

It does not take much to realise that each of the targets we have not improved on are interconnected and can be advanced over the long term by looking at ways to engage Indigenous children in education. That is why I was pleased that the Prime Minister moved to add a seventh target to end the gap between Indigenous and non-Indigenous school attendance within five years. I believe all Australian children, disadvantaged Indigenous children in particular, deserve access to a robust curriculum providing the best possible education to enable young Australian people to have the best start to their best possible life and to forge their best possible future. But, by doing so, they will also enrich our nation in return.

Finally, I would like to add that slogans like 'Close the Gap' are meaningless if they do not actually deliver real outcomes in closing the gap. They must address the key challenges faced by these communities in our cities, in our towns and in our rural and remote regions. As the Prime Minister stated, it is important to turn good intentions into better outcomes. The fact that this parliament is committed to delivering real solutions and engaging Indigenous leaders and communities in meaningful discussion fills me with confidence that this government, and this parliament, can deliver policy and initiatives that will make significant inroads in achieving the final three and new targets to in fact close the gap.

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

Thank you, Mr Deputy Speaker Goodenough, and congratulations on your appointment as Deputy Speaker. I would like to commence by acknowledging the traditional owners of the land and their elders past, present and future. In addition, I would like to congratulate the Leader of the Opposition, the Prime Minister and every member who has spoken in this debate on the contributions they have made to this really important issue, an issue and a journey that started six years ago to close the gap between Indigenous and non-Indigenous Australians.

It has been a very long journey to get to where we are today. It has been a journey that over the decades has been strewn with many hiccups along the way. But I think that there is a real resolve within this parliament—on both sides of this parliament—to see that the gap is closed. It is not good enough just to have that resolve within the parliament; there needs to be a resolve in the partnership between Indigenous and non-Indigenous Australians to see that this gap is closed and that we do it together. The important thing about it is that it is a partnership between non-Indigenous Australians and Indigenous Australians. If we honour and work towards that partnership I think we will have fantastic outcomes.

I would also like to associate myself with the constitutional changes that the Leader of the Opposition mentioned yesterday and the additional target that the Prime Minister has also identified. In doing so, I acknowledge that these things are important for moving towards closing the gap.

In looking at the Closing the Gap statement that we have for 2014, it is interesting to note that it is a much smaller document. To a degree, I think that reflects the distance we have come and the fact that the challenges are still there. We are reporting on what has been achieved and we are also looking at what still needs to be achieved. I also think there is another issue, and that is that the gaps that exist for Indigenous Australians are different in relation to remoteness and non-remoteness. But—and I think this is a really important point to make—no matter whether an Indigenous person lives in a remote area or in a metropolitan area, there is still a difference. There is still a difference in health and mortality, there is still a difference in educational outcomes and there is still a difference in employment—and that has to change.

With remoteness there are very special issues. There are issues in the Northern Territory that surround access to services. It is much harder to deliver a health package in a remote community than it is to deliver a health package to an Indigenous Australian who lives in my community. There are still issues around the types of packages and access to those packages in a metropolitan area—like the one that I am in—and in a remote area. While there is a still a difference in health outcomes for Indigenous Australians, we have a lot of work to do. This report particularly identified that we have not made any inroads in that area since the last report. So we have that challenge to get out there and do that.

One of the first inquiries I was involved in in this parliament was looking at Indigenous health. That really graphically demonstrated to me the differences and the challenges facing Indigenous Australians in the area of health: they were sicker, they died earlier and they had many other challenges. Those challenges are still there but, because of the resolve and the will of this parliament to work with Indigenous Australians in that strong partnership, there has been a change take place.

But I think the greatest key to change is education. Education is the key to everything. As long as there is such a big difference between Indigenous and non-Indigenous Australians in terms of educational outcomes and access to education, that will be reflected in poorer health and employment outcomes. In my electorate, the schools that have a higher number of Indigenous students are the schools that achieve the poorest results in the NAPLAN tests. A number of programs have been put in place to address those differences, including National Partnerships programs, and I think those have gone a long way towards addressing some of those inequalities. I encourage the government to continue with those National Partnerships programs. I think that the investments there, as well as simply the word 'partnerships', help to address the inequalities.

In terms of access to education by Indigenous Australians, there has been an improvement in preschool education and in the number of students that receive their HSC. But it is still not good enough. I read a moment ago about the percentage of students that attain their HSC. In remote areas it is 31 per cent, and in non-remote areas it is 54 per cent. That is not acceptable. Those percentages are reflected in the levels of employment that Indigenous and non-Indigenous people enjoy. I listened with great interest to the member for Fisher's contribution to the debate, which highlighted the lack of choice in employment, and the lack of employment, in remote areas. Twiggy Forrest has done a lot in that space, offering people employment in remote areas. But there is still a significant difference between remote areas and metropolitan areas in terms of Indigenous employment, and there is still discrimination against Indigenous Australians when it comes to employment. It is not good enough. We still have a lot of work to do.

Issues around closing the gap are issues of human rights—issues that I know every member of this parliament commits themselves to. One of the most important things that we can achieve is constitutional recognition. We must get that right. We need to recognise the history and the culture of Aboriginal people. We need to work towards reconciliation. Constitutional recognition could be a starting point. It could pull Indigenous and non-Indigenous people together to form a stronger partnership that recognises the contributions of Indigenous Australians while, at the same time, giving us a point to work from to undertake the practical changes that we need to make. I commend the report to the House and commit to working towards closing the gap.

Wyatt Roy (Longman, Liberal Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

It is great to follow the member for Shortland. While we do not often agree, I think that we can agree that there is genuine resolve in this parliament to close the gap. While we in this place are often criticised for the adversarial nature of proceedings, a common sense of purpose surrounds the remedying of myriad inequities between Indigenous and non-Indigenous Australians.

The task is enormous and demands strong leadership. The 44th Parliament is indeed fortunate to have a Prime Minister who has demonstrated in both word and deed that closing the gap is personal. His update to the House, which marks the sixth anniversary of the Closing the Gap plan, was largely not a pretty report. Nonetheless, the Prime Minister dispensed the raw facts with honesty, with humility and with insight. He spoke from the heart with a clarity and conviction sprung from putting one's shoulder to the wheel.

In his former role as shadow minister for Aboriginal affairs, he resolved to not be just another 'seagull'—the pejorative Aboriginal term for a meddlesome interloper. He filled three weeks in 2008 as a teachers aide in Coen, 10 days the following year as a truancy helper in Aurukun, four days in 2011 on bush carpentry detail near Hope Vale and another four days in 2012 assisting the renovation of the Aurukun school library. Later this year the Prime Minister will spend a week in east Arnhem Land, focusing our nation's eyes in a way that will quite rightly ask questions of all of us in respect of a truly reconciled Australia. The Prime Minister's hands-on approach is complemented by an intimate investment in Indigenous policy. That is why he moved Indigenous Affairs to within the Department of Prime Minister and Cabinet. That is why he has enunciated his desire to become a Prime Minister for Indigenous affairs. As part of this concentrated effort his parliamentary secretary, the Hon. Alan Tudge, is working closely with the Indigenous affairs minister, Senator the Hon. Nigel Scullion.

I now turn to my electorate of Longman. I would like to place on the record a recent visit by the Prime Minister's parliamentary secretary for a day of briefings with local Indigenous leaders and social and justice workers. The Parliamentary Secretary to the Prime Minister is another exemplar of lived experience on Indigenous affairs. Between 2006 and 2009, Alan was deputy director of Noel Pearson's Cape York Institute for policy and leadership and became intricately involved in designing the Cape York Welfare Reform trial. In Longman the highlight of his busy round of engagements with my region's proud Indigenous community was a tour of a not-for-profit Aboriginal owned and run bulk-billing medical centre called Murri Medical—a pioneer clinic run by and for Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people without government funding.

Located in the hub of the electorate at Caboolture, Murri Medical was established two years ago by directors Jennie Anderson and Anita Kemp. Specialising in Indigenous health and chronic disease, it has accumulated more than 5,800 patients. The business model sees Indigenous community groups and corporate and personal donors providing funds, while Medicare rebates supply the much-needed cash flow. Murri Medical is renowned for its friendliness, its high standards of service and thoroughness and outreach capacity, with clinical visits to schools and outlying communities. The personal touch even extends to transporting patients to and from appointments in Caboolture where they would otherwise not be able to attend.

I can report that the parliamentary secretary was more than impressed. In fact, it is his hope that Murri Medical's achievements can inspire the establishment of more privately owned Indigenous healthcare centres with an ability to make strong, trusting and lasting connections, and relationships that result in patients attending to their health requirements in a timely and supported manner. Alan said:

Murri Medical has been started by two entrepreneurs off their own bat. They haven't had government funding and are delivering terrific results … we'd like to learn in terms of what they're doing right—

he added—

so it can potentially be replicated elsewhere in the country.

The parliamentary secretary had more to say about the nexus between health, education and employment. He told local media that Murri Medical's self-sustaining business model and its emphasis on preventative health was in perfect step with the government's plan to improve the lives of Indigenous Australians. He said:

They've developed a huge number of clients within a small amount of time and this will hopefully encourage other indigenous entrepreneurs. But most importantly, the service is working. And if people are healthy, they’re more likely to have success in school and more likely to succeed in work.

The Prime Minister articulated that nothing short of dramatic improvement was required in the school attendance and workforce participation of Indigenous Australians. While visiting Longman, his parliamentary secretary agreed that lifting employment rates was a cornerstone of the coalition's path towards closing the opportunity gap between Indigenous and non-Indigenous Australians.

Around half of all working-age Indigenous Australians receive welfare payments as their main source of income. We must change that because, if you have a job, it does much to ameliorate other lifestyle issues. A review into Indigenous training and employment programs, headed by Fortescue Metals chairman, Andrew Forrest, is due to report to the Prime Minister in April. Meantime, the government has already made some progress, including investing in new training centres for Indigenous jobseekers where there is a guaranteed job at the end. The parliamentary secretary put it this way:

Many Aboriginal people have five or 10 certificates to their name, but can’t get a job—through training that—

eventually—

leads to nowhere. We want to end this training for training’s sake.

I invited the parliamentary secretary to see firsthand the great local success of Murri Medical, because I am part of the coalition team committed to a better Australia for all Australians.

I would like to take this opportunity to particularly congratulate the wonderful founders of Murri Medical, Jennie and Anita. They are two of the most amazing human beings I have ever met. For them, showcasing to our Canberra decision makers such an outstanding community facility helps inform a government that is serious about tackling Indigenous disadvantage. I am proud, as part of this parliament, to be part of that positive change for our entire nation.

Michael McCormack (Riverina, National Party, Parliamentary Secretary to the Minister for Finance) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

I commend the member for Longman for his wonderful speech. I know that he, like all of us, not just on the coalition side but on the opposition and crossbenches as well, share the view that we need to do more to close the gap. I also commend the member for Shortland. Like the member for Longman, it is not too often that I agree with the member for Shortland, but I think she made a very pertinent point when she said that it is not just about remote Aboriginal Australians; it is also about regional Aboriginal Australians, as well as—and this is an important point she made—urban Aboriginal Australians. I am sure she was making very clear the fact that many Aboriginal Australians live in urban areas. Like those in regional areas—the ones I represent—and certainly like those in remote areas, there is a great disparity in health, education and certainly life expectancy. We need to do more. As a government we need to do more; as a parliament we need to do more; as a nation we need to certainly bridge the great divide. I am glad to say that we are making improvements. We are getting on with the job as a government, as a parliament and as a nation to do just that.

This today is an important and historic occasion. It is an important and historic day. It has been six years since the federal parliament's apology to the stolen generation—our First Australians. I stand here today as the representative—and the proud one too—of the Riverina in the federal parliament. It is the home of those wonderful Wiradjuri people, whose names, traditions and cultures run throughout my electorate. On this day six years ago, the parliament and the nation stopped. It stopped to listen to the then Prime Minister, Kevin Rudd, acknowledge that the policies of successive governments, which resulted in the stolen generations, must never happen again. It stopped to listen to the Prime Minister apologise and say sorry. The word 'sorry' meant so much. It was a word for which Aboriginal people had waited generations to hear, ever since European colonisation of Australia. The word 'sorry' is a very powerful word.

The apology to Australia's stolen generations was an important step forward in our nation's history. As I said to the House upon the retirement of the former Prime Minister who delivered that historic apology, it is that apology which meant so much to Aboriginal people and, certainly, the Wiradjuri people. We must always remember this.

The Prime Minister, Tony Abbott, paid tribute to former prime ministers Rudd and Gillard for the legacy which is before this place today: an annual report from the Prime Minister of the nation about closing the gap in disadvantage between Aboriginal and non-Aboriginal Australians. I also commend the words and the bipartisanship of the opposition leader when he responded to the Prime Minister's statement. I certainly join the Prime Minister in commending the former member for Griffith for this initiative—for the annual Closing the Gap statement—and note that this issue is one on which there is no disagreement, none whatsoever. It is incumbent upon all of us to work towards closing the gap in disadvantage and ensuring that all Australians, wherever they live and from whatever background, can reach their full potential in this country—whether they are in remote, regional or urban Australia.

The Prime Minister's speech yesterday was an honest assessment of the government's target to halve the gap in child mortality within a decade, as well as the targets to increase enrolment in preschools and year 12 attainment within Aboriginal communities. I share the Prime Minister's sentiments in acknowledging that we are on track to meet our targets of 95 per cent of remote children enrolled in preschool and to halve the gap in year 12 attainment by 2020.

As well as praising the areas in which the Commonwealth is on track to keep its 2020 targets, the Prime Minister's speech this week was also a poignant reminder that there is still much work to be done. The little progress in closing the gap in life expectancy, as well as the levels of literacy and numeracy, is something that we all must focus on as we head towards 2020. So, too, the statistics on employment demonstrate that, whilst we are achieving some positive results in some areas, the work is far from finished.

In the other place yesterday, the Minister for Indigenous Affairs, Senator Nigel Scullion, also highlighted that the challenge before us is great. The Council of Australian Governments report showed that school attendance is in fact getting worse over time in some areas. In fact, the minister said that it is a disgrace—and he is right. The government has three policy priorities in closing the gap, towards which we must all work. They are: getting children to school, getting adults into work and providing safe communities.

Following the election, the Prime Minister, for whom the area of Indigenous affairs is very close to his heart, declared that he would be 'a Prime Minister for Indigenous affairs', with a cabinet minister in Senator Scullion from the Northern Territory, who understands exactly the challenges our nation faces in many Aboriginal communities, and for whom the knowledge of these challenges is not new. The minister is a man with pragmatism, bipartisanship and determination to listen to and to understand the needs of Aboriginal people, regardless of their backgrounds and location. He is a good man, Senator Scullion, and he is getting on with the job. I know that he has visited the Riverina many times since I have been the member, and has spoken to the Wiradjuri people in a way that they feel is really heartfelt and genuine. Senator Scullion, in all his endeavours in the portfolio area, is very genuine and very heartfelt. He certainly has that capacity to do some very good things in helping to close the gap.

This is an area in which we must all work diligently, because this is a challenge for all of us. I commend the work of the previous government, particularly the member the Jagajaga, Jenny Macklin, for her work in this area. We are all on the same page in working towards closing the gap in disadvantage between Aboriginal and non-Aboriginal Australians. It is an area in which we must work in every town, every bush community, every regional town and city—in every community and in every Aboriginal nation.

We are very fortunate in the Riverina electorate, within the Wiradjuri nation, to have many proud and proactive Aboriginal elders and leaders, including Aunty Isabel Reid of Wagga Wagga, whom I have spoken about in this place before. She is a leader and someone who readily acknowledges that closing the gap requires work from all of us. She is such a proud and diligent worker that she was aptly named Wagga Wagga's citizen of the year at this year's Australia Day awards. At 81 years of age nothing can temper Aunty Isabel's enthusiasm or determination. She is a remarkable woman. She is a passionate advocate in favour of constitutional recognition of our first Australians—something which I also firmly agree with. Upon accepting the 2014 Citizen of the Year award, Aunty Isabel told the reception at the Civic Theatre in Wagga Wagga, 'We are moving forward but we still have a long road in the country.' That is what she said, and she also added that she was pleased an Indigenous elder was being acknowledged through this year's Australia Day awards. I must admit that she received a rousing acclamation.

It was not the only award she won on that night. With each and every additional award, she almost needed a small truck to take home the placards and platitudes she deservedly received, but, certainly, each and every accolade that she received was warmly applauded by the large audience in attendance. I know that the Mayor of Wagga Wagga, Rod Kendall, and his council were very pleased to confer on Auntie Isabel and the Australia Day committee those very prestigious awards. Aunty Isabel said that night:

Looking at the statistics in the Northern Territory and several other parts of the country illustrates that we need to move forward in a more cohesive fashion, which includes being recognised in the Constitution.

It is people such as Aunty Isabel who personify the potential for reconciliation between Aboriginal and non-Aboriginal Australians and the hope for a harmonious future.

Natasha Griggs (Solomon, Country Liberal Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

I rise this morning to speak to the Prime Minister's Closing the Gap report and to put on record my commitment and that of the broader Solomon community to improving conditions for Indigenous people across the Territory and Australia more broadly. I grew up in Alice Springs in the seventies and eighties, have lived in Darwin since the mid-1980s and have seen firsthand some of the social issues that are raised in the Closing the Gap report. I want to say, though, that while there is enormous disadvantage in Aboriginal communities in the Territory, and more specifically in Solomon, a number of Indigenous people live fulfilling, contented lives in and around Darwin and Palmerston—and this is one of the models which the Closing the Gap targets are based on.

The 2012 census identified that 9,905 Indigenous people live in Solomon. It is not clear, though, how many of those were visitors to the electorate on the night of the census or how many permanently reside in Darwin and Palmerston. What is known, though, is that at any time a large number of people from all corners of the Territory come to Solomon to access services, predominantly medical treatments, provided primarily by the Royal Darwin Hospital. In addition, there are a number of town camps across the electorate where Aboriginal people live on special purpose leases. The underlying tenure is Crown land. These camps are occupied pretty much exclusively by Indigenous residents and in at least one of those, Bagot community in the Darwin suburb of Ludmilla, significant debate is being had about whether to open the community up to non-Indigenous residency.

Ian Goodenough (Moore, Liberal Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

Order! A quorum not being present, the sitting will be resumed at 11.30 am.

Proceedings suspended from 11:03 to 11:27

The Federation Chamber having been counted and a quorum being present—

Brett Whiteley (Braddon, Liberal Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

The Federation Chamber will be in continuance. It was interrupted by the Prime Minister's address in relation to the awarding of the 100th Victoria Cross to Corporal Cameron Baird, who, for the record, was born in the city of Burnie, my home town. I give the call to the member for Solomon in continuation.

Natasha Griggs (Solomon, Country Liberal Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

As I was saying before the suspension, these camps are occupied pretty much exclusively by Indigenous residents and in at least one of those, the Bagot community, in the Darwin suburb of Ludmilla, significant debate is being held about whether or not to open up the community to non-Indigenous residency. I certainly see merit in this process being debated given my in-principle objection to residential enclaves based on ethnic backgrounds, which is effectively what currently exists. By the same token, though, Bagot has a number of outstanding support programs for community residents.

A few weeks ago, I shared lunch with residents at the senior centre at Bagot and met with staff and users of this excellent service. I spent an enjoyable few hours talking with the residents, visitors and staff who prepare the lunches at the centre. While there, I also heard firsthand the impact of the Labor Party's scaremongering about the age pension. Every single one of you on that side should hang your heads in shame for being blatantly obnoxious with the furphies that you are putting around. I have taken great pleasure in telling these people that the Labor Party are so embittered about losing government that they are prepared to spread so much mendacious misinformation to Australians about something as fundamental as the age pension.

I expressed the following sentiments yesterday during my partial address-in-reply speech, which was continually interrupted and shut down by those opposite, particularly the member for Lingiari.

Mr Snowdon interjecting—

Brett Whiteley (Braddon, Liberal Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

Order! I call both members to order.

Natasha Griggs (Solomon, Country Liberal Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

The member for Lingiari should check the Hansard. If he checks the Hansard, he will actually see that I was not in the chamber and I did not vote to stop him from speaking about Gove. He needs to get his facts right. He is the only one who stopped a Territorian from speaking yesterday. I will repeat what I said yesterday: I want to emphasise my desire and the desire of this government to improve health outcomes and create employment opportunities for Indigenous people.

It is of great concern that, at any one time, there are a large number of people in Solomon who harm themselves through the combined effects of alcohol, poor diet and living rough. The impacts of this spill over into the suburbs of Darwin and Palmerston and seriously strain the resources of police, ambulance services and hospital and community service agencies and, more importantly, manifest themselves in appalling health outcomes for the people concerned. The Closing the Gap report provides a great deal of scrutiny of these health outcomes, but a visit to the waiting room at Royal Darwin Hospital shines a light on many of the issues that the Closing the Gap policy is seeking to address. Indigenous Territorians are overrepresented at the Royal Darwin Hospital and at any given time the main waiting area is host to a significant number of Aboriginal people seeking treatment for a range of injuries and ailments.

Along with the issue of alcohol, Indigenous people have substantially higher smoking rates than non-Indigenous Australians. The impact of this on their health is of course substantial and in many cases irreversible. In conjunction with targeting alcohol, smoking rates among Aboriginal people must also be substantially reduced. Clearly more work needs to be done in lowering the rates of Indigenous smoking, which run at around 52 per cent in the Territory and 48 per cent nationally, as opposed to the non-Indigenous rate of about 18 per cent. Smoking, like alcohol, is intergenerational and the government understands the importance of reducing smoking rates going forward. The Prime Minister's Closing the Gap report says:

Ensuring Indigenous adults are working is critical if Indigenous adults and their families are to enjoy better economic opportunities.

While the primary focus of Closing the Gap is on improving quality-of-life outcomes for Indigenous Australians, the achievement of these targets will have significant flow-on benefits to the national and Territory economies. Figures released recently by Deloitte Access Economics show that, if Indigenous disadvantage were overcome, the Northern Territory economy could grow by as much as 10 per cent and that, nationally, the economy would be $24 billion better off over the course of two decades. Tapping into this latent cohort of society in Solomon will have significant benefits all around.

I welcome the Prime Minister's announcement to report on school attendance in future Closing the Gap reports. As it has been said many times before, if children do not go to school, how can they learn? I am pleased that there will be more emphasis and transparency around school attendance, especially in regional and remote areas. Finally, I want to reiterate my commitment, and that of my community, to closing the gap.

Warren Snowdon (Lingiari, Australian Labor Party, Shadow Parliamentary Secretary for External Territories) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

Yesterday we heard two fine speeches, one by the Prime Minister and one by the Leader of the Opposition, at the Closing the Gap breakfast. I have been attending these Closing the Gap breakfasts since the Closing the Gap campaign started—of course, I was the Minister for Indigenous Health for a number of years until the last election. I am cognisant of the targets that have been set and our obligations to try and meet them.

I want to go briefly, if I may, to the target to close the life expectancy gap within a generation—by 2031. We learn from the current report that in 2010-12 Indigenous life expectancy was estimated to be 69.1 years for males and 73.7 years for females. The life expectancy gap has been reduced between non-Aboriginals and Aboriginals and Torres Strait Islanders in the community, but the reduction is only small and we need to understand why this challenge is so significant. As you would be aware, Mr Deputy Speaker, in the context of our own population—that is, the non-Aboriginal and non-Torres Strait Islander population—we are all living longer. In fact, we are not all living longer—obviously some people have their lives shortened for various reasons—but the bottom line is that, as a generalisation, life expectancy for non-Aboriginal and non-Torres Strait Islander people is increasing, just as it is for Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people. So the relevant gap is what is important.

Whilst we may be making significant advances in addressing chronic disease in Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander communities, we may not be addressing them fast enough to get that relative gap closed. So it is very important that we understand the magnitude of this challenge, and why it is so important that governments, led by the federal government in partnership with the state and territory governments, renew their commitment to the national partnership agreements on Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander health.

Let us just remind ourselves of what that commitment has been. In 2008, COAG agreed to a historic $1.6 billion reform package. Last year, under Labor, there was a commitment for a further $777 million for the three years from 1 July 2013 to 30 June 2016 as its share of the renewed national partnership agreement. When the estimates for the MBS and PBS are included, the Commonwealth contribution over those three years would be about $992 million—a significant amount of money.

What we say is that if we are actually going to continue this work of improving the outcomes for Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people in health then we need to renew that investment commitment. Unfortunately and sadly, it appears that the Commonwealth government has taken this national partnership agreement off the table. If that is the case, and if the present Commonwealth government is not prepared to live up to the commitment made by the previous government by renewing their commitment to the states and territories, then it is very unlikely that we will ever have the capacity to meet the close the gap target of life expectancy. It is very important to appreciate that under Labor there was a continuing proposal to implement the Indigenous Chronic Disease Package. It is also important to appreciate what the outcomes of that proposal have been. If we can understand why these outcomes are important then it does make a difference.

As of 30 June 2013, 795 full-time equivalent positions were funded under the Indigenous Chronic Disease Package. More than 204,000 Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander patients have been helped by PBS copayment measures as at 30 April last year. If we do not continue this work, and if we do not continue in an ongoing fashion the $100 million investment made by Labor on tobacco action, then we will not see a continuing reduction in tobacco consumption rates amongst Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people. So if we are deadly serious about this—and I take the Prime Minister at his word that he sees this as an absolute top priority of the government—then I say to the government: 'Stop pussyfooting around. I understand you've got this commission of audit, but this has got to be above that.' We need the government to recommit its resources—the resources committed by Labor—over the next period for the national partnership agreements. We need the Commonwealth government to get up and sign the agreements and Minister Dutton to go out there and work with the state and territory governments to get agreement on the national partnership arrangements, so that we have got these agreements signed and the money committed and the work ongoing. If we do not provide ongoing resources, we will not get the outcomes.

Unfortunately and sadly, it appears that Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander health may be confused and mixed up with the desire by the government to cut expenditure in all areas of the government. If that is the case then these targets are going to be harder to meet.

I want now to make an observation on the aim of halving the gap in mortality rates for Indigenous children under five within a decade. We are on target to achieve this aim not just because of commitments made by government but also because of commitments made by Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander communities right across this country, including their commitment to work with government to make sure that they have got the best primary health care services available for their communities. This has ongoing impacts. If we address and meet the target of halving the gap—as we will—then, in the longer term, it means we will have healthy kids growing into healthy adolescents and then healthy adults with, we expect, longer life expectancy. That is a very, very good thing. But it will not happen in a vacuum. It will only happen by working in partnership with Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander communities right across this country and by governments understanding that they have to stump up the resources, as I said before when I talked about the life expectancy gap.

Last year I had the privilege of launching the National Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Health Plan along with Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people. This is a framework for improving Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander health outcomes for the next decade.

What is required now is for this government to work on an implementation plan working with the state and territory governments and the community control sector—Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander communities right across this country—to implement this plan. If we do implement this plan—the first of its kind—then it will change dramatically not only the way in which we deliver health services but our understanding of how health services impact upon Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander communities.

It is important to appreciate that this plan actually thinks about and talks about issues to do with racism—understanding how racism is an inhibitor to people accessing and having a long and happy life, and the cultural dimensions of working with Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people. These are very important things: looking at the social determinants of health, being culturally respectful, and making sure we have a non-discriminatory health system, making sure that the health system is effective and that there is clinically appropriate care, making sure there is evidence based practice, making sure mental health and social and emotional wellbeing are addressed, and making sure there is human community capability.

We need to do these things together with Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people. And a reminder: this plan did not come out of the top of my head or anywhere else in my body; this actually came from a long period of consultations with Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people right around this country, in partnership with the National Congress of Australia's First Peoples and also NACCHO, the National Aboriginal Community Controlled Health Organisation. We went around Australia talking to Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander communities to establish their priorities and to work with state and territory governments to come up with this document. It is a very, very important document.

I say to the government—and, again, I applaud the Prime Minister's words yesterday—that if we are going to make it a reality to improve life expectancy and address these issues with Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander health, then it is absolutely imperative that the government work with the state and territory governments and Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people right around this country to develop an implementation plan and put that plan into practice.

There are a whole range of other matters I would love to talk about, including education; unfortunately, time will not permit. But it is important to appreciate that whilst the Prime Minister has said he wants to make a new target of five years for getting school attendance up, he will not do it just by having truancy officers. He has to make sure state and territory governments stump up to the mark and make sure there are teachers and other support workers in schools—unlike the Northern Territory government, which has reduced expenditure on education and taken teachers and support staff out of schools.

Sharon Claydon (Newcastle, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

I would like to begin by acknowledging the traditional owners of this place, the Ngambri and Ngunnawal people, and pay my respects to elders past and present and their future leaders. I also want to acknowledge the traditional owners of my own home town of Newcastle and the wider electorate, the Awabakal, Worimi and Wanaruah peoples.

I was very privileged to spend almost a decade of my life living and working in remote Aboriginal communities, primarily in the Kimberley region of WA. And it was there, immersed in community life and Indigenous culture, that I gained some very valuable lived experience of a very different way of life and a very different cultural world. Despite sharing this same continent for the entirety of my life, I learned of the profound differences in the life that I had enjoyed and the life that is so often lived by those in remote Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander communities. The gap in overall health and access to health care is one example, as well as the inequity in life expectancy, the infant mortality rate, the lack of employment opportunities, and the poor access to education for both young and old. It was during this time that I made a very personal commitment not only to try to re-educate myself about some of those issues but to play a very active role in doing what I could to remove inequality and injustice among my fellow Australians wherever I see it.

In 2008, as a nation, we took our first formal step to address this inequality. The national apology, delivered by the then Prime Minister, Kevin Rudd, was long overdue. But it was no less significant than if delivered decades earlier. We needed to say sorry. It was unfinished business that needed to be addressed, and I am glad we did that. The signing of the Close the Gap statement of intent by the then Labor government and the Liberal opposition on the same day was a watershed moment of commitment from our nation to formally address the wrongs of inequality between Indigenous and non-Indigenous people. A pledge was made to remove the inequality in health status and life expectancy and to improve access to mainstream services. We have built on that commitment, with further targets set on access to education and employment. Regardless of the new targets set—extensions made to the commitment—the essence remains: closing the gap is first and foremost about justice and inclusion, opportunity and equity.

Last year the first Closing the Gap target was met. Every preschooler living in a remote community now has access to early childhood education. That is a great achievement and certainly one worth celebrating. But meeting a target is one thing; maintaining the level of access is just as important. Ongoing Commonwealth funding is needed to ensure that successful, evidence based programs that have already been established may continue to operate and indeed be improved upon. Yesterday I met with members of SNAICC, the Secretariat of National Aboriginal and Islander Child Care, who are concerned about the ongoing viability of some 38 child and family centres across Australia and indeed many other early childhood services in our nation. The funding basis for these centres is currently under review and due to end on 30 June this year. These centres play a vital role in the communities in which they exist, allowing integrated and flexible service delivery of early childhood education and health initiatives. Their role extends far beyond child care for preschoolers and indeed extends to the broader ecology of the community.

This morning I got to meet again with some of those women I met with yesterday at the breakfast. Naomi, who was working from one of my old home towns of Fitzroy Crossing, reminded me of the crucial work she is doing with many of the young mothers who accompany the children who come to these services. So we definitely should not be thinking that these services are some kind of drop-off place for childcare provision; the entire family becomes involved. And the people working in these centres are amongst the most academically as well as culturally aware and adept people available to be working in the communities.

So the delivery of the early intervention initiatives like the work Naomi was doing with the young mums, as well as going out into communities and doing that, is assisting greatly in transition-to-school programs and is directly linked to improved outcomes at schools—we have evidence suggesting that now—and helping to build the relationships between the community and the formal school setting. The centres also play a key role in employment and training for adults, and they are real opportunities that also heighten access to higher education and training and certification.

Those centres are not just in remote areas, of course; they are also in communities like my own, in Newcastle, where I am really fortunate to have two centres that are run under that banner. One is the DALE young mothers program in Waratah. And there is also the Awabakal MACS children's service at Wickham. Both of these are really in danger without this assurance of some continuity and security of funding. Since 30 June is not too far away, if we are serious about meeting these targets and closing the gaps in these areas then we need ongoing security for services like this.

So I am calling on the government today to give assurances to those communities that house these centres by committing to their ongoing funding through dedicated pathways to give them the flexibility they need to deliver these vital services. I urge the government to commit to the SNAICC's proposal for a 10-year sustainable funding model for an integrated Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander children and family services.

The Gonski report also identified the link between low levels of achievement and educational disadvantage, particularly amongst students from low socioeconomic and Indigenous backgrounds. It is of great concern that that framework for a fairer funding model, which had specific loadings for disadvantage—such as the number of Indigenous students at a school, levels of English proficiency, literacy and numeracy—is now deeply under question. The government went to the election last year with a commitment to the Gonski report and these recommendations, but now we know—after the election—that it is a very different story.

In 2013, Labor proposed three new measures that should be added to the Closing the Gap agenda. I would urge the government to adopt those alongside their own additional proposal that the Prime Minister announced yesterday in relation to school attendance rates. One of the additions is an increase in Indigenous participation in higher and further education. I am very proud that in my own electorate of Newcastle we have the University of Newcastle, which is known as Australia's leader in tertiary education for Indigenous education. The Wollotuka Institute at that university now has more than 1,130 Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander students who have graduated and more than 800 students currently enrolled today. We have trained more than 50 per cent of the Indigenous doctors for the whole of Australia—a very proud record.

I would like to note another fantastic program that is operating in Newcastle that is looking to close the gap: the Deadly Choices campaign, which was launched by the Institute for Urban Indigenous Health and funded by the Commonwealth Department of Health and Ageing. Deadly Choices aims to empower Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people to make healthy choices for themselves and their families: to stop smoking, to eat good food, and exercise daily. Last week, the Deadly Choices commemorative rugby league jersey was launched in Newcastle as part of the Festival of Indigenous Rugby League. That festival is a wonderful exhibition of how sport, physical activity and positive role modelling can make a difference to the lives of both Indigenous and non-Indigenous people. These sorts of choices will help close the gap.

Finally, I endorse the words of the Leader of the Opposition yesterday in reaffirming our commitment to take that next long overdue step to reduce inequality between Indigenous and non-Indigenous Australians, and that of course is constitutional recognition. Certainly, Labor believes the proposed constitutional change should be guided by the recommendations of the expert panel, and all of those sections that were listed yesterday by the Leader of the Opposition are extremely worthwhile. In addition, the lack of funding now for community legal centres and the removal of funding from Aboriginal legal services is of great concern.

Sarah Henderson (Corangamite, Liberal Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

I rise to commend the Closing the Gap report, to commend the work of our government and to commend the work of the previous government. Today, I want to focus on the positives and what we are doing together, on both sides of politics, to close the gap. Yes, there is some disagreement, but what we need to focus on—and what I am going to focus on—is that we as a nation are embracing the very hard work that lies ahead in closing the gap.

Yesterday, we heard two very fine speeches from the Prime Minister and the Leader of the Opposition. For the Prime Minister, this is personal. The Prime Minister has brought Indigenous affairs into his department. He has a deep commitment; he has passion. He has appointed a parliamentary secretary, Alan Tudge, responsible for Indigenous affairs, working alongside Minister Scullion. For the Prime Minister and for our government there is a deep and very strong commitment to closing the gap.

For me, this is also personal. I think each of us has had their own journey in embracing the many challenges in the way in which Indigenous Australia has been disenfranchised and damaged in the past. I guess my journey began in the early 1990s when I was studying law and I was given an assignment to do about terra nullius at a time when I did not know what terra nullius was. It was before Mabo was handed down. It was an extraordinary eye-opener to me as to what our First Australians had endured, how they had lost their lands—the gross injustice.

I remember that in the mid-1990s I was a radio host working for 3AW in Melbourne, and I was quite passionate about Indigenous affairs and about reconciliation. One of the managers called me in and said: 'Sarah, we're not sure that you're connecting with our audience. We want you to talk more about the cost of broccoli and other matters that connect with the people listening to your show.' I said, 'This is so important.' This is so incredibly important, and I think that in the last 20 or so years, as a nation, we have been on a positive journey, and more and more people have joined that journey.

I was very proud in the mid-1990s when my mother was appointed the Victorian minister for Aboriginal affairs. During her term she led the apology on behalf of the people of Victoria to the stolen generation.

I worked for an organisation called National Indigenous TV. That was an incredible time for me. It gave me such an important education on the significance of opportunity. NITV was all about giving young Indigenous men and women the opportunity to do great things, to work and to tell their stories. During that time, there was a particular day that I will never forget. It was the day of the national apology. It was a magnificent day, and it was a magnificent credit to former Prime Minister Rudd. There were tears flowing in the offices of National Indigenous TV. For me, it was overwhelming watching those faces. I was very proud to call myself an Australian on that day.

At the same time, when I travelled to Alice Springs as part of my work, it was distressing beyond belief to see two- and three-year-old children walking down the main street in the mall in Alice Springs, following their mothers and fathers who could barely walk because of the amount of alcohol that they had consumed. There was a profound issue with neglect of the children, and I found it very, very difficult to look at and to watch.

I think as a nation we have made some very hard decisions about alcohol in Indigenous communities. I know that the intervention has been very difficult for some Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people, but I strongly support the work of the previous government and this government in addressing what is a critically important issue for Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people.

I am particularly proud of our commitment—and it is a bipartisan commitment—to recognise the First Australians in our Constitution. There is very significant work going on at the moment to progress that. Again, I remind the House about how significant it is that the Prime Minister is leading the charge in the recognition of First Australians in our Constitution.

I want to remind the House also that we have some very strong commitments to Indigenous affairs. We are honouring our key election commitments, and they include moving the administration of more than 150 Indigenous programs and services from eight different government departments into the Department of the Prime Minister and Cabinet; establishing the Prime Minister's Indigenous Advisory Council; implementing the $28.4 million Remote School Attendance Strategy; commissioning a review of Indigenous employment and training programs; providing $45 million to fast-track the implementation of a demand-driven vocational training and employment centres training model; providing $5 million to support the design of the Empowered Communities initiative; and working to build support for a successful referendum to recognise the First Australians in our Constitution, as I have mentioned.

We have made good progress in closing the gap—child mortality rates and access to early education. But we have a long way to go, particularly in areas such as in halving the employment gap within a decade, where there so far has been little progress. That is why our decision to end the gap between Indigenous and non-Indigenous school attendance, and to see 90 per cent of attendance, regardless of the percentage of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander students, is so significant.

We recognise that education is fundamental to opportunity—to closing the gap. If young Aboriginal children are not at school, they are not receiving an education. I was very pleased to see again the bipartisan approach on this additional target announced by the Prime Minister yesterday.

A good education for children in Indigenous communities gives them great capacity to seek employment in the future. I have seen firsthand at NITV what a good education and opportunity can lead to. Education is very much the future. I think there is renewed vigour and energy to target truancy, to make parents accountable and to ensure that children of Indigenous and Torres Strait Islander descent have every opportunity to learn, to be inspired to learn, to prosper, to go to university and to be the best they can be.

More work needs to be done. I am very proud to be part of a government that is so focused on closing the gap. I commend this report to the House.

Graham Perrett (Moreton, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

I commence my remarks by acknowledging the traditional owners and I thank them for their continuing stewardship. I do that deliberately because six years ago today we did that for the very first time in this building. Even though this building has been around for 19-odd years, and there had been the opening of Old Parliament House, a welcome to country has never been performed in this building. The very first thing I did in this building as a parliamentarian was to observe the welcome to country given to us by Matilda House and her community. It was quite heart-warming to see. She actually told the story that when Old Parliament House was first opened, one of her ancestors had been in attendance but was not allowed to participate in the ceremony. They were on the fringes of the ceremony, but were not allowed to participate. So, six years ago today—I remember it was a rainy day—she made the point of how it was righting a wrong. Having the welcome to country delivered to us was quite moving.

After that first event and before parliament started, we then moved into the historic event that I have to say, sadly in a way, was my best day and favourite day in parliament. I am referring to the apology delivered by former Prime Minister Kevin Rudd. It was truly one of the most moving events in the history of Australia, I would suggest. It was an event that in hindsight becomes more and more poignant and more and more significant. I recognise the magnificent speeches delivered yesterday by Prime Minister Abbott and Leader of the Opposition Bill Shorten. Both were magnificent speeches that should be read by everybody.

The apology delivered by Kevin Rudd was written mainly by him. Obviously, Minister Macklin, as she was then, did a lot of the groundwork, along with many other people, but the words were primarily penned by Kevin Rudd, by his own hand. They were magnificent words, words that echoed around the world. His words, in some way, strangely, secured our vote on the Security Council, because countries saw that event. It was an international phenomenon. Those words—mere words, I know—on that day six years ago, spoke of an Australia that was noble and committed to fairness and justice, and perhaps to righting some wrongs.

Words and symbols mean nothing if there is no action. That is why I commend Prime Minister Abbott and Prime Minister Gillard before him, and Prime Minister Rudd, for not just recognising the event, but turning words into actions. Noble thoughts mean nothing if there are not noble deeds connected to it.

In the short time we have, I will touch on some of the other significant events that have occurred. About 50 years ago, in August 1963, a petition was delivered to the Australian Parliament. It was on a pair of bark paintings and was signed by the clan leaders of the Yolngu region, in the Gove peninsula—an area that is having significant challenges at the moment because of the refinery closing down. Obviously there have been lots of petitions sent to Australian parliaments by Aboriginal people, but this was the first one that combined the traditional form of a the bark painting with text typed on paper. It is interesting to see where it is kept. If you come to parliament house, I recommend that you go and see it, because it is right alongside the Magna Carta and the Australian Constitution. The Australian Constitution is the actual one signed by Queen Victoria. Australia as a nation was formed by Queen Victoria, in London, signing off on an act passed in Westminster by the United Kingdom parliament.

These bark petitions are now considered founding documents, up there with the Magna Carta and the Australian Constitution in terms of the tradition of recognising what we are as a nation. It is significant. Other petitions were handed on, but they do not have the same status in terms of being founding documents. Petitions were handed up in 1935 and 1937. But do you know what the response of the parliament of the day was? Absolutely nothing, as in: we do not have to respond to that. In fact the way the Aboriginal community was ignored led to Aborigines from all around Australia establishing a national Aboriginal day observance committee, or NADOC, and they later added the Torres Straight Islanders to make it NAIDOC. It is an event that is still celebrated throughout Australia every year. In fact, I make sure I sure I go to the event in Acacia Ridge in my electorate. People from the Murray school in my electorate, and some of the other communities, come along.

So, symbolism is very important. One of the other significant Indigenous symbols—and we have all seen it on television—was the occasion when Gough Whitlam was pouring sand into the hands of the people who had been fighting for land rights.in their communities during the 1966 Gurindji strike for equal pay. The strike went on for a long time. Then we had the 1960 referendum, which was a significant time, when nearly nine out of 10 Australians said we should recognise indigenous Australians and not treat them as fauna, as the Constitution suggested. Even though that strike went on for eight years—and you have heard about it if you have ever heard the song by Paul Kelly and Kev Carmody; From Little Things, Big Things Growthat movement, something symbolic, went on to achieve some change. In fact, some might say you could draw a line from that event through to the recognition, in June 1992, by the High Court of the fact that white settlement in Australia occurred on black land. There had been a long tradition, and that is why the traditional owners have such a significant statement now, and claim, and interaction with people who want to use their land.

I particularly mention that song by Paul Kelly and Kev Carmody because I included another of their songs in the foreword to my book—and I assure members I am not going to quote from my book, but I will quote from their song This Land is Mine:

This land is mine

All the way to the old fence line

Every break of day

I'm working hard just to make it pay

If you have seen the film clip, you will know that the white settler is singing that verse. Then we have the response from the Indigenous voice:

This land is me

Rock, water, animal, tree

They are my song

My being here where I belong

I think this song by Kev Carmody and Paul Kelly, This Land is Mine, captures that dynamic around what we are about as a nation. We have to recognise Indigenous history. It is the oldest continuous culture on the globe, with stories that go back far enough to recognise the ice age in Victoria—there are Indigenous tribes that talk about the ice age and have song-stories recognising the ice age. Then history is combined with white arrivals and the challenges that they bring, and this history is not to be rewritten in terms of history wars. We will never have true reconciliation as a nation until we have a Constitution that recognises that history and tradition—and I commend Prime Minister Abbott for recommitting to that process of consultation, engagement, education and, hopefully in the time of this parliament, recognition through a referendum by the Australian people of our true history. So the document signed by Queen Victoria in July 1900, as it then was, will truly reflect the bright, optimistic Australia of the future. Obviously, I hope that will be a bipartisan process wholeheartedly supported by both sides of the chamber.

Melissa Price (Durack, Liberal Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

Firstly, I would like to acknowledge the Aboriginal people from this land that we stand on today and also acknowledge different Aboriginal peoples in my electorate of Durack—from the Aboriginal people of the beautiful wilderness of the Kimberley, down to and including the Yamatji people in the mid-west.

I rise today to join members of both sides of the House in thanking the Prime Minister for his commitment to Aboriginal affairs and policy. In my maiden speech, only a few months ago, I made a plea: that history will show that this 44th Parliament had the courage and the foresight to adopt policies that improve the lives of Aboriginals. I believe it is safe to say that yesterday's commitment by the Prime Minister to no longer work for Aboriginal people but rather work with them and to introduce new measures to close the gap between Aboriginal and non-Aboriginal peoples has put Australia on track to achieve these outcomes. My electorate of Durack has the nation's third highest proportion of Indigenous residents, so I welcome this government's commitment to achieving all Closing the Gap targets for the betterment of all Aboriginal peoples, but in particular my constituents in Durack.

It is important to note that Australia is already on its way to achieving some of the Closing the Gap targets implemented by the former government. Such targets include halving the gap in child mortality within a decade and halving the gap in year 12 attainment by 2020. I particularly welcome yesterday's announcement by the Prime Minister that an additional target would be added: to achieve a 90 per cent plus attendance rate in all schools within five years, regardless of their percentage of Aboriginal students. By closing the gap between Indigenous and non-Indigenous peoples, particularly in education, it is my belief that other social issues such as high rates of Indigenous youths entering our justice system will also be addressed.

In the electorate of Durack, I am proud to say, we are not short of people with goodwill and good ideas who continue to work towards improving the lives of all Aboriginal peoples. Western Australia's highly successful Indigenous education initiative, Clontarf Foundation, is just one fabulous example of commitment and innovation. Clontarf's vehicle for increasing school attendance and participation is through Australian Rules and/or Rugby League, using these sports to not only attract young aboriginal boys to go to school but also keep them there. The program is not just about sport; this is simply the tool being used to improve education, discipline and self-esteem and to teach life skills, with the aim to better equip these students to participate more meaningfully in society.

The foundation has continued to grow since it opened its first academy for 25 boys on the campus of the Clontarf Aboriginal College in Perth in Western Australia in 2000. It now caters for over 2,800 boys in 54 schools across Western Australia, the Northern Territory, Victoria and New South Wales. In 2012 alone, the foundation opened nine new academies, including one in Fitzroy Crossing, which is in my electorate of Durack. Other Clontarf academies in Durack are based in Derby; Carnarvon; East Kimberley in Kununurra; West Kimberley in Broome; Halls Creek; Karratha; Roebourne; and in the Midwest, in Geraldton.

Speaking of Geraldton, Geraldton's John Willcock College has developed a unique intervention program which, compared to Clontarf, is specifically targeted at improving the attendance and education standards of young women. The SHINE program was founded in 2010 by former hairdresser turned welfare worker, Mandy Jolley, with the support of school principal Julie Campbell. This is a program that turns traditional thinking on its head, with a new approach to increase the attendance of girls aged between 13 and 15 and to spark their interest in learning through a hairdressing salon environment. The program is strategically focused on empowerment and developing life skills such as customer service, responsibility and trust. This is achieved through their community work in aged-care homes, discussing with guest speakers issues such as healthy lifestyles, women's health, drug and alcohol abuse and being responsible for the upkeep and operations of the hairdressing salon.

This not-for-profit organisation relies on sponsorship from various private organisations and government departments, including the state Department of Education. Ms Jolley is currently looking to expand the program to the Geraldton senior high school in order to offer the SHINE program to older girls. Gaining more support from government and private enterprise will be critical in ensuring its ongoing success and expansion, and is something I plan to help this school and this program achieve.

A new concept that is currently being developed by the Shire of Derby, West Kimberley, is yet another measure that I believe will help Australia to successfully meet its Closing the Gap targets if it is implemented. I recently met with Shire President Elsia Archer and council staff to discuss the prevailing issues of Indigenous youth suicide in rural and regional towns. Members on both sides of the House will know that the discussion of mental illness or suicide is a sensitive issue in our society but even more so when related to Aboriginal mental health. My meeting with the shire did however shed some light on the gravity of this issue in the town, while also providing, I believe, a good concept for future prevention. The shire's concept is for the establishment of a safe house in at-risk towns, which would be staffed by qualified people with experience in both Indigenous issues and suicide prevention.

The safe house idea has three key aims: to help reduce the rate of youth suicide in the town, to provide a safe place for at-risk youth to go after school, and to reduce the risk of young Aboriginal youths entering the justice system. The shire has already done a lot of work to develop this concept, which I believe would be an important service for Aboriginal youth, not just in Durack but across Australia. I believe this concept, if established, has the potential to help break the cycle of Indigenous youth suicide, but it must be resourced appropriately. It is a concept that I would seek all members' and senators' support for and one that I will continue to actively promote through all available avenues. I have already raised this concept with Parliamentary Secretary to the Prime Minister, Alan Tudge, and plan to further encourage its implementation through my role on the House of Representatives Standing Committee on Indigenous Affairs.

I commend the Closing the Gap: Prime Minister's Report 2014 to the House and congratulate the Prime Minister and the Leader of the Opposition on their speeches yesterday, which were full of sincerity and understanding but most of all hope: hope for a better future for Australian Indigenous people.

Chris Hayes (Fowler, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

I too commence by acknowledging the traditional custodians of this land and I pay my respects to elders past and present. In 2008, the former Labor government approved the National Indigenous Reform Agenda, which set out how to close the gap between Indigenous and non-Indigenous Australians. We identified six areas of critical importance, and they are very much clear priorities: life expectancy; mortality of children under five; access to early childhood education; reading, writing and numeracy; year 12 attainment rates; and employment outcomes. All these targets or priorities are interrelated. School accessibility and attendance rates lead to higher education, which increases the chances of employment, which impacts on life expectancy, which improves the prospects of future generations.

The COAG Reform Council's recent report indicates that we have made significant progress in three areas: child mortality rates, access to early childhood education and year 12 or equivalent attainment. The improvement in reducing Aboriginal infant mortality is particularly significant. Across Australia, the Indigenous child mortality rate has dropped by 32 per cent and, as I understand it, according to this report we are on track for halving the gap in child mortality rates within the decade. I am not going to say that that is something we should be proud of, but it does indicate that it is something we are making progress on. Child mortality is an issue that, in this place, we would often speak about in respect of Third World countries, not a notion that should be considered in a country such as Australia.

Last year, we met our first Closing the Gap target, with every preschooler living in a remote community having access to early childhood education, and we are set to have 95 per cent of children in remote areas enrolled in preschool education within a decade. Again, that is something that many of us in this country would take for granted for our families. I applaud all the efforts that are taking place in regional communities to make this a reality for all children. Early childhood education is a fundamental stepping stone towards a successful future, instilling in young ones a love of learning, discipline and ambition to achieve—something that we all aspire to for our own families.

There is no denying that we have a long way to go in reaching our targets, particularly in life expectancy and employment, but that is no reason to undermine the efforts that have been made or to in any way diminish the things that have been achieved. There are many issues and, certainly, challenges prevalent in our remote communities which are interrelated and directly affect the prospects of reaching the Closing the Gap targets, such as the incarceration rates of young Aboriginal men in particular; and alcohol abuse, domestic violence and other forms of violence, which, quite frankly, must be addressed. Rates of alcohol related violence in Aboriginal communities rose by 15 per cent last year. Domestic violence is something that is the scourge of all communities and we see it at alarming rates. But, in Indigenous communities, reported cases of domestic violence have risen by 21 per cent over the last 12 months. The Aboriginal Women Against Violence program, run by the Joan Harrison Support Services for Women, and the Sisters For Sisters program, which operates in my electorate, have told me on repeated occasions how Aboriginal women are very reluctant to come forward and give information on their partners to the authorities. This is not simply out of fear of their partners but also because there is very much a driving view that going to the authorities on a matter of domestic violence could actually lead to their children being removed. That is not something that occurs only in remote areas; this is a very live and real fear that occurs in south-west Sydney at the moment. In that regard, I applaud the local police, who are working very hard to address those fears and ensure that they can protect women in their home environment.

The Closing the Gap targets aim to ensure future generations best meet adulthood, have access to good education and achieve appropriate employment not only in remote communities but also throughout our economy. This must always be seen as very much a bipartisan issue in this place, but we clearly need to work more with various Aboriginal communities to fulfil the aims and desires that they have—as we all do—for their children. In creating the policies, we must be involved with those who are being directly affected and allow them access to all the appropriate information and material and also allow them to be resourced. There are many underlying issues that need to be truly understood, rather than simply imposed as instructions on people.

Closing the Gap is about justice, inclusion and opportunities for equality for Australians, and it builds upon the very vision that was set forward in 2008 when Kevin Rudd made the apology to the stolen generation. It was a watershed moment in this parliament, not simply because of the speech but also because the apology focused forever on a day in this parliament when our attitude to the first peoples of this nation changed. With the knowledge of the past, respect for people and a commitment to the future, the apology has been the basis for changing many of the attitudes of all Australians and certainly the basis upon which we move forward.

It was a pleasure to be in the parliament to hear the speeches of the Prime Minister and the Leader of the Opposition. I genuinely believe that they reflected the views of both sides of this parliament accurately and in a way that reflected our genuine commitment to move towards closing the gap. I will always speak on the Closing the Gap address. It is not only an appropriate time to reflect on the broader issues of achieving our targets as set in 2008 but also an opportunity for all members to address issues of injustice as they apply in our local communities.

Debate adjourned.