Mrs Bronwyn Bishop (Speaker) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

I have received a letter from the honourable the Leader of the Opposition proposing that a definite matter of public importance be submitted to the House for discussion, namely:

The need to accelerate progress on Closing the Gap and advance constitutional recognition.

I call upon those honourable members who approve of the proposed discussion to rise in their places.

More than the number of members required by the standing orders having risen in their places—

Bill Shorten (Maribyrnong, Australian Labor Party, Leader of the Opposition) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

This is a most important matter of public importance. Whilst there is political debate and disagreement on certain aspects of this matter, I remain confident there is more goodwill on this topic across the parliament than ill will, although I do not pretend that the opposition agrees with everything that the government is doing in handling this matter. Labor made the choice to make this a matter of public importance today because we are concerned that progress, in terms of Closing the Gap and the general tone of political debate about Indigenous policy in this country, is stalling.

We do not say this lightly. We acknowledge the government is doing some things in some areas. But we saw a debate last week with the Prime Minister's comments about closure of small communities. There was reference to it being a lifestyle choice and that the taxpayer should not be expected to back in a lifestyle choice of Indigenous Australians who live in small communities. I actually believe that there is interest from the Prime Minister in terms of the general progress of Indigenous Australians. But I do not think anyone thought that those particular comments advanced the cause at all. It was on that basis that I spoke to a range of Indigenous leaders in our community because, whilst it is easy just to attack a stupid comment, there are more serious matters at stake here. How do we make sure that Indigenous policy remains in the mainstream of political debate?

The problem with unwise comments, to put it at its most generous, is that it allows polarisation of political views. I know that the Prime Minister has a genuine interest in matters to do with Indigenous policy. Even if we might disagree with the cuts that the government has made, the greater concern for me is that Indigenous politics is going backwards in this country. I would suggest today, in this matter of public importance, that there are a range of opportunities for us to pursue, and I hope that when the government speakers get up they do not do their usual: 'It's just Labor's fault.' There are opportunities which we need to work together on.

I wrote to the Prime Minister after speaking to Indigenous leaders after his comment was reported and I said it is overdue for us—meaning Tony Abbott and me—to meet with a range of Indigenous leaders together in this country. There is a lot of talk in Australia about the need for bipartisanship. On some issues it is possible; on some it is not. Bipartisanship does not make the same headlines as conflict. I understand that. But on this matter of Indigenous policy I have now said to our Prime Minister on six occasions from the last third of last year, after interim reports were released by hardworking parliamentary committees in terms of constitutional recognition, that we need to sit down with Indigenous leaders in this country. I acknowledge that Ken Wyatt is here. He is doing a great job. I acknowledge Alan Tudge is here. He is very committed. I acknowledge that there are many people—all the Labor people here from our shadow spokespeople in Health and Indigenous Affairs—who will speak in this debate and who are doing great work. But what we need to do is sit down with leaders from Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander communities and get the debate about Indigenous policy back on track.

Today is the seventh anniversary of the signing of the Close the Gap Indigenous Health Equality Summit Statement of Intent. It is a foundation goal of the Close the Gap framework. Sometimes in politics people like to talk about the right of freedom of speech—it is very important—the right to join a union or the right not to join a union. There is plenty of talk about rights here. But I think there is another basic right which does not get enough discussion. It is the right to grow old. This is not a right which is equally allocated to citizens in Australia. Depending upon whether or not one is an Indigenous Australian, the right to grow old is different, and that is unacceptable to all of us. We need to have this discussion on how we can improve the Close the Gap targets. A big part of that is constitutional recognition.

We need constitutional change that Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people can support, vote for and proudly own. I know that whenever you talk about constitutional change in this country there are different points of view, and that is understandable. Changing the Constitution is a venture not taken on lightly. The last time we changed the Constitution was back in 1977. It required both political parties to support it. Constitutional recognition for our Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islanders in our Constitution will require both of the major parties to support it. I am concerned that this debate is drifting off course, as with earlier examples I have used. I think it is important that the Prime Minister of Australia and I meet, as a matter of priority, a gathering from a range of Indigenous leaders and we talk about how we can have genuine change. The Prime Minister has taken an interest in this matter. That is undeniable. I have had fruitful meetings with him. But it is not enough to specify that we may want the referendum at a date no later than 50 years after the previous referendum in 1967. We need to settle the question, and we cannot settle the question without talking to the leaders of Indigenous Australia, and it has to be more than symbolic change.

I understand there are some on the conservative edge of Australian politics who see that any change to our national birth certificate—the Constitution—should be viewed very suspiciously. I know there are some who jealously guard against saying that if we start extending a bill of rights and codifying it then we create a litigation nightmare and somehow the Constitution has changed. I ask those constitutional conservatives to pause, to reflect and to give some room for their leader, the Prime Minister, to sit down with me and Indigenous leaders to identify how this nation can put our first Australians on the 'national birth certificate'. We should not have such low expectations of achieving no change at all or very little change. I am not radical in terms of constitutional change; I understand that we have to bring non-Indigenous Australians on the journey. But I am concerned that, without constitutional recognition, Indigenous politics in this country will go backwards. It is a test not of Indigenous Australia but of this parliament and Australia as a whole.

When it comes to talking with Indigenous leaders, I believe there is space available in the political debate for the Prime Minister and I to meet with Indigenous leaders without it being breathlessly seen through the spectrum of whether Tony Abbott will alienate the right of his party or whether Labor is moving too fast or too slow. The media of Australia have in most cases been very supportive of this debate. Let us all together create the room to have a gathering with leaders across the spectrum of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Australia to agree that we want to make sure that Indigenous politics and policy are at the centre of our national debate. Not everything can be fixed by everyone sitting around the table, but I think most things can be.

If we do that gathering, then I think that the Prime Minister and I should subsequently meet and talk about the unacceptable rates of incarceration in this country. It is not beyond our wit and wisdom in this country to change the ratio that currently exists. A young Aboriginal man is more likely to go to jail than university. No-one wants that, no-one from any side of politics. Again, there is no moral superiority from any particular point of view on this issue—we all agree—but Labor is suggesting that we need to get together with Australia's Indigenous leaders from the range of groups and talk. And, more than just talking, we need to listen. When it comes to the 'lifestyle choice' debate I accept that there are points to be made about access to education, about living securely and safety and about jobs. But where the debate is going off track is that I do not believe sufficient listening is being done by the people in power—and I include the parliament; I am not saying it is just the government—to Indigenous Australia. When it comes to Closing the Gap targets, incarceration and dealing with family violence in Indigenous communities we are beyond the time for just talking generally, one-liners in press conferences and press releases and fly-in fly-out visits.

What we now need to do is sit down together, both sides of politics, the Prime Minister and I, at a gathering of Indigenous leaders in this country and say: 'All right, we need to understand your view. We don't necessarily need a lot more research or a whole lot more talking, we need to understand what your view is.' We need to set ourselves a task of work that can we measure. We have got Closing the Gap—remarkable accomplishments—and Labor has called for a justice target to be added to that. But it is overdue for Tony Abbott and I to sit down with Indigenous Australia and convince them that we are fair dinkum about constitutional recognition. Indigenous Australia has little to convince us of. Our challenge is to convince Indigenous Australia that we are listening.

Alan Tudge (Aston, Liberal Party, Parliamentary Secretary to the Prime Minister) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

I rise to speak on this matter of public importance. I appreciate that, in the main, the Leader of the Opposition did not try to make partisan points in this debate. Indigenous affairs has typically been above partisan politics. If you look back at the history of the efforts which have been made by governments of both persuasions, none of us has had a terrific track record on it despite enormous goodwill on both sides and the billions of dollars which have been invested. I do think that Australians want both sides of the parliament to work together for the advancement of Aboriginal people and leave the partisan politics behind us as much as possible.

I reflect upon the Prime Minister's Closing the Gap speech earlier this year, in which he said:

For so many of us in this place, few things matter more than the lot of Indigenous people. For so many of us, this is personal—not political.

I know that that is absolutely the case for the Prime Minister, who has made the advancement of Indigenous people one of his handful of top priorities, which is really the first time that has been done by an Australian Prime Minister. And it is personal to me. I have worked on and off with Indigenous people and Indigenous organisations for 15 years now, including giving up a corporate career to go and work with Noel Pearson for three years up in Far North Queensland. So it is important for me personally, it is important for the Prime Minister personally, it is important for our side of politics and, indeed, it is important for the other side.

I was disappointed, though, with the Leader of the Opposition's comments in relation to the debate we had last week on remote communities. In an interview, he suggested that the Prime Minister just wanted to move Aboriginal people off their land. I thought that was beneath the Leader of the Opposition. I thought it was actually quite a disgraceful comment, and I asked him to withdraw the comment. The reason I did say was that, firstly, the comment was wrong; it is not the case that this is what the Prime Minister wants to do. Secondly, I made the point that it was in some respects hypocritical because Labor, when they were in government, made decisions not to invest in, for example, further housing resources in the homelands communities but to focus those resources on the larger communities. And when it came to the municipal services debate, they were trying to make the same agreements with the Western Australian government that we made.

What did happen in relation to that debate, which the Leader of the Opposition was referring to, was that, firstly, there was an agreement made between the Australian government and the Western Australian government to transfer responsibility for municipal services from the Australian government to the state government—because the state government is closer to the ground, through local councils who run municipal services everywhere else in Western Australia. That was the first thing that happened.

The second thing that happened was that the Western Australian government had made at least some decisions, if not an indication, that they wanted to look at some of the very small communities in terms of the ongoing investments that were made there. Those very small communities—they are in the hundreds, I believe—typically only have one or two families. I was informed today that there were 130 communities, as you might call them, consisting of 500 people in total. These are not the larger settlements that we talking about. These are the very small ones. I met with the Western Australian minister for regional services today. He informed me that no decisions have been made. Rather, he is starting to think about some 10-year planning, and deep consultation will occur during that process. That is what is going to occur.

We do need to have a mature discussion about the remote communities, because in many cases they are not healthy places. We all know that. Despite the investments which have been made into those communities, they are not healthy places. In many cases there are very few jobs available. The statistics show—and I appreciate that the member for Lingiari is upset at me for saying this—that in many cases there are very few jobs in those locations. The proportion of young people aged 17 to 24 who are in full-time work or training is only 17 per cent in the remote communities. We do need to think deeply about that, because we know that if people are not engaged in education or in work then their opportunities going forward are so much narrower. At the same time we want to ensure that connection to land is there, that the culture survives and that the culture is enhanced. They are some of the difficult discussions, the mature discussions, which were occurring over the last week—at least in some quarters.

I would like to pick up on another point that the Leader of the Opposition made in his debate. In essence, probably the most substantive point he made was that we need to be talking to Indigenous leaders and Indigenous people and we need to be listening to them—and he is absolutely right. We need to be doing that, and we should always be doing that. But the implication was that the government has not been doing enough of that or has not been doing much of that at all. I would just like to correct that, if that indeed was the implication.

We have an ongoing engagement and an ongoing discussion with Indigenous leaders. We do that in part through the Prime Minister's Indigenous Advisory Council. We do that in part through the Prime Minister spending a week in a remote community each year as he has done for, I believe, the last 10 years—and he has continued to do that as Prime Minister. No other Prime Minister has ever done that. He does that in part through the work which Nigel Scullion, the Minister for Indigenous Affairs, does in speaking to people across the country on a very regular basis. He does that in part through me, as his parliamentary secretary, supporting him in this agenda in terms of my engagement and travels with these people. He does that through the members of parliament, many of whom are in this chamber now, who represent areas with significant Indigenous populations. And within this chamber, sitting here—and speaking in the future—is the first Indigenous member of the House of Representatives, Ken Wyatt, who we are very proud of.

When we came to government we did a number of things immediately to advance the Indigenous cause. First of all, we put the Indigenous programs underneath the Prime Minister, so we have a Prime Minister for Indigenous affairs. This gave Indigenous affairs status and it gave it greater authority. Next we made some decisions at a philosophical level to put some sharp focal points around school attendance, work and community safety. Why are those priorities? Because, in some respects, kids learning from adults and adults working for sustenance has underpinned every thriving community for all of human history. If you fail to have kids learning from adults and if you fail to have adults working for their sustenance, then it is so much more difficult to address some of the other issues. If people are educated and people do have jobs, then typically other things tend to take care of themselves. Hence our absolute sharp focus on those three things.

We have made some governance changes which are designed to streamline the approach and devolve power down to the regional level so that our officials can be problem solvers, not just contract managers—and we are in that process presently. Finally, we have already put in place many practical measures to improve and assist with the advancement of Aboriginal people across the country. Those very practical measures include some of the school attendance measures which are already in place, many of which have had terrific success and seen school attendance rates go up by 15 percentage points. There are other places where we have not had the same sort of success we would like to have had.

We have had 5,000 jobs created through what is called the VTEC, which is training into a job—such a different way of doing training than the traditional 'training for training's sake'. We have done many other initiatives, which are being informed by the Forrest review, including this week when we announced that we will have a procurement target of three percentage points. We have announced that we will increase the Indigenous employment rate, and we will be making more comments about what corporate Australia can do as well. None of these are easy. All of these are on the path to improving and advancing Indigenous peoples, and we look forward to working with Indigenous Australians in this cause.

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

First up I want to congratulate the Close the Gap Campaign Steering Committee and Oxfam for bringing more than 200,000 Australians together to take a stand to support Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander health equality. I want to congratulate them for the work they do. People from all walks of life have come together at events around the country to pledge their commitment to making sure that we improve the health and life expectancy of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people in this country.

The Leader of the Opposition correctly outlined that Labor remains ready, willing and able to negotiate with the government in relation to constitutional recognition. But, as Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people have said to us, 'Nothing about us without us', to quote Les Malezer, who is the co-chair of the National Congress of Australia's First Peoples. And the feedback we have got on our joint select committee on constitutional recognition is that preamble or symbolic change to our Constitution is simply not acceptable but that indeed real and substantive change based on the recommendations of the expert panel, including serious consideration of section 116A of the amendment to the Constitution, should be looked at in terms of what we are doing.

But one of the first things this government did was cut $534 million from front-line services to Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people, many of them community controlled services, and one of the first things they did was claim that it was all an efficiency dividend, red tape reduction and bureaucratic streamlining. In fact, that is not true. In fact, in Senate estimates it was shown that it is clearly the case that front-line services have been cut across the country. Language and learning funding has been cut, and $43 million of funding to legal aid services has been cut across the country. In the Northern Territory, NAAJA cannot deliver the kinds of services they need there. In urban areas as well, where Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people live mostly, services have been cut.

But we have a Prime Minister who does not understand the connection between language and land, between culture and country. And making those disgraceful and insensitive remarks in relation to lifestyle choices cannot be dismissed. You cannot ask Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people to support you in constitutional recognition and not apologise as Labor has called for. You cannot cut $534 million in the budget and then say that it is of no consequence, and you cannot run out a so-called Indigenous advancement strategy—which we call an Indigenous confusion strategy—and roll out only a small amount of money compared with the $2.3 billion that was supposed to be available. We have front-line services delivering a range of programs—tertiary tuition, legal aid services, language services, support for mums and dads, anti-domestic-violence services, support for children, and children and family centres. They have been cut, and cut again, and the government does not realise the consequences. You cannot close the gap by cutting your way to it. It will not work.

So, the Leader of the Opposition has written to the Prime Minister saying that we need to sit down with Indigenous elders and have a conversation with them and try to advance this and get this back on track, because the government does not appreciate what they have done. I think there are people of goodwill on that side with the intention of closing the gap. And I acknowledge the Prime Minister's personal commitment. But he does not quite get it, and I think people on the other side do not quite understand the consequences. I have seen it in Cherbourg in South-East Queensland at an Indigenous settlement there, and in Glebe in Sydney, where there is a large population, and in the Torres Strait, meeting with the Torres Strait Regional Authority, and in Tasmania, with the Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people being treated so shabbily in the long history of this country, and in Western Australia, where services for remote communities are being cut without any consultation. And the Prime Minister thinks they should be compliant and should be going ahead with the constitutional recognition. What is he talking about, dispossessing these people who have had 200 years of disadvantage and dispossession and discrimination? And he wants them to go with him? This is a cause we should all adopt and believe in, and there are people on that side who believe in it too, and I urge them to change the Prime Minister's mind, have this meeting, sit down with respected Indigenous leaders and try to get the Close the Gap strategy back on track.

Ken Wyatt (Hasluck, Liberal Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

I thank the Leader of the Opposition for this debate today, because there are many elements of Closing the Gap in constitutional recognition. It is progressing, but there are many gaps in the whole process. I listened to the Leader of the Opposition talk about the notion of both he and the Prime Minister meeting with Indigenous leaders, and that is important. But on eight occasions in this parliament I have challenged every member to get out through their electorates, including senators, and meet with every Aboriginal organisation, every Aboriginal community, to look at what the gap is that exists, because it will bring about closure of the gap more than any other initiative if members of both chambers get to understand what their constituents experience, what their constituents are troubled with, and then come back and advocate for the reforms and changes that are needed.

I have been around for a while in Aboriginal affairs, in education, health and 99-year leases of land. And the thing that comes out every time is that the elders say: 'We are consulted with, we are talked to, but nothing changes. What we want is real change on the ground. The other part of the equation, if we talk about just constitutional recognition, is that I would also want the Prime Minister and the Leader of the Opposition talking to non-Indigenous Australians. They hold the majority. That is where we also have to convince—that the strategy of our thinking must be inclusive of a society but at the same time be inclusive of the reforms that are needed across every facet of the lives of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people who live across this great nation of ours.

I once spoke to a group and said to them, 'Nothing will change until we understand the community and the problem, what the problem is and why we need to change, what the level of buy-in is by both parties'—in other words, the community and the government agencies that often come—and then clarify it by finding out what is really going on, what is happening on the ground that is not working, and what is working. If incarceration rates are having a significant impact on a particular community, then let's look at the issue and see what it is that we have to resolve and change. And then how do you ensure that a community voice is heard in that process?—because that is an important element. And who can prevent change from being successful?—because there are people who are gatekeepers, and we have not tackled that issue in Aboriginal affairs. On constitutional recognition, the constitutional conservatives are the gatekeepers of any change to the Constitution. So, again, we need to engage in the discussions, because I know that in the hearts of many Australians there is strong goodwill, and I know that the Prime Minister is committed to ensuring that the Constitution has some substance in it—not the minimalist approach. We need to build the best possible solutions in bipartisan approaches. I have said previously that it would be great to have a 10-year plan to commit governments and oppositions to a strategic approach in which communities know what is occurring, and know that the change that is emerging is going to be real.

And then we have to make it happen, because if change is to happen we need to negotiate and have an agreement with both parties. Everywhere across this country, what I see littered under all governments is the consultations, the discussions and the negotiations with little change occurring. With responsibility from governments there is also an obligation. There is also an obligation to sit with people and to work through and nut out what the desire that they seek is. There will be issues around land. I ask every member, if we are going to close the gap and achieve constitutional change: get out into your seats and electorates. Go and have the discussions with every key leader, both Indigenous and non-Indigenous, because if we want these changes to be successful, then bring people with us.

That is why the committee has suggested that we have both chambers of this parliament concurrently debate the issue of constitutional change. The people we represent will hear our voices and know our stance. They will know our level of commitment to the changes that are needed. I commend all of those, over the years—and, in particular, those in the Abbott government—who are working to effect change that will bring about what is needed within Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander communities.

Ms Catherine King (Ballarat, Australian Labor Party, Shadow Minister for Health) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

There has been no greater failure in Australian public life than the failure of governments, both state and federal, Labor and Liberal, to ensure that our First Australians enjoy the same quality of life as all other Australians. Australia now has a standard of living and a quality of life that is the envy of the world. Australian men and women can now both expect to live beyond 80, one of only two countries where this occurs—except if you are an Indigenous Australian. We have among the world's best health outcomes. Our cancer survival rates, for example, are world leading, and our infant mortality is at record lows—again, except if you are an Indigenous Australian. If you do become ill, you can count on the support of a world-class, free universal health-insurance system—our healthcare system, Medicare—to look after you every step of the way—except if you are an Indigenous Australian and cannot access it.

It is true that we are making progress. There have been some improvements. Life expectancy for Indigenous Australians has increased by 1.6 years and 0.6 years for men and women respectively over the past five years. But that still leaves life expectancy of Indigenous Australians at around 10 years less than for the rest of the population.

It still leaves us as two nations, where most of us can expect to enjoy extremely long and mostly healthy lives, while in other parts of our nation it is another country, with a lifespan usually found in third-world countries on another continent. That is a terrible loss of lives. Lives are being ended far too soon and parents are not living long enough to see their grandchildren, due, more often than not, to health outcomes we do not tolerate in the wider community. There are issues like smoking, where there is a much higher prevalence among Aboriginal Australians, and diabetes and the problems caused through obesity. Twice as many Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander infants as non-Indigenous infants are born of low birth weight, denying too many babies even a decent start of a healthy life. Just today, the Australian Institute of Health and Welfare's report on admitted patient care finds Aboriginal people are hospitalised at double the rate of the rest of the population.

Tomorrow marks the anniversary of Kevin Rudd's 2008 signing of the Close the gap: Indigenous health equality summit: Statement of intent. It is why this debate has been brought on in this chamber. It is no accident, from this side of the House, that it is the Leader of the Opposition, two shadow cabinet ministers and two other members of the ministry who are here debating this notion. We take this very seriously.

The statement that was signed in 2008 declared that the government of Australia and the Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples of Australia would:

…work together to achieve equality in health status and life expectancy between Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples and non-Indigenous Australians by the year 2030.

Sadly, the release of the Close the gap: progress and priorities report 2015 revealed how far we still have to travel to meet this goal. As I declared at the outset, no one government or party is to blame for all of this. But what these latest figures show is that now is not the time to be removing resources from this area; it is the time to be ramping them up, to making sure there is certainty for Indigenous health organisations across the country so they can continue this good work. This is why, of course, on this side of the House, we were so distressed by last year's budget, which saw half a billion dollars in cuts to Closing the Gap programs, including $165 million taken from Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander health programs alone.

These cuts are being felt in communities at the coalface of the fight to close the gap. Amity Community Services in Darwin, for example, was forced to cut its program combating substance abuse among vulnerable young people. There was $2.3 million axed from youth sport, health and education services at the MacDonnell Regional Council. Organisations such as the Congress of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Nurses and Midwives do not know what is happening to their funding—which comes through the Health Department—beyond June 2015.

If we are to close the gap and improve health outcomes in Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander populations we cannot take funding away from these programs. There should be an outcry, on all sides of the parliament, that there are decisions to do so. Concern about what these cuts do needs to be expressed—whether it is publicly or internally on that side of parliament. We know they do have an impact on the services and the capacity of Indigenous organisations and Aboriginal medical services to actually deliver these important services. On this side of the House, we are committed to closing the gap.

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

Thank you for the opportunity to speak on this matter of public importance. I acknowledge the desire to accelerate progress of closing the gap. At the same time, I acknowledge a number of other things. My government does have a plan to close the gap, and that plan is being monitored, measured and adjusted.

I believe that we are united with those opposite to see the plan deliver real, life-changing outcomes and that we all wish to see speedier progress. We agree that governments—just like those opposite—have tried and failed, and that there are no simple answers. Certainly money is not the answer. And I agree that divisive debate is not helpful.

I also note that to close the gap we must work together, because nothing is more important for me, as the member for Durack, and for my Indigenous Durack constituents. Transformation cannot be rushed. A long-term focus on health and wellbeing is required to underpin progress in education, schooling, jobs and meaningful work, safety and security.

To put his debate in perspective, I think it is helpful to reflect on some of the targets outlined in the recently released Closing the gap report. Closing the gap in life expectancy within a generation is not on track. Halving the gap within a decade in mortality rates for Indigenous children under five is on track for the longer term. So that is some good news, there.

With respect to closing the gap between Indigenous and non-Indigenous school attendance within five years, new targets have been set against the 2014 baseline to close the school attendance gap by 2019. I am assured by Minister Scullion that we are starting to have some wins in that respect. So we have seen some improvement but, overall, this is not a good report card. As government continues to develop programs and policies, the process involves audits, assessments and reviews of what does and does not work. We are aware of the review work around service providers and contracts, and we are seeing a shift. Increasingly, providers will be rewarded for results; not for spending time on process.

Accountability must improve. Governance must improve. The government is focused on putting in place the right parameters in order to achieve quality outcomes for Indigenous people. There is much to do, and we wish to accelerate progress, but not at the risk of diluting real sustainable outcomes that will improve the lives of Aboriginal Australians.

As I like to do in these debates, I will turn to my electorate of Durack. My role is to lobby and work to improve the lives of Aboriginal people in Durack. I have the best electorate in Australia—big, beautiful and challenging—with 90,000 constituents and 1.6 million beautiful square kilometres. And with 274 Aboriginal communities in Western Australia, the majority of which are in Durack, I have a lot of skin in the game. No-one wants to see Aboriginal people forced to leave the land they love—been there; done that. We know that did not work.

I respectfully acknowledge that today is the national day of action against closure of Aboriginal communities. I want to assure the people at the rallies in Geraldton and Canberra—and in other rallies that were held in my electorate of Durack today—that I firmly believe that there is no intention of the state government of Western Australia to start closing Aboriginal communities. I have received that assurance personally from Premier Barnett.

As the parliamentary secretary said earlier in this debate, Colin Barnett has some work to do around remote Aboriginal communities. There is an acknowledgement that there needs to be more consultation, communication and planning. As I understand it, his deliberations will take account of a number of constraints. That will not be a surprise to any of us here.

Many of the 274 remote Aboriginal communities are small. Realistically, it is difficult to provide education, health and employment opportunities in these communities. There are 1,309 Aboriginal people living in 174 of the smallest communities. That is an average of just 7.5 people in each of those 174 communities. I think it is very important for us to keep that in perspective when we are talking about what is a community.

Of course, there are other, wider issues around alcohol, drug abuse, a lack of employment, and inadequate health care and education. The state government of Western Australia will have no choice but to deal with all of these issues. I agree with the member for Hasluck that it will take the Indigenous and non-Indigenous leaders to come together to truly bring about the closing of the gap. Thank you for the opportunity to contribute today.

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

I am very pleased to be able to participate in this debate, and follow the Leader of the Opposition, who was the first speaker in this debate on a matter of public importance. I congratulate him for a very eloquent speech, and for putting in proper context the need for constitutional change, and what we should be doing about it. I implore the Prime Minister to respond positively to the approaches the Leader of the Opposition has made directly to him to convene a meeting of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander leaders and elders to sit down and talk about issues to do with constitutional change, and, no doubt, other issues such as closing the gap.

That is what I am going to discuss today. I want to thank the member for Blair and the member for Ballarat for their contributions. I thought they outlined, in a very succinct way, the issues which we need to confront in Aboriginal health, for example. I also want to acknowledge the member for Aston, the member for Hasluck and the member for Durack.

I would say to the member for Aston: you have a hard job to do—I respect that—but coming up here and trying to defend the Prime Minister's stupidity in making a statement around lifestyle choices was not a very good picture. I say this because last week I travelled around parts of my own electorate in the Northern Territory and visited small Aboriginal communities where people raised with me their concern about what was going to happen. Whether or not it was an accurate reflection of what the Prime Minister meant is not the point here. The perception in the community—this is the point—is that this is what is going to happen. That is the concern.

The problem we have here is that the member for Aston says that it is very important to talk to people. Absolutely! Why doesn't the Prime Minister sit down and talk and listen? He should look, listen and learn—very fundamental things—instead of opening his mouth and letting the wind blow his tongue around. That is the wrong thing to do. I say to him again: I am always prepared to take any member of the government or opposition to Aboriginal communities across the country—but most particularly in my communities—and show them how to talk and listen, because that is what it should be about. We should be very concerned about scaring people.

I want to make some observations about the health measures that have been taken by the government. I want to say to the Assistant Minister for Health, Senator Nash, that I am with her on their implementation of the National Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Health Plan. If we are to bring about a closing of the gap in the way we want to do then adopting the health plan which we developed while we were in government is a very important step. I am looking forward to seeing the draft implementation strategy when she feels free to make it available to me.

But I also want to say to her that I congratulate the government on the guarantee of certainty at least—whether or not the quantum is sufficient is a different matter—for the core funding for Aboriginal community controlled health services across the country. There are issues around the funding of these health services in terms of the abysmal Indigenous Advancement Strategy, the confusion which has emerged as a result of that strategy and the loss of funding across communities around Australia as a result of that strategy. You cannot on the one hand talk about closing the gap and on the other hand cut the programs which are providing the services which will lead you to close the gap, which is exactly what this government has chosen to do. That is a mistake, and it just shows the folly of the decisions which have been taken by this government since it came into office 18 months ago.

The decision to transfer into the Department of the Prime Minister and Cabinet Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander issues was in part, I guess, motivated by the right ideals, but let's just be very clear: the health functions which are in the Department of the Prime Minister and Cabinet should go back immediately to the Department of Health. That is very clear, because people are very concerned about the uncertainty that has arisen around these health measures that have not been funded.

I want to say also that the reason we can stand here proudly and say we are making improvements in many areas is the work of Aboriginal community controlled health organisations across this country. Their innovation, their respect now for good governance and their approaches to governance are to be applauded. Their service delivery models—which are amongst the best in the country, if not the world, in terms of primary health care—need to be applauded, as do the preventive health strategies they put in place, despite the frustrations of having $165 million taken out of that bucket of money during the last budget. They could do a lot better if the government were fair dinkum and did not cut those funds from the last budget, and they will do a lot better if the government puts the money back.

David Gillespie (Lyne, National Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

For this MPI, I would just like to place on record that I fully support the Closing the Gap process. The coalition fully supports the Closing the Gap process. From the Prime Minister down, there is enormous commitment, which is long lasting and not a blow-in event. There is a long personal commitment by the PM to this process.

We all want to improve the health and life expectancy of our Aboriginal citizens, but with a 10-year gap it is closing slowly. That is a cause of great disappointment, particularly with last year's figures, but we need to take a reality check. It will take a generation. It is not going to happen over a year or two. A lot of these health figures will persist, because there is a lot of disease in existence already. You only have to look at diabetes and renal failure amongst central Australian Aboriginals.

The other reality check that I call on the House to make is that the federal government cannot do it all. We can do what we can do, and the current coalition government is committing an awful lot of taxpayers' dollars to it, but it goes beyond money being spent. It has to be spent well, spent effectively and not wasted. This year alone, there is $1.4 billion allocated to Indigenous health strategy out of $3.1 billion over the term of this government. There is a total of $4.9 billion in the Indigenous Advancement Strategy and, in this first funding round, $860 million.

So not only should communities and individuals buy into the process; if a problem exists now with a lot of diseases like diabetes that are caused by obesity, we need a change in behaviour, and that does not happen overnight. It is going to have to start at a very early age, by keeping families together; developing parenting skills; dietary change; school attendance; a long-term commitment to nutrition; avoidance of smoking over a lifetime; and avoiding solvent abuse, which unfortunately is too common among youth in some of these communities. Diabesity—diabetes caused by obesity—is a massive problem across all of Australia but is particularly evident amongst Aboriginal citizens.

Not only should governments buy into this but there are community groups that buy into it. There are a few in the Lyne electorate and around Australia that have a great track record. One of them that has worked well in Queensland, the Northern Territory, Western Australia and parts of New South Wales is the Clontarf Foundation. It uses sport as an Indigenous behaviour change encouragement principle, rather than the 'big stick' principle. It gets young Aboriginal men into school around sport. School attendance rates go up. School completion rates go up. Incarceration rates amongst the cohort that has been through Clontarf Foundation schools drops. Employment and training completion rates are higher than for those that have not been to it. So I thoroughly encourage those sorts of programs.

The Smith Family partners with families and mentors children to complete school. Things like that do not just happen in one year or two years; it takes a whole generation. There is in Taree a group that is trying to get a wraparound centre up and running so that we can train any families that are struggling with family and nutrition skills and health in little babies so that we get them even into preschool, because if they go to preschool for a year they do better at school. Again, a wraparound centre in Taree would be an excellent outcome, and I will continue to fight, with Rosemary Sinclair and others in the Taree community, to get that achieved. Just in this last funding round, $8.5 million over three years was announced to continue and increase the funding of the Biripi Aboriginal Medical Centre and $11.3 million for the Durri.

In terms of the constitutional change, there is a desire amongst both sides to get this issue resolved, but we need to know exactly whether it is a change to the preamble, removal of offending parts or just a separate mention to protect the identity and heritage. (Time expired)

Stephen Jones (Throsby, Australian Labor Party, Shadow Parliamentary Secretary for Regional Development and Infrastructure) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

Today is the seventh anniversary of the first Closing the Gap agreement. I regret to say that it has not been met with happy news, because less than three weeks ago, when the Prime Minister stood at that dispatch box and handed down the annual Closing the Gap report, we took no joy in finding that five out of the seven targets that have been identified—targets which are aimed at addressing the gap in health, education and employment outcomes—had not been met. That is to say: we are failing what we are setting out to do, not as a government, not as a parliament but as a nation.

In addition to that, we learnt, as the member for Ballarat and the member for Blair said in their addresses on this MPI, that the Australian Institute of Health and Welfare has today told us that we are failing to address the inequalities in a number of other areas. For example, if you are an Aboriginal person, you are three times more likely to be hospitalised for a preventable disease. If you are an Aboriginal person, you are six times more likely to have a disease which is preventable by vaccinations that are available to every other Australian. It is a shame upon all of us that somebody is being hospitalised for a preventable cause or that they are catching a disease for which there is a vaccine available to every other Australian.

In addition to that, we see that smoking rates are more than double that of the general population. When we look at the amount of money that is being spent out of the fantastic Labor initiatives, such as the Medicare Benefit Scheme and the Pharmaceutical Benefit Scheme on Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people compared to the rest of the population, most people would be surprised to know that for every dollar that a non-Aboriginal person receives out of benefits from the PBS or MBS an Aboriginal person receives only 70c. For every dollar that you or I might receive out of the MBS or the PBS, an Aboriginal person receives less than 70c. We know that we have got a lot of work to do and that the mainstream programs are not working, which is why, as the member for Lingiari has just said, Aboriginal controlled and community controlled organisations are such an important element in the solution.

We cannot visit blame, as I have just said. We take no political joy out of the fact that we are failing five out of the seven targets. We also cannot say that the blame lies with the government. But what we can do is be critical of where a program fails to address the inequalities. There have been $500 million worth of cuts to Indigenous programs. There are $168 million worth of cuts in health specific programs, including a $130 million program addressing smoking, which has been frozen. If there was one initiative that we could do that would address the imbalance in health, it would be to bring the smoking rates down in the Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander population to that of the rest of the population.

It is often said that it is not what you say but what you do that matters the most. I say that what you say matters as well, because it impacts on what you can do. When the Prime Minister talks about a country that was sparsely settled prior to white settlement or talks about 'lifestyle choices' it impacts upon what we can actually do as a parliament and as a nation. It sends a very negative signal to the rest of the population and it stands as an obstacle to us dealing with the reconciliation issues and with the important task of bringing people together as a nation, Left and Right and conservative and nonconservative for the important task of constitutional recognition. I say that it matters, and we on this side of the House say it matters. There are three things that we need to do through the process of constitutional recognition. We need to remove the stain of racism from our Constitution. There would be many Australians who would be shocked to know that our Constitution has clauses which specifically contemplate excluding people from the right to vote on the basis of their race—but it does, and it should be removed.

We sing in our national anthem that our country is young and free, when in fact our country is a very ancient country, with 40,000 years of history. This needs to be recognised in our Constitution. Together with that, we need some constraints to ensure that in the future we never commit the sins of the past. This is the task for the nation. (Time expired)

Steve Irons (Swan, Liberal Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

I rise to add my contribution to this MPI on the need to accelerate progress on closing the gap and advance constitutional recognition. I appreciate the Leader of the Opposition for raising this MPI. I think his intention was genuine. It was good to see that the member for Aston recognised that his contribution was not partisan, but I must say that I saw the member for Blair, the member for Lingiari and the member for Throsby spending some time in this MPI criticising the Prime Minister. Maybe the time that you spent criticising the Prime Minister should have been spent making more of a contribution towards this MPI; but, instead of doing that, you wasted time having a shot at the Prime Minister and being partisan.

I have a long history with the Indigenous population. My father was the assistant director of the ministry of Aboriginal affairs in Victoria. Years ago, we spent many days at an Indigenous camp, down at Lake Tyers, which is in south-east of Victoria. From the time I spent playing with the kids and going in canoes with them to seeing the developments and mistakes made by both sides of government over many years, I think the intent of this MPI is a good and genuine one. It needs to have a positive aspect to it, as my good friend the member for Hasluck said. He spoke about bringing people together: we should all work toward the same thing and make it a partisan situation. I also heard the member for Lyne talk about the Clontarf Foundation, which is in my electorate in south Perth. The Clontarf Foundation has done enormous things from young Aboriginals. It is part of not only closing the gap but breaking the cycle as well, which is an important part of making sure that the wealth, health and welfare of the Indigenous population is greatly improved.

The Prime Minister was the first to admit in his Closing the Gap speech that:

Despite the concerted efforts of successive governments since the first report, we are not on track to achieve most of the targets.

We are, however, on track toward halving the gap in Year 12 attainment rates for Aboriginals and Torres Strait Islanders aged 20-24, halving the mortality rates for Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander children by 2018 and closing the school attendance gap within five years.

I highlight that during my time as an elected representative in this place, I have not met with any Indigenous organisations that have come to me and said, 'We can't achieve our targets because we haven't got enough money.' It is more about getting the programs out to the people at the coalface and making sure that the money is not the issue; it is the implementation of the programs they are talking about. It is trying to develop a framework for achieving these targets which can actually be implemented on the ground. It is about getting the money to those frontline services, rather than this vital funding being caught up in bureaucracy. We, in the government realise—and I am sure the opposition realised when they were in government—that a lot of wastage is in the bureaucracy. We need to make sure that is minimised.

Despite this, the coalition government has invested significant funding toward a range of initiatives aimed at supporting these targets. This includes $860 million through the Indigenous Advancement Strategy grants round, which will support 964 separate organisations, including 233 Indigenous organisations, to deliver 1,297 projects across Australia. Importantly, this funding specifically focuses on getting children to school, adults to work and making communities safer, which are three of this government's key priorities. I recently attended an event which was sponsored by Woodside down in Fremantle, where they run a program for people to teach the parents how to get their kids to school. It is a fantastic program. It is an effective program. The people who are on the ground at that particular event, who actually graduated from the program, said it is the best program they have ever been involved in, and they understand now how important it is to get kids to school, to help break that cycle, and close the gap.

In regard to the constitutional changes, as a member in this place I have witnessed the apology to the Stolen Generation, and in December 2013 the member for Fremantle and I wrote a joint opinion piece in the West Australian newspaper supporting the recognition of Aboriginals in Australia's Constitution. So I think it is very clear that this is something that has bipartisan support, despite those opposite sometimes claiming that we are not doing it quickly enough.

I believe a couple of things we said in the article are worth stating in this place. The major one is:

Recognition will be a powerful act of inclusion for many people who have long been made to feel like outsiders in their own land.

The DEPUTY SPEAKER: Order! The discussion is now concluded.