Meryl Swanson (Paterson, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

I begin by acknowledging the traditional owners of this land, the Ngunnawal and Ngambri peoples, and pay my respects to their elders past and present and future. It was incredible to stand in the Great Hall of Parliament House yesterday to witness the handing of the Redfern Statement to the Prime Minister. The statement was presented in a coolamon, used by Indigenous women to carry food and water, and precious babies. This, indeed, was a special and precious baby being delivered by Jackie Huggins and Rod Little, the co-chairs of the National Congress of Australia's First Peoples. The Redfern Statement was made last year by Indigenous leaders. It is a way forward for Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people. And when the Indigenous community say, 'We have the solutions,' this government must listen. There was recognition this morning of Paul Keating's celebrated Redfern address in 1992. There was recognition of Kevin Rudd's apology to the stolen generation in 2008. There was recognition of Jenny Macklin's work in setting targets for improving the lives of Aboriginal people. And there was acknowledgement of our current Indigenous parliamentarians—Pat Dodson, Malarndirri McCarthy, Linda Burney, Jacqui Lambie and Ken Wyatt. There was hope, and inspiration. But the House itself delivered the reality check, and it came in the form of the ninth annual Closing the gap report.

Australia is not on track to close the life expectancy gap between Indigenous and non-Indigenous Australians; in fact, the gap is widening and deaths are increasing when it comes to cancer and child mortality. State and federal governments are on track to meet just one of seven targets in this strategy, with setbacks in the areas of unemployment and child mortality. The only improvement that has been made, and thank goodness there is at least one, is an improvement in the number of Indigenous students finishing year 12. Yet, this government wants to slash $30 billion from our schools, much of it targeted at that very aim of improving outcomes for Aboriginal students. In fact, in my electorate of Paterson, where $43 million will be cut from school funding, one school—Kurri Kurri High School—has made incredible strides with Gonski funding in regard to its Aboriginal students. With the help of a specialist full-time teacher, Aboriginal students at Kurri Kurri High have improved their writing results by 200 per cent. It is simply an outstanding outcome. But, because this government has gone back on its word to deliver the full Gonski rollout, Kurri Kurri High stands to lose $1.1 million—simply astounding.

During the Abbott reign of terror this government also slashed $500 million from Indigenous funding and instigated what it called the Indigenous Advancement Strategy, and what a disaster that has been. There has certainly been no advancement for Indigenous Australians, and this has been backed up by the Australian National Audit Office report into this strategy, which said it is quite simply a shameful indictment on the Liberal government. The ANAO says the strategy was botched from the beginning. Not only did the government rip more than $500 million from the Indigenous affairs budget; the entire process has been completely shambolic, leading to widespread confusion among Indigenous organisations, who were not consulted or communicated with in any way.

This is what happens when you impose solutions instead of working with communities. The Closing the gap report yesterday told us that the lives of Indigenous men are 10.6 years shorter than their non-Indigenous counterparts. For Indigenous women the gap is 9.5 years. There has been mixed progress across other target areas—child mortality, early education, school attendance, student reading and numeracy, employment and year-12 attainment—but by and by the news is not good.

In my own electorate of Paterson, home of the Worimi, the Wonnarua and the Awabakal people, Aboriginal disadvantage is as great as anywhere. Probably the most telling statistic comes from an extensive report prepared by Maitland City Council in 2013. I thank Maitland City Council for that research, which sets out to identify that disadvantage and look for solutions. That statistic is the median age of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people in Maitland. That median age is just 18. In comparison, the median age of non-Indigenous people is 36. What does that really mean? It means that more than half of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people in Maitland in my electorate are under 19 and only six per cent are over 60. I find that so astounding and shameful. In this age when non-Indigenous Australians are living well into their nineties, we have very few Indigenous Australians living anywhere near that age and a tiny percentage living over 60.

That report from Maitland council has a number of other telling statistics. The suburbs with the highest disadvantage were also the suburbs with the highest Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander population. Indigenous people in Maitland are 12.4 per cent less likely to complete high school and three times less likely to obtain a tertiary education. The unemployment rate is 11.7 per cent higher for Indigenous people, and the labour force participation is 4.6 per cent lower than for non-Indigenous people. Indigenous people earn 30 per cent less in weekly income and 12 per cent less in household income despite having bigger households. Indigenous people are twice as likely to rent their homes and almost half as likely to own their own homes outright. These sound like statistics just rolling off a page, but they are people. They are our first people.

The one light shining in the report and one that reflects the closing the gap findings overall is that more people are staying on to year 12, and I find that so encouraging. I am very moved by this, and I am pleased that my colleague Linda Burney is with me. Thank you, Linda. In 2006, the percentage of Indigenous students completing their HSC was 17 per cent, and in 2011 that percentage had risen to 22 per cent. That is still well below the non-Indigenous percentage of 34 per cent, but it is improving.

These are mostly economic indicators, but they result from health, education and employment disadvantage—indicators in which we are not closing the gap. I add my voice to the call to listen to Indigenous people and to actually hear what they have to say. The Redfern Statement tells us that Aboriginal people have the solutions. The $500 million cut to Indigenous programs and front-line services made by this Liberal government has had very real and damaging impacts, and that cut must be reversed. I want to point out an excellent piece that was written in today's Sydney Morning Herald by Michael Gordon. It sums up for me, very well, what happened yesterday:

The Prime Minister is a glass-half-full politician and he chose to focus on the positives when he presented the report to Parliament on Tuesday… This reflects the idea that you make progress by celebrating success, but the self-congratulatory tone was out of order and it won't work if the deeper question of the relationship between Indigenous and non-Indigenous Australians is not addressed.

This, to me, is the critical point: yes, we must celebrate those successes; it is important that they are acknowledged. But getting back to what Michael Gordon said again:

Each is important, but these are incremental steps when a paradigm shift is required.

And that paradigm shift is truly what we talking about here. It is not the imposition of ideas by us, non-Aboriginal people, to Aboriginal people. It is the complete reversal of that idea: the idea that Aboriginal people are masters of their own destiny. They have the solutions. They have the ideas. And it is up to us to be humble enough to sit at their feet and hear their solutions and work with them to help us both create a better Australia that we will all benefit from. This is not just for the benefit of our first peoples; this is for the benefit of all people who live in this great country so that we can make it an even better country.

Emma Husar (Lindsay, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

I rise to reflect on the ninth Closing the gap report, which was handed down yesterday. I would like to note and put on the record that there are no government speakers to speak on this important topic—they are probably too busy supporting the cartoonists who choose to depict Aboriginal people in the wrong light. The 2017 report has, yet again, illustrated the need for a more concerted effort by government to address the areas of disadvantage that still shockingly befall Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Australians, and an issue that is close to my heart and close to the electorate of Lindsay.

Western Sydney has the highest concentration of Aboriginal people than anywhere else in the country. We are privileged, and I say privileged, to be home to incredible communities of culture and history. During my inaugural address, I gave my commitment to work hard to close the gaps of inequity that exist amongst our Indigenous brothers and sisters. This report shows that progress is being made in one key area is on track: the target to halve the gap in year 12 attainment by 2020. This is such an essential target because we know that completing year 12 opens doors to university, employment and leads to greater opportunities to build a decent life for yourself. But that is where the list of successful targets being reached starts and ends and, as my colleague Meryl Swanson has just pointed out, that is not to be celebrated.

The list of targets which are not on track should fill us all with a sense of deep shame because, simply, we are consistently falling short of the essential benchmarks we have set for ourselves. And we cannot fall into the trap of excusing our failures by amplifying our success because, at this stage and with these results, we have to be honest and hard on ourselves. We are not on track to halve the gap in child mortality by 2018. We are not on track to close the gap in life expectancy by 2031 and we are not on track to have 95 per cent of all Indigenous four-year-olds in early education by 2025. In fact, the government has just made a sweeping cut to those Indigenous education centres. We are not on track to close the gap in school attendance by the end of 2018 and we are not on track to halve the gap in reading and numeracy for Indigenous students by 2018. And we are not on track to halve the gap in employment by 2018. So that one thing that we have been celebrating seems pretty vacuous by now. These are heartbreaking realities and each is a poor reflection on this parliament and the government of the last four years, but these hard truths illustrate why it is so important that the previous Labor government instituted the Closing the Gap strategy and it is why it is so important we have to update parliament every year so we cannot hide behind the ignorance or the indifference that exists. Our failures are there for all to see and I say they are our failures.

As the Leader of the Opposition said yesterday, this is a time for humility and for action. Now is the time to truly commit to working with Indigenous communities and giving power back to the remarkable Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islanders who are leading and achieving every single day. Labor's support for self-determination is clear. Putting Aboriginal people in control of their own lives and making sure they have every opportunity to fulfil their potential is essential to closing the gap.

The incredible Aboriginal members of parliament—including Linda Burney, the member for Barton, who has joined me now—now make up two per cent of this parliament. Whilst it is a step in the right direction, I would prefer to see more Aboriginal people here. They are leading the way in inspiring an entire generation of Indigenous and non-Indigenous Australians. We are privileged to serve beside them.

I think it is important to recognise that this past Monday was also the ninth anniversary of the national apology to the stolen generation. I think most people in this chamber would acknowledge that the apology was long overdue and could never make up for the terrible atrocities committed against Australia's first peoples.

I will just take a moment to reflect on part of my upbringing and going to school with a friend who I had known since I was two years old who was Indigenous. Because her family were terrified of her being removed, they did not disclose their Aboriginality until we were well into our late teens. It is something that has continued through the generations and affected people that I went to school with, which was not that long ago.

That apology was a moment in time that we can all remember clearly when an Australian Prime Minister and his government had the humility and humanity to admit to the tragedies that were perpetrated against an innocent people and to apologise for the pain and suffering that was caused. The impact that had on people is still very clear today, as I just alluded to.

But nine years later we still continue to struggle to get it right. In the past two years, we have seen hundreds of millions of dollars shamefully ripped from Indigenous programs by this government. We have seen a reluctance to deal with the National Congress of Australia's First Peoples. We have seen a centralisation of funding, much of which has ended up in the hands of non-Indigenous organisations. So clearly there is a lot this parliament can do better, and there is an awful lot more this government could do better.

First of all, we should push ahead and make sure constitutional recognition becomes a reality. It is ridiculous and absolutely outrageous that our founding document still does not recognise Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people as our first people. We are lucky to share a culture and a history which is more than 60,000 years old, and of course our Constitution should reflect that fact and celebrate it. I look forward to doing everything I can to achieve this important and well-overdue recognition.

But I fear that these important debates are too often soft around the edges. There is a reluctance to truly shape up on the failings we see and an overreliance on highlighting an otherwise very small success.

A division having been called in the House of Representatives—

Sitting suspended from 11:17 to 11 : 25

It is very difficult to look at the results of this report and not reflect on the decisions this government have made and continue to make. If they are committed to improving the lives of Indigenous Australians and closing the gap, as they say they are, they should: restore the $500 million they cut from Indigenous programs; they should unwind the Indigenous Advancement Strategy, which has been widely condemned by organisations on the ground as well by the National Audit Office; they should re-fund the National Congress of Australia's First People; and they should show respect to the Redfern Statement, which was co-signed by 50 Indigenous organisations and spelled out a range of reforms to address Indigenous health, education, justice and family violence. I truly hope the announcements the Prime Minister made yesterday will lead to a shift in direction for this government, as that is what is clearly needed.

Andrew Giles (Scullin, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

Yesterday in this place I felt both proud and very ashamed. I felt proud of the way the parliament came together with so many first nations representatives to do important business. I also felt proud as a member of the Labor caucus of the way the Australian Labor Party recognised our own institutional failings in recognising the contribution, original and ongoing, of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Australians. It was a great privilege to share in the enormous generosity of spirit of my friends the member for Barton, Senator McCarthy and Senator Dodson as they welcomed and challenged the rest of us to rise to the challenges that we have so often failed to meet. I was proud to be with my colleagues and I was proud to be in the parliament for speeches that were good speeches, the speech of the Prime Minister—I will come back to that a bit later—and a wonderful speech by the member for Maribyrnong, the leader of the Labor Party.

But I was also ashamed. I think we should all be ashamed that so little progress has been made nine years on and that the aspirations of closing the gap and the accountability to the parliament and to the Australian people—all Australian people but particularly Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Australians—have not resulted in the progress that it should have done. That is a collective failing that we must redress. In part, it rests on failings of the present government. It rests on enormous cuts to vital programs. It rests on a programmatic approach to Indigenous affairs that has been shown to be a complete failure. The reports about the framework, its construction and its implementation, make devastating reading, and all of us should reflect on the lessons of that process as we seek to go forward and close the gap in those areas which are presently set out and in every aspect which separates Indigenous Australians from other Australians.

I talked about pride at the start. I am proud, as an Australian and a member of the Australian Labor Party, that Prime Minister Rudd nine years ago stood up in our parliament and said sorry and committed, in doing so, to closing the gap. I am also proud that we have made some progress. We should celebrate progress where it is made and, in particular, we should celebrate the achievements of so many amazing Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Australians.

I think all of us in this place are very proud to serve in this parliament with five Australians of Indigenous background. We hope—and I certainly share the aspirations of my colleague the member for Lindsay—that five is the floor not the ceiling. There is more work for all parties to do in this regard in opening up more public space for Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Australians.

In looking at where there has been progress through the lens of closing the gap, I am proud that the target to halve the gap in year 12 attainment is on track and that the proportion of Indigenous 20- to 24-year-olds who have achieved year 12 or equivalent has increased from approximately 45 per cent in 2008, when we started this journey, to over 60 per cent. In the same period it is important to note that the rates of non-Indigenous year 12 or equivalent attainment did not change. This is a success that we should note and we should learn from. But, of course, most of the targets—six out of seven—are not being achieved. There is so much more to be done.

I think, in particular, the target to close to gap in life expectancy—surely the most profound of all of our failings—is not on track. The Indigenous mortality rate has declined, but the mortality rate from cancer is rising, and this gap is widening. The target to halve the gap in child mortality is also not on track. Indigenous lives are not starting on the same footing as non-Indigenous lives in Australia, and that is not good enough. More needs to be done, particularly in areas such as access to antenatal care.

The target to halve the gap in reading and numeracy for Indigenous students by 2018 is not on track, which is a failing. The target to halve the gap in employment by 2018 is also not on track. The Indigenous employment rate has increased since 1994, but it has declined since we started measuring this progress. It is shameful. The Prime Minister spoke affectingly and effectively about employment and put it in some context around educational attainment, and that is important. But this is a profound failing. There is more to be done.

Big questions remain unanswered. Why are Indigenous children nearly 10 times more likely to be removed by child protection authorities than non-Indigenous children? This is the case so many years from the apology and 20 years after the landmark report on the forced removal of Aboriginal children from their families. The Prime Minister acknowledges the steps that he has taken, and there are positive steps that have been taken. But he and his government have failed to adequately acknowledge this reality and, more so, looking forward, to explain to parliament and to the Australian people how the government plans to address this shameful national failing.

In his speech the Prime Minister reiterated his commitment—and it clearly is a genuine personal commitment—to closing the gap and to meeting these targets. It was a good speech, but there were bits that were missing. In particular, we need more strategies to address the full extent of disadvantage facing Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Australians. In this regard, Labor will continue to advocate for, as proposed by our opposition leader, Bill Shorten, a justice target to be incorporated into the framework. We cannot close the gap in education, health and employment disadvantage without meaningful strategies to address those factors causing incarceration.

The report acknowledges that rates of incarceration amongst Indigenous Australians are disproportionately high—unacceptably high. Only by addressing this, or the complex factors leading to it, can we build safer communities and empower families and people right across those communities.

I turn from an overall review of the closing the gap statement to a more local concern. The federal government has refused to support evidenced-based interventions supporting Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander children and families. I think it is tragic that the national partnership that supported 38 Aboriginal children in family centres has not been continued. It has effectively fallen over. In this regard, in particular the Bubup Wilam for Early Learning centre in my electorate in Thomastown is incredibly important to the Aboriginal communities in Melbourne's northern suburbs. It is playing a clear role in closing the gap in early childhood education and in supporting young families. The work it does is incredible as a hub for community, as a community controlled safe space and as a place which is delivering incredible results. It is, in our community, closing the gap, particularly in school attendance. We know those early years with quality, therapeutic care and education makes a difference. We know it makes the most powerful difference in enabling progression into education, which, of course, is also the foundation in so many ways for a good life. The fact that this community controlled service, which is delivering on all of its targets, is under threat causes me great disquiet as the federal member. I say here, as I did last year, that I will do everything I can to make sure that Bubup Wilam and the Aboriginal communities of Melbourne's northern suburbs are supported. I will not waste a moment in standing up for the future of Bubup Wilam, because, in standing up for the future of Bubup Wilam, I will be standing up for the future of Aboriginal people and Aboriginal families in the northern suburbs of Melbourne.

In closing, I touch on the words of my colleague Senator Dodson. They are something that cause me and, I am sure, all of my colleagues on this side of the House and the Senate incredible pride to be able to call the father of reconciliation a colleague. He talks about marrying the symbolic and the practical. When it comes to Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander affairs in the federal government and when it comes to closing the gap, we must do both. We must complete our Constitution. We must look to treaties to do justice to Aboriginal people, but we must also combine that with listening to Aboriginal communities about the programs that make a difference.

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

I am delighted to be here as the federal member for Indi to acknowledge the traditional owners, the first people of this country, to thank them for the custody and care they have given this wonderful country of ours for so long, and to make a public commitment to be their effective and independent representative in this parliament. We have heard a lot already on this debate about national issues. We have seen the report and we know that there is a long way to go.

Today, I want to allocate the amount of time I have to talk in particular about Indi and some of the wonderful things that the people in my electorate are doing around closing the gap, around raising awareness of traditional Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander first people and around my commitment to continue to work with them as we grow their impact in our community. So much is happening in Indi, so I would like to talk a little bit about the some of the activities we are taking to enable me to better represent the first peoples of Indi in parliament.

I have regular meetings with local people. In December I met with Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander community representatives Darren Moffitt from Aboriginal Victoria; Tammy Campbell, who at that time was working with Wodonga Institute of TAFE; Liz Heta from the Department of Health and Human Services; and Bangerang elders Aunty Betty Hood-Cherry and Uncle Freddie Dowling. We had a really good conversation about some of the activities that were happening in then planning for the new year. They told me about the proposed new home in Wangaratta for allied health outreach services and the study which is due to be completed in March or April 2017. They talked to me of the workplace activities that are happening in TAFE and DHS. Darren made the very warm invitation for me to travel with him as he does his work around the electorate, visiting the various network groups. So we have put some dates in the diary for me to go out and spend quality time with my Aboriginal communities.

I had a wonderful visit hosted by David Noonan, the CEO of Albury Wodonga Aboriginal Health Service. I was delighted to learn about the services they operate cross-border and to understand what the board does—employing 50 staff, 20 of whom are Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islanders, and looking after between 3,500 and 4,000 clients a year—and to bring a report of that visit to this House to make sure that they were being represented. Last year I also had the great pleasure of hosting Minister Ken Wyatt, who visited Benalla as a guest at the Central Hume Primary Care Partnership. He was able to talk about aged care. He then met with Aboriginal people and talked to them about some of the specific issues they have in the health area.

A real highlight for me last year was a wonderful event that happens up in Bright, in the Ovens Valley: the Marngrook Family Footy Day event. There was a huge crowd. Aboriginal people from all over Victoria came, as well as our guests from the Northern Territory. There is a sister-town relationship between Wadeye, in the Northern Territory, and Bright. Young people from Wadeye come down to Bright; they attend school and they have a business operating in the main street. But the footy event is the big, big event of the day. Thanks to all the team for that; it was just fantastic. I was really proud to be able to come to this parliament, to make a speech and to acknowledge the work of our community. Particularly to Jean—Principal of the Bright P-12 College—and all your partners in The Thathangathay Foundation there—thanks for the wonderful work you do.

I would particularly like to talk about two incidents that happened last week that make me really proud and show that change is happening. Last week I had the great pleasure of having two of my community come and volunteer in Parliament House. Judith Ahmat and Tahlia Biggs came to Canberra and spent the week here. Among the many things that they did, they had the delightful pleasure of meeting Linda Burney, Ken Wyatt and other Aboriginal people in this House, and talking about their experiences.

Today I would like to talk a little about Judith. She is a very, very proud Gunditjmara woman who has lived and worked in north-east Victoria for the past 26 years. She is a mother of four daughters and has eight grandchildren. Judith has been a really active member of the Albury-Wodonga Aboriginal community since 1991. She is one of the co-founders of the Mungabareena Aboriginal Corporation, which was established in 1994. She has been a board director there, on an off, for the past 21 years—what a contribution!—and she has been on the board of the Albury Wodonga Aboriginal Health Service. She has been involved in several steering, reference, planning and advisory committees, both throughout north-east Victoria and also statewide.

One of the things about Judith that I am so proud of is that in 2015 she was inducted into the Victorian Aboriginal Honour Roll for the important contribution she has made to community services, justice and education. Not only is she a respected leader she is also achieving the recognition that she deserves. And while busy doing all of that, she holds a Master of Social Work (By Research) degree from La Trobe University in Albury-Wodonga. It is fantastic, Judith, to have you up here, to have you get to know that this is our place. We welcome you anytime you want to come; we would love to have you back.

Tahlia Biggs is one of our future young leaders. She is just a breath of delight and gorgeousness, representing the fantastic future that the Aboriginal people of Australia are going to bring to this parliament. Tahlia works as a mentor and facilitator, and as a volunteer. She mentors Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people, particularly young people from all around Victoria and, in some cases, around Australia. She tells me that she is engaged in areas of education, voting, health and wellbeing. What she is really keen about is to uplift and ensure that voices are heard. She says, 'I have found that my work has inspired the participants to be leaders in our community.' As a result of her visit here, Tahlia is now going to apply to be a participant in the National Indigenous Youth Parliament. I say to any young Aboriginal people that this is a fantastic opportunity: put your hands up for it. The National Indigenous Youth Parliament comes to this parliament for a week, giving you the opportunity to really learn how parliament works. I will look forward, Tahlia, to welcoming you back, as part of that.

I also want to spend the few minutes that are left to me talking about what is happening in my electorate with Aboriginal people. I want to thank Senator Nigel Scullion for the brief he has prepared for me on Aboriginal people in Indi. Indi has an overall population of 136,000. Approximately 1.6 per cent of the population—that is 2,224 people—are Aboriginal or Torres Strait Islander. Their school attendance rates in 2015 in my electorate were 88.2 percent, and that is compared to an average for non-Indigenous students of 92.3 per cent. So clearly, in Indi, we have a long way to go with getting more Aboriginal kids in school. For schools publishing attendance rates by indigeneity, 60 per cent had an Indigenous attendance rate of at least 90 per cent. But we have 93.3 per cent of non-Indigenous attendance, so we have still got a way to go there. The employment rate in Indi was 48.2 per cent, compared with a non-Indigenous employment rate of 72.9 per cent across the electorate. We still have a long way to go with employment.

The other statistic that I want to pay some attention to, and it was mentioned by the Prime Minister, is the large number of Aboriginal children in out-of-home care in my electorate. It is great to see that the Gateway Health service is doing some work here, and I really stress how important it is. When I had my meeting with my Aboriginal elders, they told me that this out-of-home care is a real concern, and I am glad that the Prime Minister picked it up and gave it attention in his speech. It is something you would not think in north-east Victoria would be an issue we have to pay attention to. That is certainly something I will focus on and I will work with my community around those statistics and what we need to do.

In closing, what I would really like to say to the people of my electorate is that we have a most magnificent tradition and history of first peoples and Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people's contributions to our community. They have been there forever, and I want to acknowledge them and thank them for what a fantastic job they have done looking after this wonderful country of ours. I want to make the commitment that in the future, my role, in my position of power being a member of parliament, is to shine a light on your work, to offer the support that I can and to make sure I am your representative here in parliament. I want to work very closely with all the groups to make sure that you come to parliament and that you can find your voice and use it here as you need to in this people's place. I am looking forward to continuing to do this work over the next three years, and I thank you for the assistance you have given me so far to enable me to represent you in this place.

Ed Husic (Chifley, Australian Labor Party, Shadow Parliamentary Secretary to the Shadow Treasurer) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

To begin with I would like to acknowledge the Ngunnawal and Ngambri peoples, the traditional owners of the land on which we meet. I pay my respects to elders past and present, and I would also like to acknowledge the Dharug people, the traditional owners of the land that my electorate of Chifley sits upon.

We are once again talking about the Closing the gap report, as we always do this time of year, highlighting how far we have to go within our nation to eliminate Indigenous disadvantage. The Closing the gap report, handed down by the government, showed that federal and state governments were missing the mark in six out of the seven targeted areas. I do not make that remark in any political sense; it just highlights the huge challenge that confronts us all in this space. Having said that, one bright spot was tracking the improvement of Indigenous people finishing year 12, which I was particularly happy to see. The report showed the target to halve the gap in year 12 attainment rates by 2020 was on track. According to the report, nationally, the proportion of Indigenous 20- to 24-year-olds who had achieved year 12 or equivalent had increased from 45.4 per cent in 2008 to 61.5 per cent in 2014-15. In that regard, it is terrific. I also want to pay tribute to the member for Barton, given her presence in the chamber today. The member for Barton, prior to entering the world of politics, was an educator and helped many young people in our area teaching in Lethbridge Park, within electorate of Chifley. I want to take note of that and thank her for what she has done for young people in our part of Western Sydney.

Fortunately, we have had some success in one regard, but in other areas the Closing the gap report show we have a long way to go. For example, in child mortality, over the longer term the child mortality rate declined and the gap narrowed. But while mortality rates have declined, we still have that gap persist. We need to do more. The goal of eliminating the life expectancy gap by 2031 is simply not on track. This needs to be addressed.

The target to halve the gap in employment by 2018 is also not on track. While there has been an increase in Indigenous employment rates since 1994, there has, sadly, been a decline since 2008. To take a recent snapshot from 2014-15, the Indigenous employment rates are at about 48.4 per cent, compared with 72.6 per cent for non-Indigenous Australians.

A new target aiming to close the gap in school attendance by 2018 has not improved between 2015 and 2016. The attendance rate for Indigenous students is 83.4 per cent compared to 93.1 per cent for non-Indigenous students. The target to halve the gap in reading and numeracy by 2018 is also not on track. According to the latest data, only year 9 numeracy is on track. Reading and numeracy across years 3, 5 and 7 are off track, and reading for year 9 is also off track.

Labor is also calling for two more important targets to be included in the Closing the gap report in future years: justice and out-of-home care targets. According to the Deputy Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Social Justice Commissioner, Robynne Quiggin, Indigenous adults are 13 times more likely to be incarcerated than the general population, and juveniles are 24 times more likely to be incarcerated. These are stunning figures. It is an appalling statistic that we have to work much harder to improve upon. High levels of incarceration just ruin communities and put unbearable stress on families. The quality of life of many Aboriginal people, especially young people, depends on improving that statistic.

The second target Labor has proposed is reducing the number of Aboriginal kids in out-of-home care. The Secretariat for National Aboriginal and Islander Child Care recently highlighted the shocking reality that one in three kids in statutory out-of-home care are Indigenous. Indigenous children are nearly 10 times more likely to be removed by child protection authorities than non-Indigenous kids. Frankly, we just cannot let that continue.

While we are on the topic of justice, we also have to think about reparations in a very serious way. So many of the Stolen Generation are still living with real and burning pain, and the pain of having their history rejected and their families divided is very real. State governments have already been working towards reparations for families who are deeply hurt and the Leader of the Opposition yesterday called for a serious national discussion about what the Commonwealth can do in this area, because without reparations I frankly do not think that reconciliation is entirely complete.

On a policy level and in local communities, how we go about reducing these gaps and pursuing equality is vitally important. We cannot view or treat these issues as merely another problem to be solved. This is not crude mass or just policy in theory; this is about fundamentally improving the lives of individuals—people who have their own goals and aspirations—which is why the approach to reducing disadvantage has to be collaborative. It must be led, not imposed upon those affected.

Right now, the sad truth is that Aboriginal Australians are more likely to be incarcerated, less likely to attend preschool, less likely to own their own home and less likely to find full-time work. Frankly, we do have a long way to go to improve on those differences and we do need to rely on the advice, perspective and leadership of people who have lived through that inequality and have ideas about how to fix it.

The Blacktown city local government area, which covers large portions of the electorate of Chifley, has the largest urban Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander population in New South Wales; something I am hugely and profoundly proud of. The Indigenous population of just over 8,000 people makes up 2.7 per cent of our local population, compared to 1.2 per cent in greater Sydney and 2.5 per cent across New South Wales. Our population can be traced back to the 1960s, when large numbers of people were given government housing in Mount Druitt. Many who moved there were part of the Stolen Generation, and they had been removed from their families because they were Aboriginal. Others moved there after living on government-controlled reserves.

When it comes to how we address Aboriginal disadvantage in Australia, I think about the challenges as they are lived within our local community. Certainly there is a lot that is being done, and in the time that I have I want to congratulate lots of great community organisations. For example, Butucarbin Aboriginal Corporation, which is doing incredibly important work in helping local Indigenous people find their feet within our community. They have facilitated and coordinated community programs and activities that help families, children, young people, older people and other individuals to improve and develop their skills through inclusive activities—things such as family weekends that have been organised for up to 90 participants to build a sense of community. There is the Kuring homework club, where mentors and volunteers attend every Tuesday night and provide transport and tutoring for students—hugely important. There are communities barbeques at Nurragingy Reserve—again, building a sense of community by bringing in 350 local kids. There are mothers groups, disability support groups and formal training programs through TAFE—all things that are vitally important in giving a sense of self-determination and building community. They were also recipients of grants—for example, the Chifley stronger communities grant—but provide for themselves as well through other fundraising methods.

The other group I want to pay tribute to is the Marrin Weejali Aboriginal Corporation that is working hard to tackle disadvantage in our community. After the Closing the gap report came down, they said there was indeed a long way to go in achieving the targets. I want to just highlight some of their programs which include the health outreach program, where every month about 20 providers provide services to locals—services they would not normally have to access, including blood screening, an optometrist service, check-ups and other services. They also have a strong employment and training outreach program and a well established productivity boot camp. Other activities include the Doonside Koori Outreach, which includes a men's group for bringing people together, financial counselling and legal services, and women's legal help.

I also give a shout out to the Mt Druitt Learning Ground that is helping young Aboriginal kids in our area get a fresh start and improve their education. There are many groups in my area that are making contributions and I hope they forgive me for any omissions, but I do want to congratulate the work that they are all doing in helping Aboriginal communities in Western Sydney to achieve all that they want.

Joanne Ryan (Lalor, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

I rise today to speak on Closing the Gap. I open by acknowledging the traditional owners of the land on which we meet, the Ngunnawal and Ngambri peoples, and their elders past, present and emerging, and by acknowledging the Wathaurong of the Kulin nation from the electorate of Lalor. We measure what we care about. We measure what is important. We measure what we want to prioritise. We set targets and we measure our performance to test the effectiveness of strategies. The Closing the Gap targets are there to remind us of how important this journey is and how important the welfare, the education and the health of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islanders are as a people in Australia. The Closing the gap report is therefore a positive and yet, annually, it feels like a reminder of what we have not managed to do. It gives all sides of politics an opportunity to affirm our commitment to addressing the disadvantage Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islanders face every day in our country. We cannot read this report and let taking action lull us into a false sense of accomplishment because, as the report says this year and as we have heard, there are many areas where the gap is simply not closing; there are some, tragically, where the gap is increasing. Infant mortality is one space where that is the case, and that is a tragedy.

When we do our acknowledgements to country, it is not a tokenistic gesture; it is our sombre acknowledgement that these people were driven from their land, displaced, and since that time have been subordinated to non-Indigenous Australians. The disparity in opportunity manifests itself in what we call the gap. I grew up in Victoria in a small country town. I distinctly remember Paul Keating's Redfern speech and the awakening it gave me and brought to me. I know that in this place we are doing a lot of talking about the RECOGNISE campaign and we are doing a lot of talking about recognition around Australia. But, when I go back to that Redfern speech, I am starkly reminded of what our Prime Minister at the time, Paul Keating, said:

… the starting point might be to recognise that the problem starts with us non-Aboriginal Australians.

It begins, I think, with that act of recognition—

And this, I think, is really important—

Recognition that it was we who did the dispossessing.

We took the traditional lands and smashed the traditional way of life.

We brought the diseases. The alcohol.

We committed the murders.

We took the children from their mothers.

We practised discrimination and exclusion.

It was our ignorance and our prejudice.

And our failure to imagine these things being done to us.

I read that and I put it back on the record today, because it seems to me that we have moved from that notion that recognition is first about acknowledging the pain caused, before we move to recognition in the Constitution. We cannot have recognition of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people in our Constitution until we recognise—across this nation—the journey to date. Ours is a dark history in so many ways. If you are Aboriginal or Torres Strait Islander, that is an absolute certainty. We have failed and we continue to fail. Where we have made improvements they are modest ones.

One of the improvements that I would like to talk about, which is not listed in Closing the Gap, is that there is no target around Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander representation in this federal parliament. There has not been a target set for that, and it is a celebration, therefore, that we have exceeded what some would have imagined possible. It was a very proud day when we returned this year and welcomed the member for Barton, who is in the chamber today. Having given closing the gap speeches on several occasions, to have the member for Barton in the chamber while I speak today is incredibly meaningful, and I think it shows that we have travelled some distance. We welcomed, on the Labor side, two new senators, Malarndirri McCarthy and Pat Dodson. They have also shown us those things.

One of the most poignant moments for me, as the member for Lalor, came towards the end of last year when I attended a constitutional convention at one of our high schools with several of our schools. We talked about recognition and about the potential for a treaty. I shared with the students that day a part of the member for Barton's maiden speech in this place, where she said, so compellingly, that when the Constitution was changed to include Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people as Australian citizens—she put it so starkly—that that was not the case; what that did was to remove them from the list of flora and fauna. The power of that image for the young people in my community was astounding—real and very necessary.

Looking at these annual targets takes us back to a place where we are prepared to shine a light on our dark history. If we are prepared to acknowledge, as Paul Keating called on us to do, that we need firstly to recognise that dark history before we can do the other things then I think that is a really important thing to do.

The other area that I want to talk about is the area where we have seen improvement, and that is year 12 completion rates. I note the Prime Minister's words yesterday, during his celebration, that there is no employment gap between Aboriginal and non-Aboriginal Australians, when it comes to finding employment, if they have a tertiary qualification.

Yet I must stand here as a former educator and say: those are fine words. We have had lots of aspiring rhetoric across the last decade around Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander affairs but, in reality, it is the policies on the ground that make the difference. As an educator, I can draw on some of my very positive experiences in classrooms and in schools where I worked. I can call our Prime Minister to account and say: 'Don't cite that statistic while you're slashing Gonski funding. Don't cite that statistic while you're cutting the legs out from under the teachers who are making a difference on the ground.'

I also note—and I want this on the record—that I hear many members from the other side talk about the Gonski review and clutch onto parental engagement as their one driver of improved student performance. I have to say that we cannot be standing here talking about parental engagement while actively cutting funding that provides, in Victorian schools, positive parental engagement with Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander children through their individual learning plans. This came from an era in Victoria where we had what was called the Wannik initiative. The Wannik initiative did lots of things, but one of the things it did was mandate an individual learning plan for every Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander student in a state school. It not only did that but also put in place the requirement to create around that a positive engagement with parents. It cannot go unsaid: when adults think about school, they reflect on their own experience and undoing the negative perceptions they have about school engagement is the first step in improving Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander's education outcomes. It needs to be done carefully, and it needs to be done in an incredibly positive way.

It is not all bad news from those on the opposite side on educational outcomes. I give credit to former Prime Minister Howard for in his time as Prime Minister introducing funding for tutors in schools for Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander students. In Victoria, that turned into career education support officers, who did some fabulous work not just in tutoring students but also in acknowledging Aboriginality in our schools and raising pride in children for their Aboriginal heritage. I look forward to continuing the work with my colleagues on this side of the House and improving the lives of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islanders.

Linda Burney (Barton, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

Like others, I recognise the fine and powerful words made by all my Labor colleagues and the independent member for Indi in this debate that I have listened to today. I feel very moved by what people have said, and I join with them in recognition of country. The happenings in this parliament yesterday were very important and very inspirational but, as many have said, at the same time very sobering. It was the release of the ninth Closing the gap report and also, of course, the ninth year of the recognition of Kevin Rudd's apology to the stolen generations. I am so pleased the member for Lalor mentioned that speech in Redfern Park by Paul Keating. I was actually there in the audience that day, and I just remember sitting there with hundreds and hundreds of Aboriginal people and our mouths dropping open at listening to the Prime Minister say those things. It was an astounding day and something that will always stay with me as well.

There were two really significant points of the Leader of the Opposition's speech yesterday, which was a speech that was made in a very collaborative way with particularly the Indigenous members of this place but I am sure others as well. Firstly, there was the recognition of the number of Aboriginal children who are being removed as a result of statutory child protection measures. Barnaby Joyce was on the radio this morning saying: 'If kids are in danger they have to be removed, and that's that. It's not about what colour you are.' But there are different ways, and Labor committed yesterday to working with the national peak body, SNAICC, in finding what those different ways are. We know that it is state governments that basically run the child protection system, but the federal government also has a number of possible levers in this space as well. That number of children projected to be removed by 2020 is just horrendous. There are 15,000 Aboriginal children in out-of-home care now, and it is looking like that number done by the good work of people particularly in Victoria will double by the year 2020. The proportion, of course, we heard people speak about a little earlier.

The other point that was made by Labor yesterday was in fact in relation to reparations. The point was made that of course reparations should be made to children who have been mistreated particularly by the state, and by that I mean governments as well as other institutions. We are seeing this writ large, of course, with the royal commission that is underway at the moment. A number of states have already entered into reparation schemes with members of the Stolen Generations, and we are signalling very strongly that Labor is also going to have a look at reparations. I think the point made by one of our earlier speakers was that this is really what reconciliation is about. Those two points are very important.

Of course, the other thing that is really significant is that the things that we are talking about, particularly with the apology, are things in our lifetime. This is not ancient history. I will be 60 next birthday, and when I was a child the policies of removal were very real. For people in this chamber also those policies were very real. In fact, some of them did not finish until the early seventies. So we are talking about very recent history and we are talking about history, if not in our lifetimes, certainly in our parents' lifetimes.

In the Labor caucus yesterday a wonderful ceremony was conducted by Malarndirri McCarthy. I had a very small role to play in that. But the speech that was given by Patrick Dodson really outlined and made us all proud, as Labor representatives, of the things that we had done under various prime ministers, including the great Gough Whitlam: the Gurindji walk-off from Wave Hill with Vincent Lingiari—his mob are the Gurindji people—and, of course, the hand-back of Uluru. There was the '67 referendum, of course, and native title. Those things were listed, but Pat also put a challenge in front of us as Labor but also in front of us as the parliament: the time for listening is here, but it is also a time for action. I think that very much centred on us.

I will say something that maybe was not said yesterday and I think today is the day to say. When you have a look at this government's record under Prime Minister Howard, Prime Minister Abbott and now Prime Minister Turnbull in the Aboriginal space, it is important that we make the point that, under Prime Minister Howard, the refusal to acknowledge the Stolen Generations, the refusal to say sorry was not just something that hurt Aboriginal people; it hurt this country. It held this country back. I well remember the walk over the Sydney Harbour Bridge and that plane up in the sky, skywriting 'sorry'. I remember the way in which the Howard government turned in on itself and turned the Australian people in on themselves through the actions of Pauline Hanson and the white picket fence, revisionist view of history. We have got to remember those things.

Of course, under Prime Minister Abbott we had the establishment of a hand-picked group of Aboriginal people and non-Aboriginal people that would provide advice without accountability, without any understanding from the broader community about what the agenda of that group was. It has been a very difficult exercise. Under the Prime Minister we also saw the abolition of ATSIC and the destruction of any Aboriginal national representation.

We also saw under Prime Minister Abbott—continued, unfortunately, by Prime Minister Turnbull—a ripping out of millions and millions of dollars of the Aboriginal affairs budget, and the rearrangement of the way in which Aboriginal affairs would be administered and funded has seen advocacy bodies destroyed. It has seen Aboriginal organisations from right across the country, including Aboriginal children and families centres, defunded. And the government then has the nerve to blame Aboriginal people for what appear to be things going backwards.

The other thing is that to address the issues that the Closing the gap report highlighted yesterday is actually an important economic imperative for Australia. If you have Aboriginal people graduating and taking up employment, and the issues of Aboriginal incarceration and a whole range of other issues are addressed, the saving for the budget would be substantial. It just astounds me that that cannot be understood by bureaucrats and by members of the government, because it is very much understood by Labor on this side of the House.

The other thing that Labor made very clear yesterday, and will continue to make very clear and advocate for, is support for the National Congress of Australia's First Peoples, the democratically elected representative body that should be the chief advisory, consultation and negotiation group with any sensible government. They are representative, they are experienced and they are there. It has been this government that has defunded that group. They are almost on their knees, and Labor's commitment is to being a partner with a representative, democratically elected group, and that group is congress.

I will just finish up by saying that I am very touched and lifted up by my colleagues, and I think that the future of where we go in the Aboriginal space is very bright for Labor in this country.

Gai Brodtmann (Canberra, Australian Labor Party, Shadow Parliamentary Secretary for Defence) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

I begin by acknowledging that we meet on Ngunnawal country and pay my respects to the elders past, present and future. I welcome the opportunity to speak once again on the Closing the gap report, despite the fact that his report is a sober reminder that we have a long way to go before we achieve true equality for our First Australians.

Nine years after the framework was agreed, only one of the seven Closing the Gap targets is on track to being met. While year 12 attainment by 2020 is on track, the education, employment, infant mortality and life expectancy targets are not. Our First Australians live with worse health and education outcomes, fewer employment opportunities, inadequate housing options and the lasting effects of intergenerational trauma. That is not helped by the $500 million in cuts to programs and frontline services that this government has implemented, despite a promise that there would be no jobs or services lost. The government has cut funding from local providers, which has not fostered any independence; in fact, it has undermined hope.

I just want to turn to the impact of the targets on the ACT. An article yesterday in The Canberra Times yesterday found:

… the report showed gains in education, but Aboriginal employment fell nearly 10 per cent to 62.9 per cent between 2008 and 2014-2015 … The ACT mirrored national success in improving year 12 attainment rates, one of the few bright spots in the yearly measure of progress. It had the second-highest increase in young Indigenous people reaching a year 12 or equivalent level of education, rising 26.1 per cent to 82.7 per cent in the six years to 2014-2015. … The ACT out performed other states and territories in NAPLAN measures, and was the only jurisdiction on track to meet a goal of improving the gap in numeracy and literacy for all tested school grades.

Despite the achievements in the ACT, as I said, the report still makes for sober reading, with only one of the seven Closing the Gap targets on track to being met.

In highlighting the contents of the report I also want to acknowledge the outstanding speech made by the Leader of the Opposition in the House yesterday that proposed a shift in focus. He said:

I do not seek to present a balance sheet of the good and the bad—not a list of top-down programs imperfectly managed; not the same old story of reports written but not read. Instead, I believe in a new approach.

We must forget the insulting fiction that the First Australians are a problem to be solved and, instead, have a new approach to listen to people who stand on the other side of the gap; a new approach that, from now on, the First Australians must have first say in the decisions that shape their lives; a new approach that means a stronger voice for the National Congress of Australia's First Peoples and the resources—

most importantly—

to make it happen; a new approach to extend ourselves beyond handpicked sources of advice; a new approach to be in the places where our First Australians live and work and play… Not treating local consultation as a box to be ticked but applying the wisdom of people who know. Understanding and recognising there are many Aboriginal nations across this country … And all of these nations have the right to have control of their future.

As we know, many of the current targets are due to be renegotiated. Yesterday in his speech the opposition leader suggested the inclusion of some new targets, including a new national justice target that will be developed in cooperation with state and territory governments, law enforcement agencies, legal clinics and social services and, most importantly, guided by community leaders, elders and Aboriginal representative organisations. To address the appalling incarceration rates of Indigenous Australians and the tragedy that so many young Indigenous Australians are destined for jail over university, the opposition leader recommended a target for reducing the number of Aboriginal children in out-of-home care. We have also got a 440 per cent increase in Aboriginal children in out-of-home care. That is shocking. It is a blight on our nation. Hence that recommendation. One in three children in statutory out-of-home care are Indigenous. Indigenous children are nearly 10 times more likely to be removed by child protection authorities than their non-Indigenous peers. Labor is also calling for the government to properly fund Aboriginal community controlled health organisations and the Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Health Implementation Plan.

As I said, this was sobering reading, but I did welcome appendix A, which is at the back of the report, that shows Indigenous representation in Commonwealth public sector agencies. It shows agency by agency the targets they have for that representation as well as the reality of that representation as at 30 June. I went first to Defence because prior to entering politics I spent 10 years consulting in Defence and I had the great pleasure of working in the Australian Defence Force Cadets organisation. It is a youth development organisation. It gives young Australians—there were 22,000 at that stage—the opportunity to get a taste of the Australian Defence Force and, most importantly, to boost their self-esteem, self-confidence and self-discipline and to work in a team.

There are a number of cadet units specifically targeted at young Indigenous Australians. I had the great pleasure of going to Bamaga, Nhulunbuy and Thursday Island to see those programs in operation up there. The young Torres Strait Islander and Aboriginal cadets loved being cadets. They found it gave them so much in terms of those skills, self-esteem, confidence and self-discipline. It also gave them the opportunity to be with like-minded people and learn a whole lot of new skills.

With that background in the defence organisation and also because I was involved in writing the first Defence Reconciliation Action Plan as well as the updates on its implementation, I was very keen to see how Defence is performing. Navy has a strong Indigenous presence, but I was quite disappointed to see that, for the Department of Defence—that is, in the civilian space—the target is 2.5 per cent Indigenous representation and yet by June 2016 it was just 1.8 per cent. The ADF—and this excludes ex-active reservists—aimed for 2.7 per cent and the reality was only 1.8 per cent representation. Active reservists had a target of 2.5 per cent and had 1.7 per cent representation.

I was also surprised to see that the Australian National University, despite the fact that it had a target of 2.5 per cent, had zero representation as of 30 June 2016 as did the Australian Research Council. The Department of the Environment and Energy deserves a big tick because their target was 4.5 per cent and they had achieved 6.4 per cent. The Department of the Treasury is another disappointing one: 2.5 per cent and yet 0.2 per cent in terms of representation there.

We do need to listen to Indigenous Australians. We do need to do more to be able to employ them in our public institutions, our cultural institutions, our bureaucracy and our places of democracy that shape and implement public policy. The Closing the gap report has a chapter on employment and there is a really lovely section I will quote from a young woman who was a Defence Indigenous Development Program participant. Her name is Kelly Curry and she said, 'I am very proud of the people we have become and the new outlook we have on life.' That is something we want for all Indigenous Australians. It comes from being born fighting fit. It comes from being safe. It comes from having a roof over your head—not a substandard housing option; a roof over your head. It comes from being healthy. It comes from being literate. It comes from being numerate. It comes from being educated. It comes from employment. It comes from economic development. It comes from being empowered. It comes from access to opportunity and equality. It comes from a new approach that listens to First Australians, gives them a stronger voice that they can control, and recognises that they have the solutions—a new approach that fosters hope, that builds on a sense of belonging and that builds on a sense of respect, recognition and resources.

Debate adjourned.