Anthony Albanese (Grayndler, Australian Labor Party, Leader of the Opposition) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

I move:

That this House:

(1) acknowledges:

(a) that on 13 February 2008 the then Prime Minister made a national apology to the Stolen Generations on behalf of the Parliament and the nation; and

(b) the importance of Closing the Gap; and

(2) reaffirms its commitment to Closing the Gap.

This time last year, I made the observation that on this one significant day in February each year many fine speeches have been given in this chamber. As we mark the anniversary of the Apology to the Stolen Generations by vowing to close the gap between Indigenous and non-Indigenous Australia, we have heard words that lifted us all—none finer, of course, than Kevin Rudd's 13 years ago.

But I also warned that, if this day were to become little more than a ceremony of renewal of good intentions, that would be so far short of what it should be, of what we have to be. We cannot allow ourselves to become content with just words, as important as words can be. Fine oratory with nothing attached to it in the end amounts to nothing more than a beautifully worded indictment.

Last year's Closing the Gap targets have not been backed with new investments in housing, services or programs. This year, we gather with an even greater absence. For the first time, the annual report card for Closing the Gap has been pushed back. A government that has perfected the art of nondelivery has found one more way to outdo itself—a government that shuts down debate in this parliament regularly. Today we are left with the anniversary of an event that was meant to be the start of something else. As Prime Minister Rudd reflected:

The apology was unfinished business for our nation. It is the beginning of new business for our nation.

But how do we move forward when we have a government so determined to stand still?

In last year's Closing the gap report only two of seven targets were on track: early childhood education and year 12 attainment. None of the other targets—child mortality; reading, writing and numeracy; school attendance; employment; and life expectancy—were on track. This of course is not in the spirit of the apology.

We should be forever humbled by the grace of so many stolen generations members in their willingness that day to take the hand so belatedly extended to them. It is that grace that lights the path ahead—a path that we must have the courage to take. We must take the first step, then follow it with another and another and another. Instead, we have a government that is not moving and a list of challenges that grows longer.

The government has provisioned $160 million for a referendum, but the Prime Minister has refused to commit to any time line for holding one. Since the Press Club address way back in 2019, after the election, in which Minister Wyatt clearly promised a referendum this term, he has repeatedly dismissed the prospect of one in the near future, arguing that he does not think it will succeed at this time. If a fear of failure is your guiding light, you need never fear success. The government has also refused to commit to a voice to parliament and refers instead to a voice to government—two very different things.

There is never any sense of urgency with this government. It is a government defined by inaction and the exhaustion of a government that has been in power so long that whatever energies it once possessed are long since spent. It is not for nothing that my good friend the shadow minister for Indigenous Australians, Linda Burney, has warned of the danger that the Uluru statement could end up being remembered as a noble moment but not as a turning point. We must do better—all of us. Let us take the steps that are demanded of us.

Very early in the life of this parliament—indeed, in the first meeting I had with the Prime Minister—I extended the hand of bipartisanship to him to work together for progress for First Australians. We held a meeting, but there hasn't been further meaningful engagement. Progress on human rights does take time. It is not the sort of thing that can be achieved with a couple of photo-ops. I again offer to work together, and I urge the Prime Minister to take this offer as it is intended—a genuine attempt to produce outcomes we can all be proud of.

We should keep turning back to the words of the great Galarrwuy Yunupingu: 'At Uluru we started a fire, a fire that we hope burns bright for Australia.' Let that hope not be in vain.

Trent Zimmerman (North Sydney, Liberal Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

Is the motion seconded?

Linda Burney (Barton, Australian Labor Party, Shadow Minister for Families and Social Services) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

I second the motion and reserve my right to speak.

Gavin Pearce (Braddon, Liberal Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

I rise today in this auspicious meeting place as a representative of the north-west, the west coast and King Island in the electorate of Braddon in Tasmania. I do this alongside the 150 representatives from regions right across the nation. This is a level playing field; the very layout of this chamber embellishes that. It's a circle. It represents that everybody in this place has an equal voice and, importantly, an equal right to be heard. That is a crucial part of our democracy. My role in this place is to represent every man, woman and child in my electorate. It is their voices that I strive to bring to this place, not necessarily my own.

In speaking about closing the gap, I have sought wise counsel from those within my electorate. Amongst the people that I spoke to was a young Aboriginal leader, a leader in our region, and one with a true voice for Indigenous peoples. When I spoke with her yesterday, she said that she was in another meeting place, in an ancient land, a rugged land, where waves were crashing in against the rocks, at Bluff Point on the west coast of Tasmania. For 60,000 years it has been a sacred meeting place. She gave me her wise counsel, speaking from the generations that have gone before her and with a clear and genuine view for the future that lies ahead. Her name is Emma Lee. I regard her as my sister and I rate her most definitely as a true leader.

Today, in this place of voices, she has leant me her voice, without agenda, in a desire to find a better pathway forward for all Tasmanians, to move towards a brighter future for us all. She gave me a very clear message, and it gives me great pride to present that message in this place to the nation. 'Ya' is the Palawa word for 'hello', and that is how a message begins. She says: 'Ya. As Indigenous peoples, we do not have a formal right or a formal say over our own affairs and, as a proud Aboriginal Tasmanian woman, I am diminished by it. I want to make a positive difference for all Tasmanians, because my cultural obligation is to welcome people to country and to care for them. If I cannot provide the advice that looks after everyone together, then how are Australian people meant to know that they too belong to us and they too share in the oldest living culture in the world?' Emma says: 'Ya. I want to make everyone welcome freely in my country with respect so that we can live and work peacefully together. The Indigenous voice will help us make a difference so that people are not lonely anymore and so that they have a connection to country and to Australia itself. I want a hand up so that you can hear me, not a hand down that speaks on my behalf. I want to belong to you so that you can belong to me and we can belong to the oldest living culture in the world. If we welcome each other in government in parliament, we can become equal in how we care for country. I want to share our culture with everyone, and I want to stop hurting, because our peoples are not allowed to have a proper say in our lives. This government can make a difference with the Indigenous voice for this place.' To my dear friend Dr Emma Lee, I deliver your message to this place and to a nation. It would do us all to take note of it.

Our government has to work to do more to ensure that Indigenous advice is formally included in all process and that we are open to other parts of the Australian community. We have made a great start in the national agreement on closing the gap to ensure Indigenous organisations have a greater say in funding outcomes. It's important that we continue to build on that goodwill. The voice means that many close the gap targets will have a greater chance of succeeding, because we are now working together, as it should be, to hear from all Australians in a process that is equal for all. That must be our goal, and I am proud to support the government's policy to create that pathway so that we can stand together on issues that are important to us all as Australians.

Linda Burney (Barton, Australian Labor Party, Shadow Minister for Families and Social Services) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

I rise to support the motion moved by the member for Grayndler. It recognises that 13 years ago the then Prime Minister, Kevin Rudd, made a very long-awaited National Apology to the Stolen Generations on behalf of the nation. It was one of the first items of business of the newly elected Labor government. The landmark inquiry into the stolen generations, the Bringing them home report, had been launched a decade before. For 11 long years those taken, and in fact the whole nation, waited for the words 'we are sorry'. The Bringing them home report had 54 recommendations. This included that Australian governments acknowledge and apologise for the policies of forced removal. The recommendations included the Indigenous Child Placement Principle—the notion that, when an Indigenous child must be removed, they be placed with a family member, a member of the child's community or another Indigenous carer.

It's not just the recommendations that are important about this report. It drew a line in the sand for us as a nation. No-one could ever say again, 'We didn't know.' It represented an important act of truth-telling. There were many thousands of people who survived and were able to tell their stories for those of us who remained. Of course, the Archie Roach song 'Took the Children Away' says:

We'll give them what you can't give

Teach them how to really live.

Teach them how to live they said

Humiliated them instead

Taught them that and taught them this

And others taught them prejudice.

You took the children away …

The motion emphasises the importance of closing the gap and a commitment to, in fact, bring about justice and equity for First Peoples in Australia. Good words are only truly meaningful when they are accompanied with sincere deeds and lasting progress. This is the first year since the apology that we will not get a report from the Prime Minister on progress, or lack of progress, on the targets. What concerns me is that, after a decade, progress against the seven targets in 2020 was dismal reading, as the member for Grayndler outlined. At the conclusion of those seven targets, only two were on track. Child mortality; reading, writing and numeracy; school attendance; employment outcomes; and life expectancy—all not on track. These aren't just statistics; they are lives. I'm sick of going to the funerals of people who have died too young.

The National Agreement on Closing the Gap is indeed welcome. It is welcome especially because of the partnership with the coalition of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peak organisations. This is a good thing. There are 16 new targets, with two still being negotiated. States and territories will have to report, as well as the Commonwealth. Labor in principle endorsed the new targets—in particular, the targets about the overrepresentation of First Australians in the child protection system as well as the criminal justice system, two targets that Labor had been advocating for for many years. The time frame for these targets is another 10 years. This means that, on the expiration of the new targets, over two decades will have passed since Closing the Gap first began—23 years, a whole generation. I say to this parliament: that is a very long time, so it is important that we get this right this time. We must not allow this decade-long time frame to become the impetus for kicking the burden of progress to future parliaments

If we want to see real and lasting progress on Closing the Gap, we need new investment. The Commonwealth government must fully embrace its share of the new Closing the Gap agreement, not simply wash its hands of responsibility and pass it to the states and territories. The First Nations people need to be placed at the centre of decision-making on issues affecting First Nations people. We are best placed to find the solutions on issues that affect us. Labor remains committed to the Uluru statement in full. This includes the constitutionally enshrined voice to parliament, a voice that reflects the diversity of challenges that we face across the nation, a voice that listens to our regions and remote communities as well as our urban areas. It's been 3½ years since the Uluru statement. It's time to get on with it and get it done.

Rowan Ramsey (Grey, Liberal Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

I welcome this motion put forward by the Leader of the Opposition. It does give us a chance to talk about a very important issue. Eight per cent or thereabouts of my electorate of Grey is Indigenous, and I have made it a core part of my workload, since I came to this place, to try and bring about a better outcome for them and their families. I note the comments of the Leader of the Opposition. Quite rightly, he raises the issue that only two of the components of Closing the Gap were met last year. But, in doing so, he also indicated that maybe he doesn't have a full grasp of the issues facing us, because he said, 'It's not good enough; it should be fixed.' If it were easy to fix, it would have been fixed long ago. The fact of the matter is that these are deep, multilayered and complex issues. The reasons that Indigenous Australia has not met the societal and health levels of the rest of Australia are complex, and it is not through lack of trying on the part of the government.

I was very pleased that last year the agreement was reached with the state bodies to form a joint commitment to Closing the Gap. It makes sense, because issues of housing, education and policing, for instance, are primarily the responsibilities of the states. It's not to say that the federal government may not contribute to these financially, but we don't run them. On the other hand, the issues of health care and income support are primarily the Commonwealth government's, even though the state may employ some of the workers. So it makes sense. If we are to make commitments in this place, we need those rock-solid commitments at state level. I was very pleased we reached that point of view.

Through my 13 years in parliament, I have come to realise there's a large difference between urbanised Indigenous Australia and remote Indigenous Australia. The key issue here, I think, is English as a first language. Where I see English as a second language, I see a disconnect on so many levels and the struggle to reach attainment in education. We've run programs. The school attendance program is a good program. It works when you've got an inspired leader on the ground and an engaged school principal. If you haven't got both of those, it doesn't work; it falls away quickly. Quite often the leader of the program is the most talented person in the community and they get poached into another program.

But that is a bit of an aside. The Productivity Commission estimates that we spend around $44,000 a head per year on Indigenous Australia. We can't really get a precise handle on it, but it is closer to $250,000 a head in remote communities like the APY lands in my electorate. I don't bark about the money. We've got inequity there and we have to try and face it and we have to try and find answers. But it just shows that these answers are not easy. But I don't think it can be claimed that there is a lack of interest in it. It should be producing better results. In my time, there has been an improvement in the physical infrastructure. The housing is better but we could do with more quality housing. The shops are definitely better. The health facilities are better, and the school facilities. You would be pleased to send your children to any one of those things.

But the outcomes are just not matching the investment, and with everything we do in this space it is reasonable to ask why that is not the case. Jacinta Price, from the Centre for Independent studies, said:

The chasm shows in shocking statistics for health and reduced life expectancy, school truancy, subsequent poor education and employment levels, and the horrendous impact of high crime rates, particularly domestic violence and sexual assault.

That is a very concerning statement. I know it is true. Most of us who have anything to do with this space know it is true. We are intent on closing the gap but we cannot do it on our own. We need motivation on the ground from parents to make sure their children get to school. I don't know how we do that. We try multiple approaches to bridge this gap. But I will just make the point that this government is committed. I am the representative in this place of the eight per cent of my electorate who are Indigenous. I feel as though we make a fair-dinkum effort. But do we have all the answers? Absolutely not. We need to recommit and we need to re-examine daily what we do in this space.

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

When Prime Minister Kevin Rudd delivered the Apology to the Stolen Generations 13 years ago it was seen as a significant milestone in the nation's coming to terms with a sorry past. Out of the apology grew the hope and the expectation that we could now move forward and make change, that there would be a new relationship between First Australians and the rest of the nation. During the course of his contribution, Mr Rudd said that the core of this partnership for the future was closing the gap between Indigenous and non-Indigenous Australians on life expectancy, educational achievement and employment opportunities. Out of that grew the COAG agreement in 2008 for the Closing the Gap targets. There were six targets: to close the life expectancy gap within a generation; to halve the gap in mortality rates for Indigenous children under five within a decade; to ensure access to early childhood education for all Indigenous four-year-olds in remote communities within five years; to halve the gap in reading, writing and numeracy achievements for children within a decade; to halve the gap for Indigenous students in year 12 attainment by 2020; and to halve the gap in employment outcomes between Indigenous and non-Indigenous Australians within a decade. As we know from the report of last year, we've failed dismally on all but two of those targets—sadly.

But there is no report to be tabled today. As the shadow minister said, that will now be put off until 7 August to reflect the agreement between the Commonwealth, state and territory governments and the Coalition of the Peaks with a set of new targets. What that does is break the nexus between the apology and the Closing the gap report. I think it's a way of diminishing the importance of the apology.

Significantly, through the 13 years since the apology, issues for the stolen generation still remain. There has been no compensation scheme for members of the stolen generation who are in the care of the Commonwealth, and there must be. It is a simple matter of justice, of what is right. I'm pleased to say I'm very proud that the Labor Party took to the last election a policy to provide such compensation. As we reflect on the lack of achievement since 2008, is it any wonder that First Nations people were driven to meet at Uluru and together produce the Statement from the Heart?

We had the fine words of Prime Minister Rudd, the high and noble sentiments, but, sadly, little has been achieved against those magnificent aspirations. Are we now at risk of another stolen generation? Twenty-four years after the Bringing them home report, First Nations children are nearly 10 times more likely to be living in out-of-home care in Australia. More than 20,000 First Nations children are in out-of-home care; that's about 30 per cent of the total number of children in out-of-home care, yet First Nations children represent only six per cent of the child population. As shocking as these figures are, they are getting worse.

Surely, we are better than this. What is it that prevents this nation from truly coming to terms with our past and, finally, acknowledging and dealing with the demands and aspirations of First Nations peoples in a mature and just way? Surely, we have an obligation to accede to the request for a constitutionally enshrined voice to parliament, truth-telling and a makarrata. It is now past time we allowed our own obduracy and obstinacy to get in the way of simply doing what is right.

During the course of the Rudd and Gillard governments, I had the great privilege of being the Minister for Indigenous Health. At that the time we developed in partnership with Aboriginal communities across Australia the National Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Health Plan 2013-23. After we lost government in 2013, there was an expectation and bipartisan support that this plan would be used going forward by the government to be the framework within which its Aboriginal affairs health policy would be developed. Sadly, it appears not to have been the case. There has been no properly funded implementation strategy. There is now negotiation of a new plan, yet there's been no evaluation of the outcomes from the original plan that I'm aware of. Is that an indication of how sincere successive governments from the coalition have been in addressing the issues so readily and properly identified in the first Closing the Gap statement to the parliament by Prime Minister Rudd in 2008? I fear not.

Andrew Laming (Bowman, Liberal Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

I welcome this important debate today as we consider the Closing the Gap targets revised last year. We would all agree that this is about healthy and economically independent Indigenous Australian families; meeting not just Australian targets but global targets; quoting not just national averages but breaking these gaps down into local government areas, regional and remote areas and by community; and making closure of these gaps the first order of business in everything we do where Indigenous Australians have a stake. Ultimately, there has to be an Indigenous private sector thriving in every corner of this land, services delivered by Indigenous Australians to the rest of the nation and thinking way beyond that the only good that can be created is dot paintings and the only service delivered being a tourism operator or a ranger.

There are three hard questions that we've completely missed with these 16 targets, and it gives me great pain to point these out. But none of these targets can be met. There's no guarantee we won't have another decade of failure until we answer these three questions. The first of those is: are we prepared as a nation to have the hard conversation around empowering Indigenous men and women to lead their own communities and not have it corroded from beneath by individual welfare payments imposed as a Western model nor large payments into communities where families in an internecine way are turned upon each other?

This is about allowing senior men and women not just to lead but to have the power to.

Once they lead, I trust they can achieve a second of these practical goals—that is, owning education. It's not just getting enrolled in education, it's not just the education certificate; it's the outcome, not an administrative output, that matters. Where there are Indigenous Australians there must be an Indigenous say in the curriculum, the syllabus, the bilingual nature of education, complete ownership of the successes and the failures, because Indigenous education is not something that should be done to them. Once you have empowered elders and they own education, they can engage the economy. This is not just about employment anymore. What we've created is, basically, a single-pass vortex of welfare money in, leaving in the first pass straight out in non-Indigenous manufactured goods or, as they call it out there, crap—excuse the vernacular.

There's no service economy of note. Healthy economies around the world have a fifth of their population in the public service, a fifth of their government spend in public services, not 100 per cent. Until we fix up this absolutely obvious distortion of Indigenous Australia, created by non-Indigenous Australia, you can't begin to hope for a thriving services sector that creates non-government employment. For those reasons, I have to finish by saying what the five great inadequacies in the targets we've just adopted are.

In education target No. 3 we can't just look at school enrolments, we need to look at where it goes. It's about completion of school and the academic goals that have been achieved while at school. The 55 per cent school potential target No. 5, for the AEDC, is unacceptably low and it must be closer to 100 per cent. If we don't have children achieving these domains in the AEDC we cannot achieve targets 5 and 6. In target 7 economic engagement has to be 100 per cent, by definition. If we accept 67 per cent, we allow one in three to wash through the system as disengaged. That doesn't work in the rest of the world, let alone Australia. In employment goal 8, it's split employment into public and private, because private employment is just as important, and that gap needs to close. We simply can't employ every Indigenous Australian in the government and call it a success. While the quantum of housing in goal 9 is important, we need sustainably managed and maintained housing, where the resident can pay the rent out of private income.

Finally, in criminal justice targets10 and 11 the rate of Indigenous offending is what matters, not the incarceration—that's just an administrative output by the judge. We've got to stop the offending; that's the goal that needs to be closed. We need to report all interpersonal violence, not just that against women and children. However important that is, we need the entire violence gap closed. It may not start against women and children, and we need to be measuring that too. These are highly emotional topics, and every Australian needs to be united in engaging them.

Anne Stanley (Werriwa, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

I start by acknowledging the traditional owners of our country. I acknowledge the Ngunawal and Ngambri people whose land on which the parliament meets, and I acknowledge the Tharawal, Gundungurra and Dharug people, the traditional owners in the electorate of Werriwa. Acknowledging First Australians and recognising them as the true owners of the land is a small but powerful message.

Recognition is the first step to reconciliation, as is truth-telling, and I add my voice to acknowledge elders past, present and emerging. But there is much more that needs to be done, and Labor will always be committed to bringing justice to all Indigenous communities. It was a Labor government that made the national Apology to the Stolen Generations on behalf of all Australians. It was a Labor government that acknowledges an apology is tremendously essential; however, it doesn't close the gap. There needs to be structural, institutional and cultural change in Australia for First Nations people to have the same opportunities as all Australians.

Last Friday I attended the Memories in the Mall event in Liverpool that marks the importance of the apology for our community. It is the importance to remember and to recommit to make a difference. The Liverpool council and our community have a respectful relationship with its Aboriginal residents. Recently, there was a deed of agreement between Gandangara Local Aboriginal Land Council and Liverpool council for the upgrade of Apex and Phillips parks. The agreement will ensure that the Aboriginal community have their history and culture recognised. There will be employment opportunities, traineeships, apprenticeships and an Indigenous garden. These are tangible opportunities for change. Also as part of the celebrations for the 200th anniversary of Campbelltown City, the council, with the input of its First People, has built a Campbelltown yarning circle. Opened earlier this year by the Mayor of Campbelltown, the yarning circle is a show of commitment to supporting and respecting the original inhabitants of Campbelltown, the Dharawal. I would like to make special mention of Uncle Ivan Wellington, who was pivotal in seeing this project come to fruition and spoke at the unveiling. Uncle Ivan spoke about the great benefits the site will bring not only to the local Indigenous community but to the wider community as a whole. Our local community is showing that it can work to improve the situation for Aboriginal residents, but more needs to be done.

It's my great privilege to be part of the Standing Committee on Indigenous Affairs. This committee recently handed down its report on food security in remote communities. Food security in these areas has a disproportional effect on Aboriginal Australians. The most distressing evidence about the lack of reliable food chains and supplies came from an Aboriginal elder in a remote community, who told us that she fully expected her children would be hungry for at least three months a year because of the lack of deliveries during the wet season. This wasn't just the result of the pandemic; it happened every year. This is heartbreaking. In 2021, it is unacceptable and intolerable for a country like ours.

For more than a decade, the Closing the gap report recommendations have highlighted what needs to be achieved to improve the lives of First Nations people. It is disappointing that many of the recommendations have not been implemented and the targets are still not on track. Child mortality rates in Indigenous communities have stagnated for the last decade, sitting well above the targets set. Tragically, 117 Indigenous children died in 2018, more than double that of the rate for non-Indigenous children. Sadly, while the rate of non-Indigenous child mortality is improving at a faster rate, the gap is widening for Aboriginal children. But, as the member for Barton said, these are people, not statistics.

More needs to be done to understand the health and social detriments of Indigenous mothers and children if birth outcomes and mortality rates are to improve. First Nations people are dying too soon. They are incarcerated too often, suffer from more preventable diseases, are educated less and are the least likely to be employed. The statistics from the report do not do real justice to the situation that our First Nations peoples face every day. This is a tragedy not of their own making. We must act. We must end the shameful history and use the figures that we have to change the lives for emerging generations. And we must do it now.

Julian Leeser (Berowra, Liberal Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

They say that the definition of stupidity is doing the same thing and expecting a different result. And yet, in the Closing the Gap policy area, that is what we have been doing for more than a decade. The original Closing the Gap report started with the noble aims of the then Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Social Justice Commissioner, Tom Calma, to set targets and report back in this place each and every year. Five prime ministers and opposition leaders have made beautiful and passionate speeches on this topic, some of the most beautiful and passionate speeches ever delivered in this place. I remember Prime Minister Morrison's speech last year, where he illustrated the old thinking of control, which governments have exercised over the lives of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples for generations. He movingly read from the archival file of what was then called the Department of Native Welfare. He told to the House the story of a young boy, referred to in a patronising way as 'a good type of lad', asking for 75c more pocket money. Powerfully, the Prime Minister then revealed that this same person was today the Minister for Indigenous Australians. What an interesting and powerful illustration of the old thinking. But, despite the fact that those sentiments were written in the 1960s, the old thinking has continued to pervade these areas of policy, and, because of the old thinking, we haven't been able to shift the dial on the Closing the Gap targets anywhere near as much as we would have liked.

Last year, two of the seven targets were on track: to halve the gap in year 12 attainment and to have 95 per cent of Indigenous four-year-olds enrolled in early childhood education by 2025. But halving the gap in child mortality, school attendance, child literacy and numeracy, and employment, and closing the gap in life expectancy within a generation were not on target.

Those days of control should be well and truly behind us. That is why what the federal government has done—in partnership with the states, territories, and local government and, most importantly, the Coalition of Peaks—has been a complete change in the way in which we approach the Closing the Gap targets. For the first time, Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples have not just been the subject of the Closing the Gap targets but they have set the targets themselves in conglomeration and in cooperation with the states, the territories and the Commonwealth. This is so important for two reasons. As I began to do more work in the Indigenous policy space and as somebody who became interested in this space because of my interest in constitutional law, it surprised me that, despite the fact that in 1967 Australians overwhelmingly voted to give the Commonwealth power to make laws with relation to Indigenous people, most of the policies and laws that affect their everyday lives are made at the state, territory and local levels. Yet the old thinking left the entire responsibility for closing the gap in the hands of the Commonwealth.

This new refresh of the Closing the Gap targets brings people together, including Commonwealth and state governments but most importantly the Aboriginal community-controlled sector. I want to pay tribute to the distinguished, tenacious Aboriginal leader Pat Turner, who is in the gallery today, who led the 51 Coalition of Peaks organisations to put together proposals to change these targets so that they had the buy-in of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples and, importantly, the buy-in of the states and territories.

New targets don't mean easier targets. In fact, many of these targets are hugely ambitious. But you would not want anything less than hugely ambitious targets, many of which are to be achieved in the next decade, when we are talking about improving the lives of and improving outcomes for our First Australians. What we've done in bringing the Coalition of Peaks together to help design and implement the new Closing the Gap targets is give Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people a say, for the first time in their history, over the policies, laws and programs that affect them. This is truly a watershed moment in the history of our country and in the history of black and white relations in our country. It's important that this is not a Canberra-knows-best idea or a state-and-territory-governments-know-best idea but that this is truly a partnership between the Commonwealth, the states, local government and, importantly, Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples who are delivering the services, who are a part of the community, who have the capacity and the accountability to the local communities to change lives on the ground. I believe that this is a really important year in closing the gap.

Katie Allen (Higgins, Liberal Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

I rise to speak on what is an incredibly important day for Australia and for all Australians. Australians need to have a strong sense of peace about our past, and that includes understanding, embracing and caring about our Indigenous people. The First Nations people have been an important and essential part of our culture and our heritage. But closing the gap remains a part of our Australian community which is something we need to address. What I would say about closing the gap is when I went to Arnhem Land nearly 30 years ago to see for myself how the Indigenous population was dealing with what is a very difficult situation, I was absolutely appalled by some of the health inequities that I was seeing. It's sad to say that many of those health inequities remain. Unfortunately, the gap in mortality rates between Indigenous and non-Indigenous peoples remains extreme. Unfortunately, we have some problems that are persisting: health, education, jobs. We need to do more. Today is about making practical measures in order to improve the outcomes for Indigenous people.

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

The time allotted for this debate has expired. The debate is adjourned and the resumption of the debate will be made an order of the day for the next sitting.