Ken Wyatt (Hasluck, Liberal Party, Minister for Indigenous Australians) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

I acknowledge the traditional custodians of the land on which this parliament sits, the Ngunawal people, and pay my respects to elders past and present. I also acknowledge my own country, the Noongar people of Western Australia, and say in our language, kaya wanju—hello and welcome. I acknowledge my Aboriginal parliamentary colleagues, the Hon. Linda Burney, Senator Pat Dodson, Senator Malarndirri McCarthy, Senator Jackie Lambie and Senator Olivia Thorpe. I also want to acknowledge the Prime Minister, who last week renewed his commitment to walk together with Indigenous Australians; to continue to listen, to learn; and a commitment to work together.

Two years ago, the Commonwealth signed a new partnership agreement with the states and territories, the coalition of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peak organisations, and the Australian Local Government Association. That document said, 'From now on we will work together, no matter what,' and we are. From that partnership, our new national agreement was born, setting out our new priority reforms and the 17 outcomes and targets agreed to by all and ushering in a new era of action, evidence and accountability. Governments can do a lot, and we will, but we can't do it all. I acknowledge the work of Pat Turner and the other leaders of the peak bodies and note how critical our partnership and their efforts will be in this new era. I acknowledge the work of the National Indigenous Australians Agency and the incredible staff in that organisation, particularly the former CEO, Ray Griggs, and all public servants who were involved in the agreement's preparation.

Each of the states and territories and the peaks and the Commonwealth presented their own implementation plans last Friday, when we met as the Joint Council on Closing the Gap. Each one of those plans directly responds to the new priority reform areas and the new outcomes and targets. All governments will report to their respective parliaments on their progress towards achieving the targets and, critically, all of our efforts will be scrutinised more closely than ever before—not by us, ourselves, as we've done in the past, but by the independent Productivity Commission and the Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander led reviews that will occur. We're not going to waste this opportunity. We will build on the past. We'll be guided not by what we think works but what the data tells us. We will only continue to fund initiatives that we now know can deliver, ensuring the money spent goes as far as it can.

When I was sworn in as Minister for Indigenous Australians, I promised that policy would not be made solely in my office; instead, I would only develop policy in partnership with Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Australians, and I meant that. From visiting communities and speaking with elders around the country, this has become clear and urgent. Last year I had traditional owners at Katherine ask me, 'Why do you insist on acknowledging traditional owners and elders but you're not involving us in everyday things to do with our country?' They said, 'You as governments acknowledge us, but we don't see us sitting at the table talking about the importance of country and why we are the rightful owners and why we shouldn't have a say. So why do you acknowledge us but don't include us?' It's a simple question, one that governments have struggled to answer for far too long.

So, yes, I've been challenged—challenged to think more deeply about how to honour my original promise, how to make our partnership's efforts more than just words in a report or ideas in a speech, how to make them real for our people. To make them mean something to every person in every community, what we need most in Indigenous affairs is pragmatism and real outcomes, practical actions that result in meaningful change for Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples and change through working in genuine partnership. That is our paradigm shift, which is now embedded in the Commonwealth Closing the Gap Implementation Plan. We are being rigorous with the evidence, we are listening, we are learning and we are pursuing what works.

This is the latest step to do away with the old top-down approach without losing or downplaying the heart and intention of the commitments made by Prime Minister Rudd 13 years ago. But much has changed since then. What hasn't changed is the collective aspiration of our people to see Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander children getting the best start in life and the same opportunities—schooling, health care and life outcomes—as their peers; to see more children in school and fewer children in custody; to see more Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people living healthier lives and fewer dying young. We want to see more opportunity and optimism, and more freedom to hope and to heal.

I want to take a moment to reflect on the Territories Stolen Generations Redress Scheme the Prime Minister has just announced. I want to acknowledge Fiona Cornforth—who has done a brilliant job—Maisie Austin, Eileen Cummings and the Healing Foundation for their work to address trauma passed from generation to generation, in too many cases caused by the forced removal of children from their families. When I spoke with them, on several occasions I recalled my mother and her siblings who were members of the same experience. My mother spent her childhood years in Roelands mission out of Bunbury. Not only were all her siblings taken away from their parents, they were also separated from each other and spread hundreds of kilometres apart. As a child, and as a child of anybody who has been in an institution, I used to listen to their stories that they shared between themselves, and they expressed how they felt. I've read my mother's native welfare files, which include letters from her parents which make it very clear that her mother and father had not given up on wanting them back. They had not relinquished their parental rights. They'd never given her up. They continued loving and yearning for her all those years, and her for them. When I was talking with Maisie and Eileen, it brought back those memories of what they went through, and that's why we've done the right thing.

The new redress scheme represents an important practical step forward to healing in this country and reflects our government's commitment to support a process of truth-telling as part of our nation's journey to reconciliation. All of us in cabinet share responsibility to create a better future for Indigenous Australians. In a sense, we are all ministers for Indigenous Australians.

It is my hope that over the 10 years of this new Agreement on Closing the Gap, as well as through our efforts to co-design the Indigenous voice, my colleagues and I can work even more closely together to acknowledge the past, to build a better future as one, but, more importantly, to implement all of the initiatives that are outlined in the $1 billion commitment in the Commonwealth's implementation plan. I think the strength of this approach of a partnership with 51 peak organisations, with Indigenous communities, but where state and territory governments are now accountable in their own parliaments, makes our task as a Commonwealth to be facilitators for a better future, that it addresses all those elusive areas in which gaps have continued to exist. Out-of-home care, incarceration rates and the general ones that we've always focused on are all critically important. And, whilst the challenge in some of the circumstances that people live in remote and isolated communities will be tough, nevertheless I know that both sides of this chamber are committed to ensuring that we collectively close the gap that exists. It gives us an incredible opportunity to work in a bipartisan approach over the next 10 years to see a future in which a child born today at the age of 10 will have better opportunities, better pathways and enjoy the same privileges that an Australian child does in any other context.

I also want to acknowledge the contribution of my long-term friend Linda Burney for the work that she has done over our years of being advocates in a number of areas, and the member for Barton knows full well how important these gap closures are if we are going to see a change in the quality of lives. Even in capital cities, those gaps exist. What we have to do is look for solutions that will ensure that the challenges are addressed and we see the outcomes that we seek through all of the implementation plans and the Closing the Gap implementation agreement. Thank you.

Honourable members: Hear, hear!

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

[by video link] I join with Minister Wyatt in recognising himself, of course, Senator Dodson, Senator McCarthy, Senator Thorp and Senator Lambie. I acknowledge the peak organisations, including Pat Turner, and I thank particularly the Labor Party for its incredible support for this process and my leader, Anthony Albanese, for his ongoing support in closing the gap. I also recognise and thank Minister Wyatt for his acknowledgement of me towards the end of his speech. It's very touching and very heartfelt, so thank you very much, Minister Wyatt.

Last week, the Prime Minister delivered the latest Closing the Gap update. Sadly, and unsurprisingly, the data shows that disparity and disadvantage remain. It has been more than two years since the Prime Minister promised the new approach to closing the gap that Minister Wyatt spoke about. There were three targets—target 13, family violence; target 14, suicides; and target 17, Indigenous inclusion—that do not have any comparison data for non-Indigenous populations. Even if the adult incarceration goal were to be met, a reduction of 15 per cent by 2031—a goal that Labor has consistently argued needs to be more ambitious—the rate would still be more than 11 times higher than that for the non-Indigenous population. Even if the youth incarceration goal were to be met, a reduction of 30 per cent by 2031, the rate would still be more than 12 times higher than for the non-Indigenous population. And even if the out-of-home-care goal were to be met, a 45 per cent reduction by 2031, the rate would still be five times higher than for the non-Indigenous population. We can't allow ourselves to become desensitised to this deprivation. Hearing Minister Wyatt's story of his own family brings that home. These are not just statistics; these are people's lives.

This week Labor has sought to break this cycle of policy stagnation. Our leader charted a practical and sensible way forward for closing the gap through empowering First Nations people. Listening to and empowering First Nations people is at the very heart of Labor's approach to closing the gap. We remain committed to a constitutionally enshrined voice and we will put a referendum to the nation within the first term of an Albanese Labor government, but we will also make makarrata—treaty and truth telling—a priority. I say to all Australians: truth telling is not about shame or guilt. It is about moving forward. But we can't move forward by pretending that one part of the country has not been subjected to structural, industrial-scale disadvantage for centuries. If we want to understand the challenges, the disadvantage and the inequities of the present, it is crucial that we understand the roots of past trauma.

The trauma of the past does not simply stay in the past. It has transcended generations, and we all see that. This is one of the fundamental and very practical functions of truth telling. A makarrata commission will be independent and have responsibility for truth telling and treaty making. It will work with the voice to parliament when it is established. It would oversee the establishment of an effective model of local truth-telling, including the support of local communities. It would inquire into matters of overarching national significance, including the causes of inequity from colonisation to the present day. It would recall and tell positive stories of survival and culture, as well as making an official record of colonisation, massacres, discrimination and resistance.

With respect to treaty, it would recommend a framework for federal treaty making, taking into account the good work that has already been undertaken on this by the states and territories. It will consult with First Nations communities and will report within the first term of a Labor government. There can be no real progress on closing the gap and there can be no reconciliation without treaty and truth-telling. Labor's commitment to making Makarrata a priority will realise these crucial elements of the Uluru statement.

Last week we also saw the Prime Minister rule out a First Nations voice to the parliament before the next election. One of the desires expressed by First Nations people through the Uluru statement was a greater say in decisions, policies and laws that affect us—a generous and reasonable ask from a people who have survived centuries of dispossession, massacres and the destruction of families and communities—a new iteration of self-determination, not binding and certainly not a third chamber, but safe and secure from the whims of political interference from the government of the day through constitutional enshrinement. The Australian government asked First Peoples for their vision of constitutional recognition and reform, and this is it.

In the few remaining minutes that I have, I want to quickly touch on the fact that Labor welcomes the establishment of a stolen generations compensation scheme. It was Labor that took stolen generations reparations to the last election: $75,000 in compensation plus $7,000 in auxiliary payments. We welcome the government coming onboard with this, never forgetting that there are members of this chamber today who walked out on the National Apology to the Stolen Generations 13½ years ago. We know that the Rudd Labor government's commencement of the national effort to close the gap as part of the National Apology to the Stolen Generations was in recognition of the issue of stolen generations. It recognises that the disparities and inequities we see today are inexplicably linked to the deprivation that arose from those paternalistic and misguided policies that the minister has outlined with his own family.

We will charter a practical and sensible way on closing the gap. This is why in the past week Labor has committed to a national process of treaty making and truth-telling. A clear and accurate telling of Australia's story is essential to helping us better understand and explain the causes of inequity and injustice. We have committed to strengthen economic and job opportunities for First Nations people, particularly through the Indigenous rangers program. Economic equality is absolutely fundamental. We can't have an addressing of structural disadvantage more broadly otherwise. Listening to and empowering First Nations people is clearly reflected in Labor's approach to closing the gap. I recognise my party, I recognise the minister in the chair, and I also commit on behalf of Anthony Albanese to the many issues he raised in closing the gap last week.

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

[by video link] It's an honour to follow both the minister and the shadow minister and to be followed by my good friend the Member for Lingiari in this debate, all three of whom have done much to educate me and share their knowledge of Australia's Indigenous people and have committed their lives to the betterment of our First Nations people. I'd like to start today in speaking about the important work of the Commonwealth Closing the Gap implementation plan by acknowledging the traditional custodians of the land in my electorate where I'm coming from today, the Dharug and Kuringgai people, and paying my respect to their elders past and present.

This is a different Closing the Gap statement. It acknowledges we've entered into a new era of partnership between Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples through the Coalition of Peaks and governments, and, in saying 'governments'—plural—I mean Commonwealth, state and territory. There are two firsts in this process: the involvement of Aboriginal people in setting and delivering against the targets, and the involvement of all governments. One of the things I think is poorly understood is that, although in 1967 the people gave the Commonwealth power to make laws about Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples, the truth is that most of the laws and policies which affect our First Nations people are made by the states and territories. So bringing Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people and all levels of government to the table is something of a watershed moment in our history.

I want to acknowledge the leadership of the minister, the Prime Minister and Pat Turner in bringing this about. The way this Closing the Gap process has taken place is, in my view, a harbinger of what the voice can potentially achieve. It shows that real change can be achieved when you listen to and involve Indigenous people in the decisions that affect them. Speaking of watershed moments, I note that the Prime Minister in his remarks in the Closing the Gap statement added that 17 August marks 50 years since Neville Bonner delivered his maiden speech to the senate and became the first Indigenous person to serve in the parliament.

I wanted to say something about Neville Bonner in these remarks as I had the privilege of getting to know Neville in February 1998 when we were both elected ACM—No Republic delegates at the constitutional convention. He was No. 2 on our Queensland senate ticket behind Sir James Killen. Like the other ACM delegates, we stayed at the Garden City Premier Inn at Narrabundah during that hot February fortnight. Neville wasn't well. He was suffering from the cancer that ultimately killed him. At night he'd join other ACM delegates for a drink and dinner and he was often found outside having a smoko. He was warm, friendly and encouraging of this young bloke, and I remember the many distinctive rings he had on his fingers.

Neville and I served on an important subcommittee of that convention: a cross-party grouping comprising both republicans and monarchists on the constitutional recognition of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples. It was the only truly bipartisan recommendation of that convention and was about having a referendum on Indigenous constitutional recognition regardless of your position on the republic. The committee was the genesis of my personal involvement in that issue, and I still regard constitutional recognition as important unfinished business.

Neville Bonner made one of the two truly remarkable addresses to that convention, the other made by Sir James Killen. These two great parliamentarians—giants of our postwar politics—followed one another, and I was privileged to be in the chamber to hear these great orations. Bonner raised issues that day 23 years ago which are still with us and remain central to closing the gap. He said:

From the bottom of my heart, I pray to you: stop this senseless division. Let us work together on the real issues. Let us solve those problems which haunt my people—the problems of land, of health, of unemployment, of the despair and hopelessness which leads even to suicide. Let us unite this country, not divide it ever—that toy of those who already have too much: mere symbolism.

He then said:

Ladies and gentlemen, I would like to end what I have already said by singing my Jagera sorry chant.

Then he left us spellbound with that awe-inspiring chant. Even now I get goosebumps thinking about it. That chant provoked a long standing ovation—the only one of the convention. Reflecting on the day of his own maiden speech on 17 August 1971, Bonner on another occasion had this to say:

As they were leading me up, I looked up and around the galleries and I could feel the whole Aboriginal race, of those who had gone before, were all up there, and I could visualise, I could hear voices and amongst those voices was the voice of my grandfather saying, 'It's alright now boy, you are finally in the council with the Australian Elders. Everything is now going to be alright.'

We can't make the promise that everything is going to be alright now, but we can promise to honour the memory of Neville Bonner by working to make this Closing the Gap Commonwealth parliamentary implementation plan successful in what it seeks to do. It seeks to address disadvantage, to build opportunities for Indigenous Australians and to build partnerships for working together.

The government has committed a billion dollars to support new measures delivering on its commitments to co-design and work with Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples, and I think it's worthwhile mentioning some of those measures. I want to say something about the Territories Stolen Generations Redress Scheme, and I think the shadow minister has already mentioned the financial compensation elements of it. I think there is actually a deeper and more important part of the redress scheme—that is, the opportunity for each survivor to confidentially tell their story about the impact of their removal to a senior official within government, and to have it acknowledged and receive a face-to-face written apology for the removal and resulting trauma. Too often in our country, people feel they are not being listened to by government and have nowhere to go to tell their story. So I think that this aspect is very important. One only needed to hear the voice of Pat Turner at the press conference, talking about her own mother's circumstances, to see how powerful such a measure will be.

There are several measures in relation to closing the gap around child care and education which I think are important. There is $120 million to improve the lives of thousands of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander children through better access to early childhood education. As we know, one of the best ways to improve people's lot in life is to ensure they have a good start with quality early childhood education, particularly for people who are disadvantaged—whether it is through the $81 million for an extra 27 new Connected Beginnings sites benefiting around 8½ thousand children, or money to fund up to 20 new childcare services in remote communities, or $9 million to create four new early years education programs in Queensland and Victoria. These will be significant measures. Importantly, there will be a $2 million trial of a new early learning teaching model to strengthen literacy and numeracy through explicit instruction. Evidence shows that play based learning alone may not be enough for some children and that explicit instruction can be more effective.

The plan focuses not only on early education; it also focuses on greater investment in secondary schooling. There is $75 million to improve options for secondary schooling for Indigenous children in remote communities and a $25 million investment in Scaling Up Success, a program that ensures the best evidence based programs are used in our primary schools.

I have the privilege of chairing the House Indigenous affairs committee and I want to say how important it is that we focus on Closing the Gap target 8, which is that by 2031 we will have increased to 62 per cent the proportion of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people aged 25 to 64 who are employed. That number currently sits at 51 per cent. The Indigenous affairs committee is currently undertaking an inquiry looking at pathways to economic opportunity for Indigenous Australians around employment and small business. Our committee has heard evidence from a number of businesses that are working with Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander communities to build partnerships and identify opportunities for training and employment, and I want to revisit some of the evidence we have heard. Voyages is a company that, prior to COVID, employed 1,100 people in Central Australia, 400 of whom were Indigenous. They are the largest employer of Indigenous people in Central Australia. They run the National Indigenous Training Academy in partnership with the William Angliss Institute and Charles Darwin University. They are a training-to-employment organisation providing people with great opportunities in the hospitality and horticulture sectors. We heard from Woolworths, one of the largest employers of Indigenous Australians, employing 5,000 Indigenous people across the country, about their important cultural training and mentoring initiatives. We heard from the Accor hotels group, who have targets for the number of contracts of value procured from Indigenous businesses. Since the imposition of those targets, they have reported seeing an upward trend in their engagement with Indigenous business. We heard from the Minerals Council, who said they are working in partnership to provide pathways for skills training and business development. Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people make up about 3.8 per cent of the mining workforce, and the number of Indigenous employees directly employed in mining has more than doubled in the decade to 2016.

We also have heard much about the growth in Indigenous business, especially but not exclusively from the success of the government's Indigenous Procurement Policy, and the important links between Indigenous small business and Indigenous employment. An Indigenous businesses is 100 times more likely than a non-Indigenous business to employ other Indigenous Australians.

In conclusion, the focus of this new Closing the Gap initiative is on partnerships. Partnerships are essential. They build connections between governments and our First Nations people and build opportunities across the country. We will continue to work to build those opportunities until we reach the day when children can grow up and, regardless of whether they are Indigenous or non-Indigenous, have the same expectations as any other Australian.

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

Firstly, let me say what an honour it is to be able to speak in this debate. I want to acknowledge the contribution just made by the member for Berowra, someone I've come to call a friend, even though we have diverse—I would say, very different—views on a range of matters. We've been working cooperatively together and in concert, along with my colleague the member for Newcastle, on the Aboriginal affairs committee. It's been a pleasure to work with him. I know I've learned a bit, and I hope he's learned something along the way as well. Thank you very much for your contribution.

I thank the member for Hasluck for the work he's been doing. We don't agree all the time, but his intentions are clear. I want to give him whatever support I can in his role. I would like to commend the member for Barton for her contribution, following on from the Leader of the Opposition's statement last week. They are significant statements in themselves and they bring to mind many of the things we need to properly comprehend.

Having been in this place for some time, I've been able to observe and be part of decisions and discussions which have caused hurt and heartache. I vividly remember 13 February 2008 and the apology by Prime Minister Kevin Rudd. I'm sad, though, because the previous Prime Minister refused to apologise and referred to the 'black armband view of history'. When we contemplate the insult that that means, and where we are now in Australia when we discuss these issues, we must acknowledge how wrong he was. Those members of this chamber who either didn't appear at or walked out of the apology by Kevin Rudd are shamed.

I want to thank the government for the reparation scheme they announced for the stolen generations last week. As the member for Barton said, it was a commitment made by Labor at the last election, and I'm glad the government have picked it up. Following Kevin Rudd's apology, there were many people who had tears of relief and hope. But so many of those people who applauded, acknowledged and were part of that decision and who saw the fulfilment of that apology have passed, so they will not be beneficiaries of this new scheme. That's sad. I just hope we can get the current government, with great respect to the member for Hasluck, and the current Prime Minister to listen to people and to hear their advice.

I acknowledge the role of the wonderful Pat Turner and the Coalition of Peaks. Pat is a friend and was a neighbour in Alice Springs. I know she's a formidable individual and someone with a great deal of experience but who is grounded in her family and in her community. I commend her for the role she's had in this Closing the Gap approach.

I noted the Prime Minister's foreword in the report, in which he said, 'Too many opportunities have been missed to listen and to learn.' Can I say, Prime Minister, there is no point just having selective hearing. We heard from Uluru, from the Uluru Statement from the Heart. We heard what people around this country want: a constitutionally entrenched voice. And now, as a result of the statement from last week, it is clear that we won't have a voice legislated during the course of this parliament, let alone any commitment to enshrine a voice in the Constitution. That's why it's important to contemplate and understand the merit in the three parts of the Uluru Statement from the Heart: the entrenched voice, the makarrata and truth-telling.

Truth-telling goes to the heart of where we're at. We as a nation have to appreciate and understand the extent of the institutionalised racism that has been the driver of our governments for over a century. That has to go. If that has to go, it means the Prime Minister not only has to say we've missed opportunities but now has to listen, learn and appreciate the intelligence and charity with which Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islanders speak to us, the government, as a parliament. They speak with respect, but that respect needs to be returned by way of action. I note the priority reform targets within this new statement, the partnership and shared decision-making, the building of the community controlled sector, the sharing of access to data and information at a regional level and the transforming of government organisations. These are commendable objectives, but at their heart they mean listening to people and responding in a serious way to close the gap in health, education, employment, housing and so forth.

I want to commend the Leader of the Opposition for the announcements that he made last week and the commitments that he made on behalf of the Labor Party not only to the voice but to the issues that were raised by the member for Barton about education and health. If I may, I want to make one observation about the member for Berowra's contribution and the money that, as a result of last week, has been promised by this government for boarding facilities for remote communities. I ask the government to look at the reports of this parliament. The House of Representatives committee for which the member for Berowra is chairman brought down a report on education specifically around the issues to do with boarding schools. It has clearly not been read, appreciated or understood by this government, just as it has made observations about explicit instruction, particularly direct instruction. I ask the government to look seriously at these reports. The member for Berowra, the member for Newcastle and I are involved in the inquiry, as was the member for Durack. Look! We've got them all here! They will understand what I'm talking about. I say to you: please, please listen; read what has been researched and the advice that has been given by that committee.

When I travel around the bush, which I do often, there are a number of driving requests that I have constantly, but there are two that are most important: housing and employment. We hear of housing because of the inadequacy of it and the failure of governments to properly respond in terms of making allocations that will address need. We think there's a shortfall of some billions of dollars, perhaps $5 billion, in housing alone in the Northern Territory. The other area is CDP. I know the member for Durack appreciates and understands what I'm going to say here. Labor is committed to scrapping the current Community Development Program. We are committed to developing a new community based program, possibly designed on the principles of the old CDEP system. That's what the community are asking for. I say to the Prime Minister and the member for Durack: if you think it's time to listen and learn, well, listen, learn and act. That's what we require you to do.

Pat Conaghan (Cowper, National Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

Firstly, I would like to acknowledge the traditional custodians, the Ngunawal and Ngambri people, and their elders past, present and emerging. I was very pleased last week to see the Prime Minister announce this government's latest Closing the Gap implementation plan, along with the redress scheme. It was extremely pleasing to see that language was specifically recognised as part of the rich inheritance of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples—it's something I have been working with Indigenous people in my communities to expand—an inheritance that Closing the Gap, in that respect, specifically seeks to protect. There are 123 languages across our country, but only 14 of those are considered to be strong. This government's target, between now and 2031, is a steady increase in the number and strength of the Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander community languages being spoken.

I was also pleased to see, having spent 12 years enforcing the law and 18 years defending the law, a new focus on justice with new targets set so that, by 2031, we will reduce the rate of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander adults in custody by 15 per cent and juveniles by 30 per cent. There are far too many young Indigenous people in custody, and the low-hanging fruit here is to look at those offences that send people to jail that don't involve public safety, such as traffic offences that involve an administrative component. There are people in custody right now serving terms of imprisonment for driving whilst disqualified. That potentially could have started because that young Indigenous man or that young Indigenous woman didn't have a birth certificate, so therefore they couldn't get a licence and, therefore, they drove without a licence on multiple occasions. It's not so much a public safety offence as an administrative offence, which can see them in prison for up to two years.

I was also very pleased to speak with former Aboriginal affairs minister Robert Tickner, who is now serving as the chair of the Justice Reform Initiative. I know that he has done a lot of work, both in his past life and since leaving this place, for the advancement of Indigenous people and their culture. If he requires any assistance, I look forward to offering him that assistance.

I recognise the Commonwealth doesn't manage those justice systems, but where we can make a difference is in bringing people together and the provision of additional funding for support, such as the $9.3 million for the Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander legal services to better manage complex cases and coronial inquiries. I have seen how stretched that they are in their funding, so it was pleasing to see that. A further $8.2 million in funding is for family dispute resolution programs for Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander families.

Importantly, this Closing the Gap implementation plan is a commitment by the government to work in partnership with and to listen to Indigenous peoples. Quite clearly the key two words in my last sentence were 'partnership' and 'listen', because that is exactly what this government—all governments at all levels—must do: that is, partner with our Indigenous people and listen, really listen, to our Indigenous people.

In my own electorate of Cowper, we have a significant number of Indigenous people through Coffs Harbour, Kempsey, Bowraville and the wider Nambucca area. I acknowledge the Birrbay people and the Dhanggati-Thangatti and Gumbaynggirr nations.

Earlier this month the government announced $126 million to help improve education for thousands of Indigenous students. Education is a key part of our government's plan to close the gap. I accept that there is still that massive chasm. NAPLAN data shows that Indigenous students are, on average, more than two years behind their non-Indigenous peers in year 3. And that gap continues to grow over time. So this significant financial boost will hopefully help focus on scaling up programs that we know lift outcomes for our Indigenous students. The primary focus will be on important areas such as reading, maths, attendance at school and school completion.

In Coffs Harbour, in my own electorate, Gumbaynggirr Giingana Freedom School is looking to open in early 2022. I was very pleased to bring Minister Wyatt down and speak to him about that project. That project aims to establish the Gumbaynggirr Giingana school, an Aboriginal bilingual independent primary school, for Aboriginal students on the Coffs Coast. Clark Webb, the CEO, is a remarkable young man. He established the Bularri Muurlay Nyanggan Aboriginal Corporation, and he is the driving force behind this plan. 'Bularri muurlay nyanggan' translates to 'two paths strong' in the Gumbaynggirr language. Their footprint extends from the Nambucca Valley all the way up to Grafton, and they're currently engaged with over 200 people in cultural and educational programs each year. The organisation was formed 10 years ago, and it now includes three Goori learning centres, a Nyanggan tutoring program, Gumbaynggirr language and cultural revitalisation programs, the Wajaarr Ngaarlu dance troupe, cultural camps, the Nyanggan Gapi Cafe and a cultural experience tourism venture. Clark is a very proud First Nations man who was raised to never allow anyone to make him believe the Goori people are any less than anyone else. That great strength in his heritage shows that, when Indigenous children are strong in their identity, they engage much better in learning. Once operational, the school will provide a culturally strong, safe and thriving learning environment where the Gumbaynggirr world view and language drive and enrich the entire learning experience.

The Closing the Gap Implementation Plan sets out the actions this government is taking to drive and embed real and positive change. Each relevant stakeholder must be part of a collaborative effort to achieve this desired outcome during this process. Importantly, the programs and policies to achieve our goals will be the responsibility of all involved—everyone. This is being achieved through the partnership with Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples, a true partnership. This relationship is central to the design and monitoring of specific actions under the implementation plan, evolving the way we work together to better deliver the desired outcomes for the Indigenous community and Australians as a whole. The implementation plan will require significant change in how all governments work on all levels. Like previous efforts in closing the gap, socioeconomic targets have been set to measure whether efforts are being made to make a difference.

As the Minister for Indigenous Australians, Ken Wyatt, said last week, this announcement reflects the government's commitment to recognising and acknowledging the wrongs of the past as part of a nation's journey to reconciliation, and this scheme represents a major step forward towards healing. This is a journey for all Australians.

Alicia Payne (Canberra, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

It is a great honour to be part of this debate on the statement on closing the gap this year. I want to make my own acknowledgement that we are meeting, as this parliament does every day, on the land of the Ngunawal and Ngambri people. I acknowledge their contribution to our community and region and acknowledge their elders past, present and emerging.

It is a great honour to follow many of the speakers in this debate, who have devoted their lives to reconciliation and to closing that gap in the lives of Indigenous and non-Indigenous Australians. I want to acknowledge the Minister for Indigenous Australians and the shadow minister, the member for Barton, who spoke before me, and also the member for Lingiari, who, in his many years in this place, has worked very hard on this issue. It is an honour to be on our Labor First Nations caucus committee with the member for Barton and Senators McCarthy and Dodson, and to work with them on these issues. It was a particular honour on Reconciliation Day here in the ACT to host a panel discussion on reconciliation with Senator Dodson, Senator McCarthy and the member for Barton, and to hear their views on reconciliation and, very much so, the importance of the Uluru Statement from the Heart to this.

As we look at closing the gap each year, the depth of the gap that is experienced between First Nations people and other Australians is a shame on this nation. This year is no different. Of 17 targets, only three are on track to be met. As the member for Grayndler, our leader, said in his statement:

A gap is something that is easily crossed or closed. The unflinching litany of lopsided statistics before us makes it clear that this is a chasm.

Young Indigenous Australians are 24 times more likely to be incarcerated than their non-Indigenous peers and they make up 100 per cent of children in detention in the Northern Territory. Indigenous Australians are the most incarcerated group of people on this earth, and that is a shame on this nation and this parliament. Indigenous children today are being placed in out-of-home care at 10 times the rate of non-Indigenous children and make up 36 per cent of children living away from their parents, even though they represent only six per cent of all children.

As we look at the targets, even if the adult incarceration goal were to be met, which is a 15 per cent reduction by 2031, the rate would still be more than 11 times higher than for the non-Indigenous population. Even if the youth incarceration goal were to be met, a 30 per cent reduction by 2031, the rate would still be more than 12 times higher than for the non-Indigenous population. And even if the out-of-home-care goal for children were met, a 45 per cent reduction by 2031, the rate would still be five times higher than that for the non-Indigenous population. And there isn't even a defined suicide reduction goal—there's a range of trajectories, from a 20 per cent to a 75 per cent reduction.

As the member for Barton has said, we must not become desensitised to this level of deprivation. As others have also talked about, what is central to solving these problems, which we see after years of looking at the Closing the Gap targets every year, is that we need to do this differently. We have listened to First Nations Australians through the process of the Uluru Statement from the Heart, and they have said what it is they want to change. They have respectfully asked this parliament for voice, treaty and truth, but that respect, at this point, is not being returned. We are not truly listening to First Nations Australians until we implement this in full, and that will help to address these problems. We, as non-Indigenous Australians, cannot begin to fully understand the intergenerational trauma that is experienced as a result of the settlement of this country. But what we can't ignore is that the dispossession of First Nations Australians is fundamental to the establishment of Australia as we know it today, and that trauma continues in these statistics that we look at each year.

The Uluru statement has asked for truth-telling, for a process in order to come to terms with our very dark history in this country, and to move on from that. As the member for Barton also said, truth-telling is not about shame or guilt, but about moving forward, and that is something that we need to do together. The statement has asked for a voice to this parliament, a constitutionally enshrined voice to this parliament so that the answers to some of these problems can be found independent of the government of the day. This is incredibly important, and this is something that I'm proud that Labor is committed to in full. I call on the government and the Greens party to follow us in this. It is incredibly important to address these issues and have a voice enshrined in the Constitution to give a meaningful voice to this parliament on how to address the trauma and the issues facing First Nations people today. The Uluru statement has asked for a treaty, a makarrata commission, and a Labor government would be committed to establishing this with urgency.

Last week we saw the Prime Minister announce a $380 million redress scheme for survivors of the stolen generations in the ACT, the Northern Territory and the Jervis Bay Territory. Labor welcomes this, of course, and I particularly want to welcome it on behalf of my Canberra community, many of whom will be impacted by this. I want to acknowledge that, while there is a financial payment in recognition of the unthinkable treatment that people endured, an important part of this scheme is also the opportunity to tell their story, if they would like to, and to receive an apology. I acknowledge how important that is for the broader addressing of this. We welcome that, but we need to do so much more. We need to be listening to First Nations people about how to address some of these issues, and that is exactly what a voice to parliament that is enshrined in the Constitution, a makarrata commission, would enable us to do.

There are proven ways to reduce the causes of incarceration and deaths in custody. It has been more than 30 years since the Royal Commission into Aboriginal Deaths in Custody handed down its findings and 339 recommendations. But, tragically, hundreds of First Nations Australians have died in custody or in police pursuits since then. I commend the Change the Record movement for what they have been doing on that. A key issue linked to the incarceration of Indigenous people in Australia is the age of criminal responsibility. I'm proud that the ACT is the first jurisdiction to commit to lowering this, as the UN has recommended, because at the moment in this country children as young as 10 can be incarcerated. I think that is clearly wrong. I'm proud that the ACT has made that commitment, but it is something that all states and territories will hopefully move towards, and it is something we should address with urgency. There are proven ways to reduce the causes of incarceration and deaths in custody, and Labor has announced a plan to turn the tide on incarceration and deaths in custody by building on the success of the existing justice reinvestment programs in Bourke to tackle the root causes of crime and reoffending. These include rehabilitation services, family or domestic violence support, homelessness support and school retention initiatives. Where we see programs that are working, we should try to replicate them. Labor will provide specific standalone funding for Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander legal services to ensure First Nations families can access culturally appropriate, timely and fair legal assistance before, during and after all coronial processes, and Labor would ensure that deaths in custody are nationally reported in real time. It is extraordinary that in 2021 this counts as innovation.

In 1967 First Nations people asked to be counted, and in 2017 they asked to be heard. I call on the government to implement the Uluru statement in full.

Michael McCormack (Riverina, National Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

I acknowledge that I am speaking on the land of the Ngunawal and Ngambri peoples. I acknowledge too that my home town, Wagga Wagga, is in the land of the Wiradjuri. I acknowledge that the shadow Indigenous Australians minister, Linda Burney, the member for Barton, is a Wiradjuri woman, having been born at Whitton. I acknowledge the outstanding work that has been done by the Minister for Indigenous Australians, and I know that work continues. I also want to acknowledge the outstanding work that has been done by the former Minister for Regional Health. Amongst other things, the work that the member for Parkes did has been noted and recognised in the fact that Indigenous Australians have not suffered a death, as was acknowledged by the Prime Minister and the Leader of the Opposition, the member for Grayndler, during this global pandemic. The fact that we as a nation have been able to keep this deadly virus out of those remote Aboriginal communities is something we can all be very proud of, something where we can all say we've done a good job.

There is, of course, much more work to be done, as there is much more work to be done in this particular motion with closing the gap. Each and every year we stand here as members of parliament and acknowledge that the work continues. Certainly we can be pleased with some of the targets that we have reached, but we can also look at many of the others, including the incarceration rates, and say there is much more to be done.

I was very pleased to be with the minister to attend the Burunga Festival in the Northern Territory in June and the following day go to Mornington Island. This followed a visit from the Mornington Island mayor, Councillor Karl Yanner, and a group of his supporters and advocates for a better deal for his very remote shire, his very remote community, with a population just a tick over 1,000 in the Gulf of Carpentaria. They came to see me. I was Deputy Prime Minister at the time and I knew that I was going to be Acting Prime Minister in the not-too-distant future, so I thought what better opportunity to go to this island than in that capacity, in that role, and to hear and listen to those communities and their needs and wants. I think this strikes at the very heart of what we are addressing here with closing the gap. This is a community that has large gaps which indeed need to be closed.

It was a pleasure to visit the island, to be shown around this small community and to hear the sorts of issues that they need dealt with, including overcrowding in their housing. This community was identified by the Courier Mail as a community that had been largely forgotten by the mainland, and I wanted to assure that community that it had not been forgotten, was not being forgotten and will not be forgotten in the future.

As I left the role of Deputy Prime Minister, there weren't many things that I did ask to follow up, because I'd done a lot of them. But one of the things that I really wanted to see ticked off—and I will follow it up and I have also spoken to Councillor Yanner—was that I wanted the Mornington Island issue supported. To that end, they have applied for a Building Better Regions Fund for a water park or a swimming pool. It is extraordinary that in the 21st century a community of that size in that area, with the heat and the climate that they deal with not just every summer but indeed every day, don't have a water park for their children. I really would like to see that as part of the BBRF, and, if their application is not successful for whatever reason, then I think we as a government have an obligation to support that in the future.

It was great to go to Barunga the day before, on 12 June in fact, as Acting Prime Minister. I was the highest ranked MP who had visited the festival since Bob Hawke in 1988. With more than 4,000 attendees, the cultural, musical and sporting festival they put on has to be seen to be believed. The Barunga Festival director, Mark Gross, said the pandemic has had an impact on remote Indigenous communities, many of whom have been unable to travel throughout the last year. He said, 'Nothing is more important than keeping people safe, and we are so glad that with the assistance of NT Health and NT Police a sense of togetherness could be reintroduced to start the mental healing of communities after lockdown. Barunga has once again shown the way.' Indeed it did. It was a marvellous festival. I know that Minister Wyatt and many other MPs; senators, including Senator Sam McMahon; and Northern Territory MPs from both political persuasions were there. I know the member for Lingiari was there. We shared in some fellowship but we shared in the common goal of ensuring that this festival remains a feature of the Northern Territory calendar and that we need to do everything we can and will in the future for Closing the Gap measures and interventions and for Closing the Gap togetherness, as MPs, above the political partisanship that we often show. This needs to be done on a bipartisan level and there was certainly a lot of bipartisanship at the festival.

I know that these communities require more infrastructure, and the road leading to this site and this particular camping ground also needs to be fixed up. I would like to see that done as part of the enormous amount of money that we are spending on Northern Territory infrastructure. I know that we as a government will work closely with the Gunner government in the Northern Territory to see if we can do that in the future, because it would be money well spent.

For 35 years the Barunga Festival has been a special event not just for the Northern Territory but indeed for Australia. It brings Indigenous communities together to meet, to compete and to share. The invitation is always there for non-Indigenous Australians to experience a unique window into this remote community and its unique way of life. It is celebrated for the community rather than politics. Its simplicity, potency and focus on people has created a natural case study in reconciliation. Those words come from the Barunga Festival promoters. They are words very well spoken, because what that weekend again highlighted and showed to me is that Indigenous communities do want to take a lot of responsibility for and leadership of their own destiny and their own future. What is done by the Barunga Festival promoters and the Mornington Island community and its leaders, led so very well by Councillor Yanner—he's only a young bloke, but he's doing some mighty things and I know he's got the community's heart and belief very much at the core of his being. They will do some great things, but they will need the assistance of this government and of this parliament. I've given them the assurance that they will certainly have that from me.

Closer to the home, I acknowledge the work that is being done around the Riverina and central west by Wiradjuri elders. I commend what Stan Grant Sr has done in ensuring that the Wiradjuri language has not been lost. The volumes of work that he has produced certainly feature in my home library. They are a good resource for the Wiradjuri language. It is important to acknowledge, and I know this fact was acknowledged by both the Prime Minister and the Leader of the Opposition last week, that Aboriginal languages need preserving and protecting and to be taught in Australian schools for those students and by those schools who wish to do so. I know this is going to be an important fact going forward.

But there is much more work that can, that will and that must be done to close the gap in terms of life span, in terms of health outcomes, in terms of incarceration rates and the like for Indigenous Australians. We need to make sure that we continue to do what we can. I know the 5 August declaration, the Commonwealth releasing its first Closing the Gap Implementation Plan, is a good start, but much more work needs to be done.

Mark Dreyfus (Isaacs, Australian Labor Party, Shadow Attorney General) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

Last week Australians learnt that, just a year after the Morrison government announced it was resetting the Closing the Gap targets, only three of those 17 targets are now on track. So I do welcome the government's announcement last week that it will now provide substantial resources to try to get these targets back on track, and all the more so if this is new money that is being allocated and not simply existing commitments being taken from one vital program and being redirected to others.

Of course, I believe I join with the vast majority of Australians in welcoming the decision to at last fund a redress scheme for the surviving members of the stolen generations. I've had a long personal connection to many members of that group, having acted for them in the test case we brought to the Federal Court and the High Court, and which the Howard government then threw all the legal resources of the Commonwealth at in defeating. I hope that this new redress scheme is rolled out quickly and smoothly to deliver a measure of justice for surviving members of the stolen generations and to help address some of the intergenerational trauma those terrible policies of the federal government caused over those years.

For this redress program to be effective, it is important that the government does not repeat any of the multitude of mistakes it has made administering the redress scheme for victim-survivors of institutional child sexual abuse. With many members of the stolen generation already, sadly, having passed away and many others now approaching the end of their lives, I call on the government to recognise that, in this case, justice delayed is justice denied absolutely, and that the government must approach this redress scheme with a true sense of urgency. Labor made clear that, while we welcome justice targets, the justice targets set by this government are not ambitious enough. But to achieve even these unambitious targets will require significant action to be taken, because the relationship between First Nations people and the Australian justice system is an ongoing area of great difficulty. This government needs to start listening to Indigenous Australians about how to change that relationship.

In this context, I note that the Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Legal Services have long played a vital role in mediating and, to the extent they can, ensuring just outcomes for First Nations people who encounter the justice system. Until last year, ATSILS operated with a significant degree of autonomy in carrying out their vital role. But last year the Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Legal Services were, against the strident objections of their leadership and the communities that they serve, folded into a newly established national mechanism by the former Attorney-General.

This decision directly contradicted not only the clearly expressed views of the Indigenous community but also the very first recommendation of the government's own review of the Indigenous legal assistance program that was commissioned and received by the government last year. That first recommendation stated:

To facilitate a sustainable, community-controlled Indigenous legal assistance sector, Commonwealth Government funding should continue to be delivered through a standalone, specific purpose funding program with minimum five-year funding terms.

Indigenous groups expressed outrage at this decision by the government. In an open letter, some 100 organisations stated that the Morrison government's decision to ignore the key recommendation of the ILAP review was 'disappointing', not least because the federal government has been committed to and responsible for the funding and administration of ATSILS since their inception almost 50 years ago. This began after the 1967 referendum in recognition of the Commonwealth's special responsibility for Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people. It is important to retain this Commonwealth leadership. The organisations continued:

All evidence and research show that working in partnership with Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people and ACCOs is the best way forward. The Federal Government should honour its long-standing commitment, keep ILAP and adequately fund ATSILS to close the justice gap.

I trust that this misconceived approach to Indigenous justice shown by those actions last year is now behind us, and that the government will now seek to engage more respectfully and more constructively with First Nations communities on how to achieve the Closing the Gap justice targets.

To that end, I welcome the specific commitment by the Attorney-General and the Minister for Indigenous Australians of additional funding of $9.3 million for Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander legal services for expensive and complex cases and to support criminal justice reform through coronial inquiries, $8.3 million for culturally safe and appropriate dispute resolution for Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people, and $7.6 million to establish and support the justice policy partnership between all Australian governments and Indigenous representatives. As always, we need to see this announcement matched with delivery and, if we are to even come close to reaching these new targets, for this money to be rolled out quickly.

There is a great deal more I could say about justice targets and about the commitments that Labor has already made to improve justice outcomes if we win government, including through a commitment to expand and strengthen justice reinvestment programs. But justice is about far more than just court cases; justice is about far more than keeping people out of jail, so I want to say a little bit about what I feel is this federal government's betrayal of justice in its broader sense. In my view, in its undermining of meaningful action on all three of the requests in the Uluru Statement from the Heart, this government is betraying the hopes and aspirations of First Nations people and, in doing that, betraying justice in its broadest sense.

Unlike this government, Labor is committed to honouring the Uluru Statement from the Heart and, through this, to working towards justice and a genuine reconciliation with First Nations people. Honouring the Uluru statement includes working with First Nations people to establish an Indigenous voice to the parliament enshrined in our nation's Constitution. We in Labor are committed to making that happen. The Morrison government is opposed to it.

The Uluru statement also calls for a national process of treaty and truth-telling overseen by a makarrata commission. Labor has committed to honouring that request by establishing in government as a matter of priority a makarrata commission. That commission's oversight of truth-telling would include inquiring into matters of national significance from colonisation to the present day as well as supporting local truth-telling projects with local government and community organisations. And the commission's oversight of treaty would include developing a framework for federal treaty-making, taking into account existing state and territory processes.

The government has shown no interest in progressing either truth-telling or treaty. Honouring all three parts of the Uluru Statement from the Heart is vital to redressing deep generational injustices that still impact First Nations people and communities. If the government is serious about providing justice for First Nations people, if the Prime Minister is genuine in what he claims is his desire to work respectfully with Indigenous Australians to close the gap in justice outcomes, he should start by honouring rather than trashing the Uluru Statement from the Heart.

Bert Van Manen (Forde, Liberal Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

It's a pleasure to rise in this House and speak on the Closing the Gap Commonwealth implementation plan. As I'm sure many speakers, already, in their contributions tonight have acknowledged, much work has been done but much work still needs to be done. I want to take this opportunity tonight to not only speak about some of the terrific work that's being done locally in my electorate of Forde but, at the same time, acknowledge that in our regional and remote communities there are some very, very difficult problems being faced in those communities that are not necessarily reflected in my local community.

But there are still many difficulties and many problems, whether it is in the youth justice system and engaging with the justice system; whether it is in the education system and being fully engaged in education; whether it is the opportunity to gain stable, secure long-term employment that provides the opportunity to build wealth, build families, build self-confidence or whether it's the opportunity to get appropriate housing. All of these issues still exist in my community of Forde and that's why I'm so pleased with the focus of the Closing the Gap, which is not only really starting to target these issues but, more importantly, is engaging with the Indigenous community in how we solve those problems.

In that regard, at this point I would like to single out the work of the Beenleigh Housing and Development Company, led by CEO, Will Davis. They've been working for a number of years to develop a community-led housing project, and I fully support that project. I'd also like to thank Minister Wyatt for his willingness to look at that proposal to build a housing project that is designed to meet the needs of our local Indigenous community. Sadly, it probably won't be located in my electorate of Forde, but it will be located in the electorate of my good friend the member for Wright's electorate, probably down around Jimboomba or somewhere in that area. Our communities that we represent, whether it's the Yugambeh people in the south of my electorate, who also go into the electorate of the member for Wright, or the Yuggera to the north, are very much engaged in the discussion about how we resolve these issues for their communities. They include people like Uncle Ted Williams and Aunty Robyn Williams, both descendants of Bilin Bilin, who is frequently referred to as the King of the Logan and Albert rivers. I also reflect on the recent 50th anniversary of Senator Neville Bonner, who was a Yuggera man.

We can see that these communities have a rich history on which to build. If you have a look at the stories that are told through the Spirits of the Red Sand production at the Beenleigh Historical Village, you start to get a better understanding of the history of the interaction between the Yugambeh people and the original German settlers, and later, more broadly, English and European settlers. Sadly, there are stories that you hear from many places around Australia of massacres and people being treated extremely poorly. Even the story of the Spirits of the Red Sand tells us some of the things that happened to that community over that time. But, equally, it tells a story of the successes and integration of those communities, and at the end celebrates the success of where all of our communities have come from as a result.

One of the important things in the Closing the Gap Implementation Plan was a focus on language. I think language is particularly important because it helps you to understand where you've come from. It is a vital part of culture, because it allows you to keep the history of your culture alive by understanding and keeping the language alive. Rory O'Connor, the son of Aunty Patricia O'Connor, one of the Yugambeh elders, wrote a book: Walan ya Nimbulima—Back From Lost. It's about ensuring the survival of the Yugambeh language, and that it doesn't just survive but thrives.

I'd like to take the opportunity to acknowledge some of the work being done at our local schools to do exactly that. At Beenleigh State High School, they have an Indigenous support unit, called Mibunn Jinndi, where they provide support for Indigenous students throughout the Beenleigh community. Eagleby South State School have a proud, strong focus on outcomes for Indigenous students, but a key part of that is ensuring they understand the language to acknowledge and respect their identity and their culture. Waterford West State School, my old state school, has a Yugambeh language program that provides students with the opportunity to see language as a means of real communication rather than simply as an object of study.

At Marsden State High School, the Indigenous support unit, Deadly @ Marsden, supports the Indigenous students at Marsden State High School through mentoring, tutoring and connecting with external organisations and activities such as education support; social, emotional and cultural wellbeing; health checks through the Deadly Choices program; Indigenous camps; Beyond the Broncos; and an extraordinarily good rugby league and football program. Part of a recent discussion that I've had with Marsden State High School is to engage with Adam Sarota and Jade North, who have both played for the Brisbane Roar Football Club but who now have their own Indigenous business doing landscaping and construction, as a way to get kids at Marsden State High School engaged in the workforce.

All of these practical measures that are being undertaken by our community in Forde are a practical demonstration of the fact that our community wants to help itself to be better and to resolve the problems that it faces—and they acknowledge those problems. But equally important was the funding that this government provided to Beenleigh Housing and Development Company—I think it was three years ago now—which has been very successful in allowing them to run mentoring and youth programs, and a range of other programs, to start to deal with some of these issues at the coalface.

To everybody involved across the electorate of Forde I want to say thank you for your efforts. I commit to continuing to work with you through the implementation plan and other measures, to helping to continue to resolve the issues that you face in our community and to ensuring that the Indigenous youth of the community of Forde have the opportunity to realise their potential, just like everyone else.

Luke Gosling (Solomon, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

More than a year after the new Closing the Gap agreement was signed, this delayed report brings us grim news. First Nations people are still far more likely to be jailed, to die by suicide and to have their children removed than non-Indigenous Australians. Out of the 17 targets that have been set, only three are on track to be reached. In the Northern Territory we live proudly side by side with more than 60,000 years of culture, heritage and connection to country. We celebrate our First Nations' cultures and stories, but we also have a front-row seat to our nation's failure to progress on closing the gap.

I welcome the government's announcement of a new $378 million redress scheme for people forcibly removed from their families as children. This is good news for my electorate, where stolen generation members have been fighting for compensation for decades. I'm thinking of those who were abused at the Retta Dixon Home in Darwin, and I thank all those who have fought for their compensation and for so many thousands of others across the NT who suffered in many different institutions and who have been fighting for so long to be recognised.

I would like to pay tribute to survivors like Eileen Cummings from the Northern Territory Stolen Generations Aboriginal Corporation. Eileen does not claim to speak for all survivors, but her words do tell a story. In 1948, when she was just four, she was taken off the Arnhem Land cattle station that she lived on and where her mother was a domestic servant. She didn't see her mother again for almost a decade and, shamefully, her story is all too common. Nationally, it's estimated that as many as one in three Indigenous children were forcibly removed from their families under government policies from 1910 to 1970. Eileen said she was overjoyed to learn of the compensation scheme for survivors who were under 18 years of age when they were taken. Eileen said today: 'We've been fighting for such a long time. You keep asking us for reconciliation. How can we reconcile when the history of this country is denying these stolen children? If you want us to reconcile you have to take ownership of that injustice.' Eileen said of the compensation amount: 'Some say the money is not enough. But I don't care if it's not enough, it's something. To me it's taking responsibility and saying that something happened to us, and that's what I wanted all along.'

Eileen was planning to retire from the Northern Territory Stolen Generations Aboriginal Corporation committee in November, but says she will keep going until the money is paid out. She's worried the payments won't begin until March next year and that more survivors, like countless before them, might die before they and their families are compensated. She said: 'I'm fighting for the deceased and their children. They've waited so long, why do they have to wait even longer?'

I just want to echo what Eileen Cummings is saying. It is representative of so many members of the stolen generation who were forcibly taken from their families. Again, I welcome the government's move to announce this funding to provide compensation to those NT members of the stolen generation.

Debate interrupted.