Rachel Siewert (WA, Australian Greens) Share this | Hansard source

This report of the Aboriginal Torres Strait Islander Social Justice Commissioner, the 2006 Social Justice Report, is a very interesting report. I congratulate the Social Justice Commissioner on producing the report, on the wide range of issues that he covers and the detail with which he covers them. He raises some very important points in this report relating to Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander access to social justice in this country. I would like to point out some of the key points that he has made in this report. He talks about, for example, what makes good Indigenous policy. He says:

In the context of Indigenous affairs, the most senior officers of the APS—

the Australian Public Service—

have recognised their part in contributing to dysfunction and disadvantage in Indigenous communities as a result of the ‘failure of a generation of public policies to translate into the sustained economic betterment of indigenous Australians.’

He quotes Dr Shergold as saying:

I am aware that, for some 15 years as a public administrator, too much of what I have done on behalf of government for the very best of motives had the very worst of outcomes. I (and hundreds of my well-intentioned colleagues, both black and white) have contributed to the current unacceptable state of affairs, at first unwittingly and then, too often, silently and despairingly.

I think that is a very significant statement. The social justice commissioner then goes on in the report to look at a range of issues, and there is quite a lot of information and reflection on the current policy framework for Indigenous affairs. He says that there is an ‘implementation gap between the rhetoric of government and its actual activities’. He goes on to say that the new arrangements are:

... a top down imposition—with policy set centrally and unilaterally by government, confirmed in bilateral processes with state and territory governments (again without Indigenous input) and then applied to Indigenous peoples.

…            …            …

The lack of effective connections between the regional and national level was identified as the central problem with the operation of the Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Commission (ATSIC), and a key reason cited by the Government for its abolition.

He is saying that the same thing is being replicated with the new arrangement the government has put in place. He says:

... the lack of effective participation in the new arrangements is the fundamental flaw of the new arrangements.

He then talks about the lack of evidence base for the policy approaches that are being taken, and says that it occurs ‘without stakeholder engagement, is conducted outside of a learning framework and lacks transparency’. This is exactly the approach that is demonstrated in the latest government legislation, the Northern Territory intervention package. A number of us have spoken at length about the fact that there was no consultation on that package. In fact, the changes that were passed through this place this week suffered from that same approach of a lack of consultation. There is a very significant quote in the report where the social justice commissioner says:

The greatest irony of this is that it fosters a passive system of policy development and service delivery while at the same time criticising Indigenous peoples for being passive recipients of government services!

I think that is a very important and salient point. The first recommendation that the social justice commissioner makes in the report is:

That the Secretaries Group request the Australian Public Service Commissioner to conduct a confidential survey of staff in Indigenous Coordination Centres to identify current issues in the implementation of the new arrangements and the challenges being faced in achieving whole of government coordination. This survey should be conducted by the APSC.

I think that is a very, very important recommendation. I put a motion to this place this week to seek to put in place that very survey. Of course, it was unfortunately not supported by government. I would have thought that if the government were interested in getting policy delivery and service delivery to Aboriginal communities they would have supported that recommendation. Everybody in the field knows that ICCs are failing and are not working, so let’s find out why they are failing and why they are not working. Further in the same recommendation he says that there should be established a parliamentary committee of inquiry into the progress of the new arrangements in Indigenous affairs. (Time expired)