Kim Carr (Victoria, Australian Labor Party, Minister for Human Services) Share this | Hansard source

What we have indicated is that we would mark this journey with clear objectives. We said that we would commit to this path for more than 20 years. We said that we would, of course, make this the great work of this current generation. And so historic funding has been committed to ensure that we do close the gap in this country; historic funding has been committed to ensure that life expectancy can increase and so that we can see increased improvements in housing and in health services and in early childhood development and in jobs and in remote service delivery. Today the Prime Minister has reported to the parliament on the impact of these investments, and there has been clear evidence of success in four of our targets: we promised to deliver access to early childhood education for all four year olds in remote communities, and that has been done; we promised to halve the gap in the child mortality rates by 2010, and we are on target; we promised to halve the gap in year 12 attainment by 2020, and we are ahead of schedule; and we promised to halve the gap in employment, and real progress has been made. (Time expired)