Lisa Singh (Tasmania, Australian Labor Party, Shadow Parliamentary Secretary to the Shadow Attorney General) Share this | Hansard source

This is the 10-year anniversary of closing the gap. This year we should take stock not only of what we have achieved but also of how far we still have to go. I have heard some of the contributions already made by senators tonight on that. The fact is we have made some long-term gains, but this report also shows that progress in closing the gap in a number of key areas still remains to be met, including employment, life expectancy, literacy and numeracy and other health parameters, which have all stagnated. In fact, there is just one target which Australians can be confident is on track to be met, and that concerns the progress made in reducing infant mortality rates by more than 33 per cent. Out of seven targets, two are almost on track but only one is completely on track.

I attended, with many others in this place, the closing the gap breakfast and I also sat in the House of Representatives to hear the speeches by both the Prime Minister and the Leader of the Opposition. They had a very clear message—there are no results without cooperation and without respect. We cannot address the issues of closing the gap with any kind of politics in mind—there needs to be goodwill and good heart by all members and senators. I think the Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Social Justice Commissioner, Mick Gooda, articulated this when he said at that breakfast that government has all the resources but they don't have all the knowledge. Noel Pearson said years ago that the problem is that the people and the communities, who have 80 per cent of the knowledge, only have 20 per cent of the power, whereas government, who has 80 per cent of the power, only has about 20 per cent of the knowledge, so somehow we have to recalibrate those figures show there is real power sharing. That is a stark reminder of how we do need to move away from the top-down policy implementation approach. Only if we take that approach will we really move towards truly reconciling.

There are a number of ways we can move towards reconciliation, and a lot of those have been adopted over a number of years. The apology to the stolen generations by the then Prime Minister, Kevin Rudd, is a case in point. I hope that in the not too distant future an amendment to our Constitution to recognise Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people will be another symbolic moment which moves us towards reconciliation. We also need to ensure that Aboriginal people, with the knowledge they hold, make the decisions. That is why Labor in our address committed very much to setting new targets to close the gap, to focus on addressing the unacceptable incarceration rates among Indigenous Australians and on increasing safety in those communities.

Out of a number of statistics or parameters or factors that could be highlighted, in the short time that I have in this place I want to highlight what is so meaningful for me about Closing the Gap. I want to highlight the issues of justice and incarceration rates. Half of all Aboriginal prisoners in custody are under the age of 30. The re-imprisonment rate for Aboriginal young people is higher than the school retention rate. This is simply not acceptable. In the last decade, imprisonment rates have more than doubled, growing faster than the crime rate. And for Aboriginal women, there has been a 74 per cent increase in the past 15 years, meaning they make up one-third now of our female prison population. These are very stark statistics.

We in this place have a policy decision role to listen to Aboriginal people and to invest in the services that are required to turn these statistics around. One of the ways we can do that of course, is by funding adequately, appropriately, Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander legal services. Unfortunately, that has not occurred and there has been a continual cut in those NATSILS over the last couple of years. I think that is one very easy and small budget way in fact, that we can turn around and try to support those people that are in need of these NATSIL services that are provided through legal services.

These kinds of new issues around justice and incarceration must be tackled. As my friend and colleague Senator Nova Peris stated, 'We walked free many years ago on this country. Now all my mob are locked up.' I think it is time we moved past the politics and ensured that those front line legal services are funded and that we have an emphasis on diversion programs rather than on locking them up. Wayne Muir, the National Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Legal Services chairperson said:

It is about justice reinvestment and, as I think I heard Mr Shorten say, this isn't about being soft on crime, this is about creating safer communities and reducing the recidivism long-term.

When I was once minister for corrections I learnt these tough statistics in my home state of Tasmania. However, in that state we did not have a high percentage of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people. But when I learnt of these statistics during the Closing the Gap 10-year anniversary report, of so many young Aboriginals under the age of 30 who happened to be in our prisons, in custody, it simply made me feel very sad inside. I think that if there is anything out of the targets that need to be met, that is the one that I really wanted to share and focus on tonight.

Of course there are so many others: closing the life expectancy gap within a generation by 2031 is not on track; halving the gap in reading, writing and numeracy achievements for children within a decade by 2018 is not on track; halving the gap in employment outcomes between Indigenous and non-Indigenous Australians within a decade by 2018 is not on track; 95 per cent of all Indigenous four-year olds enrolled in early childhood education by 2025 is the new target—the original target was to ensure all Indigenous four-year olds in remote communities had access to early childhood education by 2013, but that was never met. There are so many other stark reminders in those seven targets that make up the Closing the gap report that need all of our attention in this place, no matter what side of the parliament you sit on. It is our duty and it is the respect that we definitely owe to Indigenous Australians to ensure that we close the gap.