Sue Lines (WA, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Hansard source

I acknowledge that tonight I am speaking on the lands of the Ngunawal and Ngambri peoples, and I pay my respects to leaders past and present and emerging leaders. As Stan Grant in his book Talking with my Country says:

I grew up to understand that conflict doesn't end when the guns stop. That its legacy is passed through generations. I learned how it casts a shadow, and that shadow doesn't recede, and no matter how far we travel from the battleground that shadow hovers still.

For as long as these unacceptable gaps in key health and other indicators are there, those gaps between Aboriginal and non-Aboriginal peoples continue, that shadow will remain.

In 2008, Prime Minister Kevin Rudd delivered the national apology to Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples, in particular to the stolen generation. Those words that Aboriginal people had waited so long to hear were followed by Labor's commitment to close the gap on Indigenous disadvantage. In March 2008, we signed a statement of intent to close the gap—one of the few times that parliament has come together as one, as it did on that occasion and continues to do so, marking the importance of everyone in this place recognising that we must close the gap.

Labor's Closing the Gap framework provided, for the first time in our nation's history, a clear, properly funded framework that holds us all accountable to making progress. The framework was supported by the then opposition and by all Australian governments through the COAG process. Then in April 2008, the Labor Australian government, once again supported by the then opposition, agreed that the Prime Minister would provide an annual report to parliament on progress towards closing the gap.

It is worth revisiting some of this statement of intent, the commitment between the government of Australia and the Aboriginal Torres Strait Islander peoples of Australia. Two of these commitments in particular resonate:

Over the past weeks, we have heard many Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander leaders saying their voices are not being heard and their solutions are not being implemented. Like Stan Grant, they know that the shadow of the past does not recede while the gap continues. Indeed, in some areas the gap has widened. That inequity is widening. We now have some Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander leaders saying that they have lost faith in the Close the Gap targets, and it is not working. But that is a view that is not shared by all.

The chair of the Close the Gap Campaign Steering Committee, Dr Jackie Huggins, said:

In my working life, I have never seen Aboriginal affairs at such a low point … There is no engagement, there is no respect and I agree with Patrick and Noel—

Patrick Dodson and Noel Pearson—

that we are in deep crisis.

Dr Huggins went on to say:

Sometimes I don't feel part of this society because it breaks my heart to see the conditions my people are continually left in without any leadership from the top.

Governments would be well advised to listen and to act on the recommendations of the Close the Gap Campaign Steering Committee.

The warning signs that we were not on track were there in the steering committee's 2015 report. Indeed, in the executive summary of the 2015 report, the committee states that there must be a clearer connection between the Indigenous Advancement Strategy and closing the gap. The committee raised further concerns that Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander health gains could be 'negatively impacted' by measures in the last budget which cut funding to programs that target smoking rates, healthy eating, nutrition and physical activity. We all know that primary prevention through Aboriginal controlled health organisations must be the starting point. A year on, the campaign steering committee's 2016 report states, again:

Another area of concern for the Campaign Steering Committee is the impact of the Indigenous Advancement Strategy … on the social determinants of health.

It believes:

… the IAS should be nationally coordinated along with state and territory governments, and demonstrate how it will contribute to achieving the close the gap targets.

Of course it should, and we must ask and demand why the Indigenous Advancement Strategy does not reflect the Close the Gap targets.

In 2015, we saw the launch of the Implementation Plan for the National Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Health Plan. This must now be appropriately funded. The committee is calling for 'an overall increase in resources directed towards Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander health' and the committee once again stresses the plan should support the preferred model for health services—that is, delivered by Aboriginal controlled health organisations.

If we look back over the last 10 years, there have been some improvements, but those improvements are too slow and, without increased focus, respectful engagement and solutions led by Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander organisations, we will fail to meet our targets.

We know that Aboriginal Australians die about 10 years earlier than non-Indigenous Australians, on average. I was shocked to hear Dr Huggins say at the launch of the report last week that, in fact, Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples have the shortest life expectancy across the world's indigenous peoples. I saw her later in the day and I asked, 'Is that correct?' and she said, 'Yes, it is.' I said, 'I didn't know that stat. What a shameful stat. for Australia to have.' We know that there has been some decline in Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander infant mortality rates, but again that is not fast enough to meet our goals. Sadly and significantly, employment gaps have increased rather than narrowed.

Labor is calling for justice to be part of the targets. It is very sad day when we hear the Turnbull government's Minister for Indigenous Affairs say he will not consider including justice targets and he believes that in fact they would single out Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people. Well, they are singled out. They are absolutely over-represented currently in the justice system. In my state of Western Australia, around six per cent of juveniles are Indigenous, yet they make up almost 80 per cent of the prison population. They are singled out, and we desperately need to look at better solutions. It is absolutely horrific that a young Aboriginal person has more chance of being locked up than completing their schooling—significantly more chance. Those are not statistics that we should be proud of or that we should allow to continue. Some of that has to do with the harsh mandatory sentencing laws in Western Australia, but that stat. is repeated across the country. I would urge the minister to really take a look at what is happening and to inform himself of the appalling imprisonment rates, which are very high for women and very high for juveniles. This is not something that we should allow to continue.

The steering committee retains its optimism that we can achieve health equality in the future, but to do that we must be ambitious. This generation can and should be the generation to finally close the appalling life expectancy gap between Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islanders and non-Indigenous Australians, but it requires a new vision, it requires solutions that are led and implemented by Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples and it requires respect and appropriate action from governments and oppositions.