Katy Gallagher (ACT, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Hansard source

I also rise to speak briefly on the Closing the gap report. In doing so, I also acknowledge the traditional owners of the land on which we gather here this evening, the Ngunnawal and Ngambri people, and I pay my respects to elders both past and present.

There is certainly a lot to be proud of in Australia but, as many speakers here tonight have said, the record of governments at all levels over many, many decades in regard to the First Australians and in relation to services to Indigenous people in this country is not one of them. Many gaps remain, and that is why it is important that this annual report come to the national parliament and be discussed openly and at length. There is no doubt that, as a nation, we have let down the First Australians. It is only now and in recent times, through mapping the gaps, that we are able to look at progress towards improving life expectancy, health outcomes, involvement in education, and employment opportunities between Indigenous and non-Indigenous Australians. It is true that the movement in the right direction is not happening perhaps as fast as we would like, but it is going to take the coordinated approach of governments at every level and communities at every level working together on the solutions in order to start and continue to reap results. But there is a long way to go.

As many speakers tonight have touched on, one of the main areas of concern in closing the gap is, of course, health outcomes across Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander communities. Overall life expectancy remains 10 years shorter for Indigenous Australians when compared to non-Indigenous Australians. When we look at the reasons behind that, we see very deeply entrenched social issues that disproportionately affect Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander communities. We know, for instance, that smoking rates remain still at very high levels despite some progress over recent years. We know that the level of chronic disease in Indigenous communities is also disturbingly high and higher than in non-Indigenous populations. These are just two areas where we very clearly see such a difference in rates and prevalence when comparing Indigenous to non-Indigenous Australians. We also know that Indigenous babies are more likely to be born with low birth weight and that children with hearing problems may not get the treatment and the services that they need. That, in turn, affects their experience at school and through early childhood programs. We know that by addressing some of these issues in children at a very young age, the disproportionate effect of those issues through their life is reduced and their ability to access appropriate education is greatly improved.

It is worth noting that there have been concerns raised by some of the Aboriginal controlled health organisations around some of the changes that this government has been looking to introduce, particularly around access to bulk-billing and to general practice. That particularly concerns Aboriginal controlled health organisations. I know that talk of the GP co-payment had an almost immediate effect on the number of patients wanting to come through the door at Winnunga Nimmityjah in the ACT. They had to do quite a lot of community education to inform people that those changes were just being discussed at the time and that they had not been passed. Knowing that you can visit the doctor or your local Aboriginal controlled health organisation and access health care at no cost is very important when those organisations are reaching out to their local communities.

In relation to mental health, there are significant issues in Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander communities. They show up in statistics like the suicide rate. It is really concerning that Indigenous Australians are twice as likely as to complete suicide as non-Indigenous Australians. This is something that needs a very concentrated and consistent effort to address the needs of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people and provide programs in a culturally appropriate way. I think we need to start measuring this very closely and making sure that services are provided and that the Aboriginal controlled health organisations are given the support and resources to be able to provide those services out in local communities. We know that this is an area that could do with a lot more resources. I have certainly heard representations from Aboriginal-controlled health organisations about the support that they need to address and turnaround some of the presentations that they are seeing through their organisations in relation to the mental health and wellbeing of the Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander community.

I am not for a moment saying that these are easy issues to address or that there has not been goodwill on all sides of politics to address it, but the statistics remain very clear and I think we need to do a lot more in this area. I know that, under the mental health reforms that the health minister is pursuing, there is some unallocated funding that is being used to focus in on providing resources for services like this. I have not seen where that is going to yet, but it is an acknowledgement that it is there. It is not new funding; it is coming from somewhere else. But I think that will certainly be well used. I am not sure it will fill the gap from where some of the savings have been generated from to pay for the ice task force; but, again, any effort we can put into improving the mental health outcomes of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people would be very welcome.

Here in the ACT, a relatively affluent community, I think it is difficult to acknowledge that Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people face many of the same issues here in the ACT that they do around the country, whether it be in health outcomes, education or even in areas like corrections and juvenile justice. I know from my previous role that we put in incredible amounts of effort to resource those areas appropriately and see improved outcomes. We certainly did see improved outcomes in education. I know that at the juvenile detention centre here in the ACT on any given night several years ago—I think has improved now—anywhere from 25 to 50 per cent of the young people in that detention facility were of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander backgrounds. It is not as if anyone in the ACT can pretend for a moment that these issues that are affecting first Australians around the country are not issues here.

I would just like to finish on the fact that the ACT did keep in place an elected body, the Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Elected Body, which we put in place in 2008. This is elected by the Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander community members in the ACT. The elections are run every three years by Elections ACT. Those elected members meet with the cabinet twice a year, they hold their own estimates hearings with heads of departments and they provide a report on the budget every year.

I know for a fact—from being in those meetings and from having those shared cabinet meetings and shared engagement with those leaders that have been elected by the local community—that we got very good insights. The cabinet ministers were directly briefed by the Indigenous elected body. It certainly provided a channel where the Indigenous elected body was given the respect that it deserved, the community had a way in that did not have to come through government and then that elected body could negotiate directly with the government and tell us exactly what their priorities were. It was a good model, it was a respectful model and it acknowledges their right to engagement with government at the highest level. I think that is something that could be looked at more broadly, if not across the country then in other jurisdictions.

Question agreed to.