Malarndirri McCarthy (NT, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Hansard source

I seek leave to move a motion in relation to the response by the South Australian Minister for Aboriginal Affairs and Reconciliation, Mr Maher.

Leave granted.

I move:

That the Senate take note of the document.

I reiterate to the Senate that we still have a very long way to go, in terms of raising the life expectancy for the first nation people of this country. It is about more than life expectancy; it is also about the quality of life for First Australians. I had the opportunity to travel across many parts of the Northern Territory and around Australia on different occasions: in my role as a parliamentarian for the Senate, previously as a minister in the Northern Territory parliament, and also as a journalist. Journalists are always covering and looking at the issues facing first nation people. We are such an incredibly wealthy country, but three per cent of the population still struggles. They have a quality of life that is, by far, a long way from the quality of life of ordinary Australians.

One of the achievements in Closing the Gap this year—and I can only speak about one of the seven targets—is based around education. We in this place, the Senate, know for a fact that education is the key to any child rising above their circumstances. But it is not just education; it is access to good quality education, it is teachers who will be there day in, day out, and it is schools that function and have the resources to cope with the many issues facing Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander children.

In the Northern Territory alone we have over 100 Aboriginal languages. We have an Aboriginal Interpreter Service. That reflects the importance of valuing language. But in our schools we still need to look at our teachers having adequate access to the languages spoken by the very students that they teach. What sort of opportunity is there for first-time teachers who are coming through universities to learn a first nations language? Is this something that we should also be considering? Yes, it is. If you talk to educators across the board who work in Indigenous education, they recognise that there must be scope for that. It may not be the priority that it should be for the broader commitment of education to Indigenous students, because, firstly, you have to look at the resourcing and access to schools—and I speak specifically, across our Northern Territory and in our remote regions, about having good schools built and access for housing for not only teachers who come from interstate or other parts of the Northern Territory but the very teachers and the assistant teachers from those communities. They should have access to that. Of course, better housing leads to better life and better living circumstances for those children, many of whom get up hungry each day. When we look at closing the gap and we see that this is one area out of seven targets, we have to say, 'Okay, we're moving somewhere in that direction.'

I go back to the issue of first nations languages. It is something that Australia needs to have a good look at in terms of reaching out to our first nations students. In Arnhem Land, with the Yolngu language, we know that the ability to stay strong in speaking in language, in listening in language and in singing in language, as well as in understanding English, has been a huge success. We only have to look at the late Dr Mandawuy Yunupingu, who used to speak very strongly about the importance of two-way education.

But we have to have the housing to back up the quality of life and we have to have the access to health—and let us have a look at the health statistics. Consider that there are 400 people on renal dialysis just in Central Australia. If you go up the track to Royal Darwin Hospital, you will see another couple of hundred Aboriginal people on dialysis. But the big kicker here is not that you see Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people lying on these machines day in, day out—some three times a week, some two times a week—but that that is their routine. (Time expired)