Anne Ruston (SA, Liberal Party, Minister for Families and Social Services) Share this | Hansard source

I move:

That the Senate take note of the annual report on Closing the Gap and accompanying statements.

Today, I visited the other place to hear the Prime Minister's address and the Leader of the Opposition's address on Closing the Gap report 2020. It was a pleasure to hear the renewed bipartisan commitment to ensure progress over the next decade to close the gap between Indigenous and non-Indigenous Australians. This is vital because, sadly, the results to date are just not good enough. But I can assure the Senate and I can assure the Australian people that this government are committed to closing the gap and we believe it is an initiative that can address the disparity between health, education, employment and life experience for Indigenous Australians. There can be no doubt that the seven target areas of child mortality, early childhood education, school attendance, literacy and numeracy, year 12 attainment, employment and life expectancy are crucial to making a difference in the lives of Indigenous people. While it is important to note there has been progress on almost every measure of the existing framework, the fact of the matter is we're only on track to meet two of the seven targets. Clearly this is not where any of us want to be.

The two targets that are on track are important because these support the bright future for the next generation. For our early childhood education, the target is to have 95 per cent of Indigenous four-year-olds enrolled in early childhood education by 2025 because childhood education is important to a child's cognitive and social development. That target is on track. In 2018, 86.4 per cent of indigenous children were enrolled in early childhood education compared with 91.3 per cent of non-Indigenous children. On year 12 attainment or equivalent, the target is to halve the gap for Indigenous Australians aged between 20 and 24 in year 12 or equivalent by 2020, and education is crucial to finding work. That target is also on track. In 2018-19, around 66 per cent of Indigenous Australians between 20 and 24 years of age had attained year 12 or the equivalent. In the past decade that has increased by 21 percentage points.

But the targets in the five areas that did not meet the targets are equally important. On child mortality, the target is to halve the gap for Indigenous children under five within a decade. Although there's been progress in maternal and child health, improvements in mortality rates have not been enough to meet the 2018 target. In the 10-year period 2008 to 2018, Indigenous child mortality rates improved by seven per cent. We absolutely must make more progress on this.

On school attendance, the target is to close the gap between Indigenous and non-Indigenous school attendance within five years. At 2018, this target was not met. Attendance rates for Indigenous students remain lower than for non-Indigenous students, with around 82 per cent of Indigenous students in comparison to 92 per cent in 2019. Gaps in attendance are evident from the first year of school and widen during secondary schooling. On literacy and numeracy, the target is to halve the gap for Indigenous children in reading, writing and numeracy within a decade. While the gap narrowed across all year levels between three and 11 percentage points, it has not been enough to meet the targets.

On employment, the target is to halve the gap in employment outcomes between Indigenous and non-Indigenous Australians within a decade. We did not meet this target by 2018. In 2018, the Indigenous employment rate was 49 per cent compared to 75 per cent for non-Indigenous Australians. This is disappointing that there has been little change on this measure.

There is a target to close the life expectancy gap within a generation by the year 2031. At this time, this target is not on track. Over the period 2006 to 2018 there was an improvement of almost 10 percentage points in Indigenous mortality rates. However, non-Indigenous mortality rates improved at a similar rate, meaning this gap has not narrowed.

To make sure we see real change over the coming decade we need a collegiate, collective commitment to an improvement to change this for future Indigenous Australians. That is exactly what the Minister for Indigenous Australians, Ken Wyatt, is changing in his approach to Closing the Gap 2020. Up until now that approach has been very much a top-down approach. So despite the very best intentions and all the resources that have been applied to this task, if we have failed to deliver our goals, we have missed the mark. A new Closing the Gap process that is truthful, strength based and community led that puts Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people at its very, very core is absolutely essential. Unless all Australians see the gap—we need to close the gap from the point of view of Indigenous Australians—we will not succeed in our mission. That is why this new era does not include targets set by governments.

Minister Wyatt, working with Indigenous leadership that makes up the Coalition of Peaks and the state and territory governments, will determine the right design for the next framework. This new approach is locally led, collaborative and will make much further progress than a one-size-fits-all government-led approach could ever have hoped to achieve.

The process is to refresh Closing the Gap strategies. It has taken time but, when the framework is right, we will do better. The reform priorities already identified include developing and strengthening structures to ensure full involvement of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples and embedding ownership, responsibility and expertise to close this gap. It includes building the formal Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander community controlled services sector to deliver Closing the Gap services and programs in agreed priority areas. It also includes ensuring all mainstream government agencies and institutions undertake systemic and structural transformation to contribute to closing the gap.

In conclusion, our future approach to closing the gap between Indigenous and non-indigenous Australians must be different from the past. We must do it differently and we must do it together.