Rachel Siewert (WA, Australian Greens) Share this | Hansard source

I rise also to speak to the Closing the gap report 2019. Firstly, I acknowledge the Ngunnawal people, the traditional owners of the land that we are meeting on. I pay my respects to elders past, present and emerging, and acknowledge that this land was never ceded and that we have, as a nation, a lot of unfinished business.

I'd first like to start talking about progress on closing the gap and making some comments as they relate to what sorts of things we need to do if we are going to meet the aspirations that were included in this particular set of targets and those that are currently being developed with the Coalition of Peaks.

The target to ensure that 95 per cent of all First Nations four-year-olds are enrolled in early childhood education by 2025 is on track, although you will notice that it looks like enrolments have decreased over the last 12 months. I'm deeply concerned that some of the changes that have been made to childcare subsidies are in fact disproportionately impacting on First Nations parents. I've had some pretty strong feedback on that particular issue and the complications that now make it much harder for First Nations parents, in the bush particularly, to navigate. In 2018, 86.4 per cent of First Nations children were enrolled in early childhood education. This is a very important step to ensuring that young people stay connected with school and, of course, develop the child's cognitive and social skills. The child commissioner's report which I commented on earlier this week, and that I'll come back to, notes, for example, that ear health for First Nations children is 2.9 per cent worse than for non-Indigenous children and that they're 2.9 times more likely to have a hearing problem. This is an issue that I have been passionate about over the years and it is deeply connected to education, because if we don't address that issue and get on top of it then children's engagement with school will be deeply affected by hearing impairments.

The other target that is on track to be met is halving the gap in year 12 attainment or equivalent for First Nations students. Around 66 per cent of First Nations 20- to 24-year-olds had attained year 12 or equivalent, which is an important improvement. Yet it is with a very heavy heart that I note we're not on track to meet the rest of the targets.

The target to halve the gap in mortality rates for First Nations children under five within a decade is not even close to being met. In fact, because non-Indigenous infant mortality rates have improved at a faster rate, the gap has actually widened. The First Nations child mortality rate was twice the rate of non-Indigenous children. Aboriginal children are 10 times more likely than non-Indigenous children to end up being taken into the child protection system. Forty per cent of those in the out-of-home care system are Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander children. In fact, we have more Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander children in out-of-home care now than when the Bringing them homereport was tabled.

These statistics are not what you would expect and do not belong in a so-called First World country like Australia. We are also far away from closing the gap in life expectancy by 2031. First Nations women have a life expectancy gap of 7.8 years and First Nations men have a gap of 8.6 years. These targets are heavily dependent on the social determinants of health and wellbeing including housing, education, income support, wages, employment. We are failing to address these particular social determinants of health, particularly for First Nations people, so how can we expect that we would be closing the gap if they are not being dealt with? It is estimated that social determinants are responsible for at least 34 per cent of the health gap between First Nations people and non-Indigenous people. This is one of the reasons why we have not made progress in closing the gap.

The target to close the gap in school attendance is also not on track. School attendance rates for years 1 to10 have not improved for First Nations students over the past five years. Similarly, the target to halve the gap in the share of First Nations children at or above national minimum standards in reading and numeracy within the decade has not been met. About one in four First Nations students in years 5, 7 and 9 remain below national minimum standards in reading.

Finally, we are not going to meet the target to halve the gap in employment outcomes between First Nations and non-Indigenous people within a decade. In 2018, the employment rate for First Nations people was around 49 per cent compared to 75 per cent for non-Indigenous Australians. This data shows, as Pat Turner, the co-chair of the current COAG process and chair of the Coalition of Peaks, so clearly articulated this week:

There is more than just a gap, it is a chasm, a gaping wound on the soul of our nation.

I want to come to the inability of consecutive governments to meet the Closing the Gap targets. It is not through lack of ambition or commitment from First Nations people to get the message to government and try and work with government to meet these targets. But you have to look at some of the issues that are stopping us meeting those targets. I've just been through the failure to adequately address social determinants of health such as housing. When you are living in an overcrowded house, how can you be expected to go to school? We've canvassed this issue so often in this place but we are still seeing a failure to invest in housing and employment outcomes.

Discriminatory policies such as the Northern Territory Intervention, which is still being applied in the Northern Territory under another name, by and large, are still there. And we have a government that is intent on forcing the current compulsory income management process into the cashless debit card. Prime Minister, if you are listening to this debate in the chamber, it is a top-down approach, the very approach you had a go at in your statement today on Closing the Gap. He made a specific reference to top-down approaches, and yet that is what the cashless debit card is. That is what the Community Development Program is. It's no wonder we're not meeting and closing the gap on employment. It is because that is a failed program. That program ends up penalising First Nations peoples. There is a wildly disproportionate increase in the number of penalties applied in regional and remote communities through the CDP program, which means people lose money. They end up further entrenched in poverty. These sorts of punitive approaches have to stop if we are to have any hope in closing the gap.

Today Scott Morrison acknowledged in his address that a top-down approach hasn't worked for First Nations peoples, so why is the government not scrapping the policies that they are imposing through this top-down approach, which is not working, as the evidence shows? The evaluation of the Northern Territory intervention showed it met none of its objectives. This card disproportionately impacts First Nations peoples and entrenches poverty, disadvantage and stigma. People still talk about it being like ration days.

A recent study found—this came out at the inquiry into the next rollout of the card—that women on compulsory income management in the Northern Territory under the Northern Territory intervention were more likely to have babies with low birth weights. That's critical evidence there. It is peer reviewed, thorough research. The government's imposition of compulsory income management contradicts its commitment to the new national agreement on closing the gap.

We have far too many First Nations peoples caught up in the criminal justice system. We've heard the statistics for young people, women and men. And yet we still haven't seen the Northern Territory government or the government here fully committing to the implementation of the royal commission into youth justice in the Northern Territory. There were absolutely critical recommendations around diversionary programs and making sure that young people don't end up in the justice system in the first place. These are the sorts of evidence based policies that will meaningfully break the cycle of involvement with the criminal justice system. There's been consistent push-back over the years to include justice targets in the existing Closing the Gap targets, something that the government committed to when they were in opposition and then didn't do when they got in government.

It's appalling that we're still seeing the lack of implementation of the reports that, in fact, Senator Dodson referred to: the royal commissions, the Bringing them home report and the Royal Commission into Aboriginal Deaths in Custody. We've only just seen the implementation of a custody notification system in Western Australia. I'm really pleased that it's there now, but it's only just happened. Those recommendations were from 1991.

Today the Prime Minister used the word 'jobs' seven times in his address, as if that is some sort of magic antidote for closing the gap. Yes, it is very important; I'm not saying it is not. But we have failed approaches. Unless we address those social determinants of health, it's very difficult to ensure that First Nations peoples can actually get meaningful jobs and stay in those jobs.

The CDP program is failing. It's discriminatory. It needs to be replaced. And it's not for want of Aboriginal organisations presenting to government very, very good programs that can be implemented. They have a plan for how we could increase employment; but, again, it was not taken up. No, the government will tinker around with the Community Development Program. So we have a long way to go. If we are genuinely going to close the gap under this new process, the government is going to have to get rid of those discriminatory programs.

I want to turn now to the future and the positive work that's been done on closing the gap with the Coalition of Peaks, the group of 50 community controlled peak organisations who are now working in co-design with COAG on a new national agreement on closing the gap.

This new agreement will set shared priorities and targets for the next decade. For the first time Aboriginal peoples will have an equal voice and, hopefully, full ownership of the Closing the Gap framework. This historic partnership gives First Nations people shared decision-making power with governments, and Pat Turner today at the Closing the Gap lunch clearly articulated that it has to be at national, state and local level—she was very clear about that. She articulated the key priorities they have put to government about agreement over decision-making processes and being at the table at all levels of government; that services have to be led, delivered and developed by community controlled organisations but that mainstream organisations also have to take responsibility and deliver their services to First Nations peoples and not in a discriminatory manner. She also made the very strong point about ownership of data, making sure they get access to data. Those are the priorities they have put to government.

It's not there yet. We have to see the outcome of that continuing work. There are a lot of people putting a lot of faith in that process. It's a particularly important process that can literally change the direction of this nation. It can ensure that Aboriginal people are self-determining, that they are leading, developing and owning the programs that they know will work, and that they won't be subject to the vagaries of changing government priorities all the time.