Simon Birmingham (SA, Liberal Party, Minister for Finance) Share this | Hansard source

I move:

That the Senate take note of the Closing the Gap ministerial statement and the Commonwealth implementation plan.

I rise today to acknowledge the Indigenous people of our country. We pay our respect to the Ngunawal people and all First Peoples and to their elders past, present and emerging. I acknowledge Indigenous Australians serving our country in a wide range of fields today. I acknowledge those Indigenous Australians in the Australian Defence Force, protecting Australians and advancing our interests. At this time of global challenge with this global pandemic I acknowledge those Indigenous Australians serving on the frontline of our medical professions and other fields of endeavour, keeping Australians safe and helping our nation through tough times. I also honour the Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people who serve in this parliament across both of our chambers: the Minister for Indigenous Australians, the shadow minister for Indigenous Australians and Senators Dodson, McCarthy, Lambie and Thorpe. We look forward to that number growing.

As the Prime Minister has reflected upon in the other place, at the core of closing the gap is ensuring that every Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander boy and girl can grow up with the same opportunities and the same expectations as any other Australian child. They should have every opportunity to grow up proud of their culture and confident that it is accorded respect by their fellow Australians.

Thirteen years ago the parliament rightly apologised to the stolen generations. As a new member of this parliament I remember it as a significant moment of great reckoning and a vital step towards reconciliation. As the Prime Minister said, in the nine years that have followed the Closing the Gap process, whilst with the best of intentions at heart, it has at times remained hard of hearing. We still thought we knew better. That is why our government brought together a new 10-year national partnership agreement, signed by all Australian governments, the Coalition of Peaks and the Australian Local Government Association. From that partnership the National Agreement on Closing the Gap was born.

Last Thursday we made the promises of that agreement real with the presentation, as tabled, of the first Commonwealth implementation plan. This agreement holds the financial commitments, partnership, shared accountability and scope that form the most significant and comprehensive response to closing the gap that our government has ever provided. With this implementation plan we are making good on our commitment to do things differently, focusing on listening, learning, accountability, transparency and a genuine partnership with Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander stakeholders and organisations—a partnership built on mutual respect, dignity and, above all, trust.

At the heart of the national agreement is who it empowers and what it inspires. In a significant departure from what we've done before, each of the states and territories and the Coalition of Peaks will be responsible for their own actions and their own plans. An annual Commonwealth progress report will be tabled around this same time every year. Similarly, the states and territories will separately deliver theirs, and all of us will reprioritise our investments to do things that we know will work and are working. To help us understand what the evidence says and our progress, the Productivity Commission will release an annual report on the outcomes and priority reforms. As well as the annual reports, the Productivity Commission will also present an independent review once every three years. After each report by the Productivity Commission, an independent Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander led report will deepen the data and give us a picture of the change happening on the ground.

The first Commonwealth Closing the Gap Implementation Plan, with more than $1 billion worth of new targeted measures, lays the foundation for the work ahead. The plan is an overview of Commonwealth actions to close the gap, aligned to the four priority reforms and the 17 socioeconomic outcomes set in the national agreement, including new target areas such as justice and Indigenous languages.

The measures we're funding reflect a sharpened set of priorities. These are priorities that have been offered and agreed by Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples themselves. The first of these new priorities is to collaborate better by building better structures for genuine partnership and joint decision-making. The second priority is to build up Indigenous organisations, to empower community controlled sectors to do what they already do best—deliver the services that support closing the gap. Included in this implementation plan is $38.6 million for an Outcomes and Evidence Fund. It will support genuine co-design between government and Aboriginal controlled organisations and other local providers to deliver the best possible services for families and children. Our third priority area is about transforming government to help us understand in detail how our systems can, knowingly or otherwise, perpetuate racism, so as to ensure we can overcome it. We won't be able to close the gap without doing so. The last priority area of reform is about data. Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander organisations need to be able to collect, analyse and use their own data to meet their own needs.

In this new plan, one measure has meant perhaps more than many others. That relates to the stolen generations, a shameful chapter in our national story. Last week, the Prime Minister announced that the Commonwealth is investing $378.6 million in a new scheme for stolen generations survivors who were removed as children from their families in former Commonwealth territories—in the Northern Territory and the Jervis Bay Territory and here in the ACT. It is a long-called-for step, recognising the bond between healing, dignity and the health and wellbeing of members of the stolen generations, their families and their communities, to say formally not just that we're deeply sorry for what happened but that we will take responsibility for it.

Other aspects of the Commonwealth implementation plan include tangible actions that are directly linked to clear targets that we'll be held accountable for in the years ahead: measures that are new, in the priority reform areas of justice and languages, and measures that need continuing investment to deliver a longer-term impact. The Commonwealth is providing an extra $254.4 million towards infrastructure to better support Aboriginal community controlled health organisations to do their critical work.

The plan also has a new focus on justice, bringing people together in a justice policy partnership to meet new targets. By 2031 we will reduce the rate of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander adults incarcerated by at least 15 per cent and the rate of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander young people in detention by at least 30 per cent. To help get to this target, the government is investing $9.3 million to support Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander legal services to better manage complex cases in coronial inquiries. There is also $8.2 million for family dispute resolution programs for Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander families.

We have also set a target to see a steady increase in the number and strength of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander languages being spoken between now and 2031. That is why we are committing $22.8 million to support this effort.

To ensure the best start in life for Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander children, the Commonwealth is investing more than $160 million, including $122.6 million to lift participation in quality and culturally appropriate early childhood education and care. In school education, we are investing $75 million to support building on-country boarding schools, $26 million for city-country school partnerships, and $25 million to make sure primary school kids are taught using the best evidence based programs. To keep women and children safe, the plan is also investing in supporting Indigenous families with complex needs. These specific programs and payments are in addition to the many other streams of funding, programs and support—often targeted, such as school based funding—to provide real focus and assistance to Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander communities in lifting and improving outcomes.

We cannot expect to see clear improvements overnight, but we believe the approach we are taking now gives us the best chance. This Commonwealth implementation plan and the proposals in it form one part of a larger whole. There are 10 implementation plans like it—one for each jurisdiction, the peaks and the Australian Local Government Association. All of them will be tracked and further shaped as we learn more about what is working and what needs to improve.

The Indigenous Voice Co-Design Process final report has also been submitted, following 18 months of extensive engagement and co-design. We will further consider the details of the final report and respond in the future, following consideration by the cabinet. An Indigenous voice can add to the many other efforts being made to achieve the Closing the Gap outcomes by providing further avenues at the national, local and regional levels for Indigenous voices to be heard, including to provide feedback to government on closing the gap.

Once a model for the Indigenous voice has been developed, all governments will need to explore how we can work with the voice to ensure that these views are considered. Whilst we know these outcomes won't happen overnight, we are working together, right now and continuously, with the Coalition of the Peaks, alongside the states and territories and local governments, to navigate the road ahead. We know that there are many years of hard work ahead for all of us, as we have tough years behind us. We have to learn from each other, and we will, together, do so. And, in doing so, with this new approach we should have confidence that, step by step, we can, as a country, make the differences that are necessary for all Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander communities and peoples.

I thank the Senate.