Penny Wong (SA, Australian Labor Party, Minister for Foreign Affairs) Share this | Hansard source

Thank you, Senator Stewart, not just for these questions but for the work you've done in your community. I think there's a pretty basic principle here: that if you work with people, if you work with rather than do to, you usually get better outcomes. As Senator Stewart said, we have four out of 19 Closing the Gap targets on track. Well, if we need any evidence that more of the same isn't good enough, I would have thought that would be it: life expectancy not on track, Indigenous babies born with a healthy birth weight not on track, and Indigenous people finishing year 12 not on track. We have to do things better, and that means working together, with the benefit of the wisdom and insights of our Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Australians across this country, our fellow Australians. This is about ensuring we can make lasting change together that can help us close this gap.