Matt O'Sullivan (WA, Liberal Party) Share this | Hansard source

In this first sitting week after the winter recess I'm reminded of August last year, when the Prime Minister announced the date that Australians would be heading to the polls for the Voice referendum. Well, $450 million later, this government has made little progress to deliver improved outcomes for Indigenous Australians since the referendum's plummeting defeat in October. Twelve months on, we're still waiting for this Prime Minister to take an initiative to provide real results for Indigenous communities, not an unnecessary ballot.

Instead of focusing on Closing the Gap targets, five out of 19 of which are off track, the Prime Minister chose to pour $450 million into a referendum that failed. This time last year, Mr Albanese was selling the referendum to the Australian public as a step towards addressing longstanding inequalities and bringing about meaningful change. Well, since its grim defeat, the Prime Minister has failed to offer an effective plan B—just shrugging his shoulders at Indigenous Australians right across the country. We're still waiting to see any real ideas on how he plans to address the complex needs of our most vulnerable communities. Rather than just offering up a referendum and calling it a day, we need to see real action by this Prime Minister. We do not need Constitutional change to create effective policies in partnership with Indigenous Australians. What we need is listening—something that the Prime Minister might want to consider doing. Despite countless studies and Productivity Commission reports highlighting the failure to meet Closing the Gap targets, the Prime Minister's approach has been all smoke and mirrors.

According to the National Agreement on Closing the Gap, by 2031 we should see 96 per cent of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander students achieving a year 12 or equivalent certification. To stay on track for that commitment we need to reach 85 per cent by 2026. With 2026 less than 18 months away, the Australian Institute of Health and Welfare reported in 2022 that only 65 per cent of Indigenous Australians were enrolled in year 10. It's fair to say the year 12 attainment will reflect a similar shortcoming. Just last week the Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Health Performance Framework summary report also reaffirmed this educational disparity, with remote communities suffering the most. With the Albanese Labor government continuing to throw millions of dollars at Indigenous affairs, it's high time we asked where exactly this money is going and why it is not translating into promised outcomes.

In my home state of Western Australia, for instance, regional communities stretch across almost our entire state. According to the last census in 2021, WA and NT had the lowest proportion of Indigenous people attaining year 12 or equivalent qualifications nationwide. That's 61 per cent in WA and only 40 per cent in the Northern Territory. These figures are more than just numbers; they represent real lives, real families and real communities that are trapped in a cycle of closed doors and missed opportunities. As the dollars and the unmet targets pile up, Australians are left without an explanation for why their taxpayer money is not producing significant results. As the Prime Minister continues to dismiss calls for an audit into government spending on Indigenous affairs, this is not good enough. Australians—indeed, Indigenous Australians—deserve better. The government's latest budget promised to spend a further $110 million of federal money in Indigenous education over the next four years. But how is the government ensuring and giving assurance to the Australian public that these hundreds of millions won't end up in the same waste basket as the last $450 million that was spent on the referendum? What we need are tangible and real outcomes. What we need is meaningful change, not more high-profile, hollow policies and unmet targets.