Alan Eggleston (WA, Liberal Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

My question is to the Minister for Indigenous Affairs, Senator Scullion. Will the minister outline to the Senate the government's approach to meeting the Closing the Gap targets, including initiatives contained in the recent budget?

Nigel Scullion (NT, Country Liberal Party, Minister for Indigenous Affairs) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

I thank Senator Eggleston for his continued interest in this matter, particularly for his constituency in Western Australia. The coalition has targeted funding into the priorities of getting kids to school, adults into work and community safety. But it is not about the dollars, it is about getting results. I was astounded by what I would consider to be the disingenuous remarks of the Leader of the Opposition in his piece in the Australian today stating that this government has betrayed Indigenous Australians. It appears to have been lost on the Leader of the Opposition that for all the billions invested and the chest beating and this is how much money we have spent so it must have of been fixed, reducing disadvantage amongst Indigenous Australians, particularly in remote areas, over the past six years has simply escaped you. You have failed on any measure. The most recent Closing the Gap report says it all: unemployment targets, backwards; NAPLAN targets, backwards; school attendance over the five years, 15 per cent backwards. If I seem a bit galled it is very difficult to be lectured to by somebody who has failed so monumentally in this particular area.

We have reviewed the programs, we are streamlining the programs to reduce duplication without reducing our effort on the ground. Our budget measure does in fact include some new spending measures. We have announced a new target to close the gap on school attendance and I am delighted to say that in May COAG agreed to the new target and all jurisdictions, particularly the communities, are working fantastically together and with government to that end. The school attendance strategy, whilst on a different day we would have said, 'It costs a bit over 46 million,' we are not interested in saying that anymore. What I am interested in reporting to the chamber is that it has lifted school attendance in the Northern Territory this year compared with last year. (Time expired)

Alan Eggleston (WA, Liberal Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

I have a supplementary question, Mr President. Is the minister aware of any alternative approaches to meeting the Closing the Gap targets?

Nigel Scullion (NT, Country Liberal Party, Minister for Indigenous Affairs) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

As I travel around communities the common refrain is, 'Can we just get out of these six-month programs that go nowhere?' They tell me they have got more pilots than Qantas and they have got quite enough of that. They want real investment in the future. So we need a new engagement with Indigenous people that does not mean counting the dollars, it is all about real outcomes on the ground. The funding benchmarks at present are mostly about process instead of results. We now have a Prime Minister that has made Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander affairs front and centre of our national policy. His approach and his leadership of our approach is that it is a results based approach rather than telling everyone how much money you have spent and hoping for a result.

Alan Eggleston (WA, Liberal Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

Mr President, I ask a second supplementary question. Can the minister advise the Senate of the degree of any bipartisanship in terms of support for the government's approach to closing the gap?

Nigel Scullion (NT, Country Liberal Party, Minister for Indigenous Affairs) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

I have to say I read the Leader of the Opposition's contribution in the Australian with some concern. I guess there is a whole broad range of interpretations you can give it. Being an optimist, I am hoping that this was just something that had to be done. The party machine said, 'Listen, we need to shake up this bipartisanship.' So I am hoping that he has not stepped beyond the line, and certainly that is not what I read, that he said, 'We haven't walked away from bipartisanship,' but I have not seen an article that went as close to that. I call on the Leader of the Opposition and those opposite to work with government in the same way that all the communities are working with government, that COAG is working with this government, to ensure that we have real outcomes on the ground for our first Australians. I think it is in that enterprise and in that endeavour that you will endear them to you as they have endeared themselves to us and our efforts.