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

I move:

That the Senate take note of the document.

I'd like to start by acknowledging the traditional owners of the land on which we meet, the Ngunawal and Ngambri peoples. I'd like to pay my respect to their elders both and past and present. The Closing the gap report for 2018 is a report on our shared effort amongst successive governments across state and territory governments and, above all, Australia's First People to deliver better outcomes for Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people and to address 230 years of disadvantage by working together to ensure all Australians have the same opportunities to succeed in our great nation. This is the latest report card against seven Closing the Gap targets.

But it is much more than that. It is also a report that showcases many Indigenous success stories in education, in business, in employment and in community. This year's report reveals three of the seven Closing the Gap targets are on track. This is up from one target this time last year, and it's the first time since 2011 that three targets have, in fact, been on track. I'm pleased to report the target to halve the gap in child mortality is on track this year. Over the long term, the Indigenous child mortality rate has fallen significantly. We have seen continuous improvements in Indigenous child and maternal health outcomes, boding well for future reductions. The target to have 95 per cent of all Indigenous four-year-olds enrolled in early-childhood education by 2025 is also on track for the first time. We've got this target back on track by working with communities and with service providers like our Community Development Program providers to ensure so many Indigenous four-year-olds—around 14,700—are today enrolled in early education and getting the opportunity of the very best start in life. This is an outstanding achievement, and the benefits of this flow right through the educational cycle.

Nationwide, 83 per cent of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander children are attending school on a regular basis. Although the school attendance target is not on track, the vast majority of Indigenous children are going to school. They're sitting in the classroom, ready to learn. Our Remote School Attendance Strategy teams, or yellow shirts, as they've become known, are making a real difference. Our RSAS policy was developed in partnership with communities, and they're made up of local community members who are making a real difference. Over 500 Remote School Attendance Strategy workers across Australia are turning around the declining rates of school attendance that were unfortunately ignored for the first half of the last decade, and we're seeing real progress. Remote School Attendance Strategy teams in Camooweal, Yalata, Kenmore Park, Borroloola and Yirrkala are leading the way, with school attendance rates over 15 per cent higher in each of these communities. About a month ago I was in the Territory joining the Gunbalanya remote school attendance team on the first day of the new school year. Helping out with the morning run was a powerful reminder of just how effective simple actions can be. Communities want to do the right thing by their children; that much is clear.

There is still a great deal of work to do in academic outcomes. Having said that, the past 10 years have seen the gap narrow across all NAPLAN areas. Improvements in reading in years 3 and 5 and numeracy in years 5 and 9 are particularly strong. More and more Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander students are getting to school, progressing through the system, completing year 12 and going on to university. In terms of the year 12 or equivalent attainment target, this too is on track, with improvements across all the states and territories. In 2006 fewer than half of all Indigenous 20- to 24-year-olds had achieved year 12 or equivalent. Ten years later this has increased to more than 65 per cent, and indicators point to this progress continuing. We have seen particularly large gains over the past decade in South Australia, the Northern Territory and Western Australia. The government recognise that we must work with Indigenous students, with families and with schools to open up to our First Australians the very same educational opportunities that other Australians have access to and take for granted.

Since the commencement of the Indigenous Advancement Strategy, in July 2014, we have invested more than $400 million in activities designed to help over 25,000 Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander students to stay engaged and complete their school education. I want to acknowledge the work of organisations like Clontarf Foundation, the Stars Foundation and Role Models and Leaders Australia, who we are partnering with in this important work. Because of this, and their work, the number of Indigenous Australians signing up for university degrees is also growing at twice the rate of the broader population. The reforms I introduced, through the $251 million Indigenous Student Success Program, to better support Indigenous university students are not only encouraging more Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Australians to enrol in university but, more importantly, are ensuring they are supported to complete university.

Although the target to close the life expectancy gap within a generation is not on track, it is clear there have been measurable improvements in a range of health outcomes, which are often masked by the target result. For example, there have been significant improvements in the rate of Indigenous mortality from chronic diseases, particularly circulatory disease, since 1998. There have been improvements in the early detection and management of chronic disease and reductions in smoking, which will contribute to long-term improvement in the health of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people. I take this opportunity to acknowledge the work of Minister Wyatt, the first Indigenous Australian to hold a ministry in this place, and his announcement of Australia's first four-year Tackling Indigenous Smoking program, which will provide certainty, continuity and record funding for proven local campaigns and new initiatives to save lives and reduce the devastating impacts of tobacco related disease.

As I said before, the health issues faced by Indigenous Australians often stem from extremely complex social and cultural determinants of health and the long-term effects of intergenerational trauma. Addressing these will take time. The time I have spent in community over the years has proven to me there's nothing more powerful or transformational than a job. We're seeing more Indigenous women working than ever before, which empowers and enables them in the pivotal roles they play in contributing not only to their community but to the economy. We have more Indigenous rangers caring for country than ever before. The Community Development Program is continuing to transition First Australians out of welfare and into work, and more than 7,600 Indigenous jobseekers have now found meaningful employment through the vocational training and employment centres.

Indigenous jobseekers are taking advantage of the jobs boom this government has been responsible for ushering in—400,000 jobs have been created over the last 12 months across the economy. Our specialist Indigenous employment programs have supported 7,000 Indigenous jobseekers into work, and mainstream employment programs have supported a further 35,500 Indigenous jobseekers. That means more than 10 per cent of the jobs that have been created are a direct result of our government programs. In fact, the number of Indigenous Australians with a job has increased by 23.3 per cent between 2011 and the 2016 census. Every one of those people represented in these new statistics now has the dignity of work, they are providing for their families and becoming role models for their communities. If only we celebrated them more often. However, there are challenges that we can't shy away from, like the challenge of youth unemployment. The target to halve the employment gap is not on track.

Beneath the Closing the Gap targets, there is much to uncover to showcase success and achievement. For instance, as the Prime Minister said earlier today, Indigenous businesses have won $1 billion—I repeat $1 billion—in Commonwealth contracts since July 2015 under the government's Indigenous Procurement Policy. That is up from $6.2 million in 2012-13, and that is a 161-fold increase, for those interested in numbers. This is not something for the government to pat itself on the back about; it is actually a testament to the Indigenous businesses delivering everything from advanced technology to legal services, construction work, engineering and facilities management. As Katina Law from West Australian IPP business Indigenous Professional Services said:

The Indigenous Procurement Policy is really giving the opportunity to Indigenous businesses and Indigenous business people to become part of the mainstream economy by providing them with opportunities that they wouldn't normally have.

Or Troy Rugless, whose firm PSG Holdings has just been awarded—

Kimberley Kitching (Victoria, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

Senator Scullion, your time has expired.

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

Could I seek leave to have the remainder of my report—

Kimberley Kitching (Victoria, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

Is leave granted?

Penny Wong (SA, Australian Labor Party, Leader of the Opposition in the Senate) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

We have no objection to giving leave to the minister to finish his speech on this matter.

Kimberley Kitching (Victoria, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

Leave is granted.

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

I thank the Leader of the Opposition in the Senate for that courtesy. PSG Holdings has been awarded a $213.6 million contract for one of the most significant changes in Sydney, the design and refurbishment of the Garden Island Naval Base. Troy Rugless has talked about his firm's commitment to Indigenous employment and said that the impact of the IPP on PSG is that it has accelerated their growth. He said:

I would say conservatively it has fast-tracked our business by about 10 years.

All across the country, we are seeing this success replicated, with over 1,000 Indigenous firms being awarded over a billion dollars in contracts in just two-and-a-half years. Is it any wonder that Indigenous leaders like Warren Mundine and Marcia Langton have described the IPP as the most successful Indigenous policy since Federation?

We want to build on this success through other initiatives that support other Torres Strait Islander business owners, because we know that an Indigenous business is far more likely than a non-Indigenous business to employ an Aboriginal or Torres Strait Islander person. The average Indigenous workforce in our IPP firms is around 41 per cent, and that's compared with 0.7 per cent in non-Indigenous businesses across Australia—meaning that by supporting more Indigenous businesses, we get more Indigenous jobseekers into work by a factor of 60.

As announced by the Prime Minister earlier today, we have developed the 10-year Indigenous Business Strategy to increase the number, the strength and the capacity of Indigenous businesses across Australia. We will roll out Indigenous business hubs to provide business advice and support, starting in Western Sydney in partnership with the New South Wales Aboriginal Land Council, who, under the leadership of chairman Roy Ah-See, will ensure Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people are there, front and centre, to take advantage of the jobs and business boom that will occur in Western Sydney over the next few decades. We will unlock a wider range of public sector finance and capital through our $27 million Indigenous Entrepreneurs Capital Scheme. We will double microfinance in regional and remote Australia to ensure Indigenous Australians, including young people and women, can turn their ideas into start-up enterprises, especially in regional and remote areas. We will continue lobbying the states and territories to introduce their own Indigenous procurement policies, and I'm so pleased that Western Australia has recently announced a policy modelled off the Commonwealth's IPP.

The private sector is moving. I just came from an event today where the Business Council of Australia announced a range of measures and commitments to increase the number of contracts to Aboriginal or Torres Strait Islander owned businesses. We've also announced today a significant reform in our country's Indigenous land rights and economic empowerment journey, with a new Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Land and Sea Future Fund. Following extensive consultations around the country, we will be transferring the $2 billion land account to the Future Fund and expanding the remit of the Indigenous Land Corporation, which derives an annual dividend from this fund, to include sea country.

By sitting with the pre-eminent financial experts, the Future Fund, the new Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Land and Sea Future Fund will be up to $1.5 billion better off over 20 years than in the current investment arrangements. That means more opportunities to grow Indigenous estate to support economic aspirations of our First Australians. We will transfer the management of the Indigenous Land Corporation's land account to the Future Fund's board of guardians, with a view to making it a truly perpetual account, reversing its current downward trajectory. This is a significant reform and one we have co-designed with Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander communities who have contributed to this reform in nationwide consultations. There will have to be legislation to make that, coming through this place, with an opportunity to cross-examine all elements of that legislation.

In the last year, Indigenous Australians have done great things. In November it was my great honour to celebrate with the Gunyangara community in the Northern Territory the first township lease to be handed over to an Aboriginal community organisation, realising the vision for land rights by my good friend and Gumatj leader Dr Galarrwuy Yunupingu. This builds on steps we've taken to amend and improve the Native Title Act. Thirty-two per cent of land in Australian is now recognised by native title, and a further 26 per cent is under claim.

The past year was also a time for Australians, Indigenous and non-Indigenous, to celebrate key anniversaries for two of the most significant moments in Australia's modern history: the 50th anniversary of the 1967 referendum and the 25th anniversary of the landmark Mabo decision. Another highly significant anniversary will be marked tomorrow: the 10th anniversary of the 2008 Apology to Australia's Indigenous Peoples. I acknowledge the momentous importance of the apology, and I am working in partnership with the Healing Foundation to complete proper evidence-based policy work to consider the needs of surviving members of the stolen generations and inform government's response going forward. This is because we know that there are no simple solutions in this place. In the 10 years since the apology, we've learned a great deal. One of the lessons has been the importance of including Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people in the design and delivery of programs and services. With four Closing the Gap targets expiring this year, the government is working closely with the states and territories, and most importantly Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people, to refresh the agenda for the next 10 years and beyond.

Incarceration rates and deaths in custody have rightly been the subject of much attention. I have always thought that a justice target for the Commonwealth was a pretty daft way of resolving that issue, because we just don't have any of the levers. We don't control the sentencing system; we don't control the corrections system. The states are responsible, and they're the ones who need to agree to introduce justice targets to ensure the systemic issues in their policies and programs are working better for Indigenous citizens. I commend all the states and territories for embracing this new opportunity. We're not just going to introduce a justice target that makes us all feel good about ourselves but which we can do nothing about—that is not being fair dinkum with people.

This isn't about passing the buck. I'm determined to work with the states and territories to drive change. Take the custody notification service. This is a state and territory responsibility, but, because we know it saves lives, we've offered to fund it for three years on the condition that they take on their responsibilities following this. We made this offer on 31 August 2016, and I'm disappointed that we are yet to have any of the jurisdictions take up this offer. They include the Western Australian government, who made an election commitment to introduce a CNS, and the Northern Territory government, to whom the royal commission has recommended its introduction. Clearly, there is still a long way to go, but I'm quite sure that we're moving towards that outcome.

I would like to acknowledge the extremely productive special gathering we had in Canberra last week and all of the First Australians who brought their lived experience and wisdom to the table. The advice they provided to first ministers has been invaluable.

In conclusion, this report shows great improvements for our First Australians but it also shows the challenges that remain before us and reminds us that we must redouble our efforts and work harder to improve the outcomes for our First Australians. In 2018, we remain committed to increasing school attendance levels to ensure Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander children obtain an education that opens up opportunities later in life. We remain committed to supporting economic development and job opportunities because of the transformational impact this can have on the lives of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people. And we remain committed to making Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander communities as safe as any other community in Australia. Let me assure everyone here in the Senate today: the government remains absolutely resolute in its commitment to staying the course with our First Australians to ensure they live the prosperous lives that they choose.

Penny Wong (SA, Australian Labor Party, Leader of the Opposition in the Senate) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

This parliament meets on the traditional lands of the Ngunawal and Ngambri people, and we pay our respects to their elders past and present. It is a parliament that also has the honour of representing the traditional owners of this entire continent—a land with which our First Australians have been intimately connected for over 65,000 years. It represents the Yuin people in the south-east, the Yawuru people in the north-west, the Yolngu people of Yirrkala in the north, the Muwinina people in the south, the Noongar people of the south-west, the Meriam Mir in the Torres Strait, the Kaurna people in South Australia, the Pitjantjatjara people of the Central Desert and many more.

It is important that we recognise and honour the culture and heritage of our First Australians, and it is important that we recognise and mourn the indignity and the suffering that they have endured since the colonisation of this ancient land. The arrival of disease, the expulsion of peoples from their traditional lands, the separation of children from their parents, the loss of identity and the marginalisation of entire communities decimated our first peoples. This is what Prime Minister Keating acknowledged when he spoke at Redfern 25 years ago and declared:

… the starting point might be to recognise that the problem starts with us non-Aboriginal Australians.

It begins, I think, with that act of recognition.

Recognition that it was we who did the dispossessing.

It was this recognition that Prime Minister Rudd brought to account when he issued the Apology to the Stolen Generations 10 years ago. And we remember that day, a day of remembrance, a day of sadness, a day of extraordinary nobility and a day of grace because our First Australian peoples found it in their hearts to accept an apology offered by the government on behalf of those who had brought such suffering. In the spirit of healing, our First Australians rose above grievance and resentment to accept our sorrow.

But saying sorry isn't enough and, whilst repentance is one thing, doing something about it is another. So, it was Prime Minister Rudd who set about repairing the injustice of two centuries and who set about restoring equity to peoples who had been dispossessed. He, with Jenny Macklin's strong support, had the courage, foresight and imagination to institute the Closing the Gap program, to redress disadvantage and inequality through a targeted program of action that would tackle the key areas in which the prospects of Indigenous Australians had to be improved.

The Closing the Gap report card is mixed, and all of us share in the responsibility for this. But I must say that achieving these deliberately tough goals was made so much harder by this government's cuts of $500 million from Aboriginal programs. Senator Dodson, who will follow me in this debate, hit the nail on the head on Friday morning. Quite appropriately, he hammered the Prime Minister for walking out of the Closing the Gap campaign meeting early, as though Indigenous issues were of a lower priority than anything else. He said:

It's indicative of the deafness, of the absolute derision and the contempt which this government is meting out to the Aboriginal people. We gotta get real about it.

That is the point: we do have to get real. This government has to get real.

Let's have a quick look at the government's performance in this critical area. Last year, only one target was on track: the target to halve the gap in year 12 attainment by 2020. Four of the seven targets are not on track. They are life expectancy, employment, reading and numeracy, and school attendance. Three of these targets were due this year. There are three targets which are on track: child mortality rates, early education and year 12 attainment. You will note that in some ways only two of these targets are really about closing the gap: life expectancy and school attendance. Early education specifies a 95 per cent participation rate. The other three, in many ways, might be regarded as soft targets, halving the gap rather than closing it.

If we are serious about the refresh, then it must create more opportunity and not less. The key to creating more opportunity for First Australians is to empower them to take control of their own lives, to manage their own affairs and to plan their own futures, and to do all of this with the support of government but not under the direction of government. We do know what doesn't work: top-down decision-making; bureaucratic, centralised service provision; and the exclusion or minimisation of Aboriginal authority and participation. As Senator Dodson said this morning:

This is really about the future of Aboriginal people having a quality of life in this country, and for all of us in politics to ensure we can collaborate in an effective way with the states and with Aboriginal organisations to get these results.

What is the alternative? What does Labor intend to do? First, we want to press ahead on closing the gap, meeting real targets and improving outcomes for First Australians. Second, we want to back that up with complementary actions that address the consequences of discrimination and disadvantage. Mr Shorten today announced in the House of Representatives that a Labor government will establish a stolen generations compensation scheme.

Over the past decade, state governments around the country of both political persuasions have established different forms of compensation schemes for members of the stolen generations. They remain a work in progress, but we do know there are around 150 or more members of the stolen generations who were the direct responsibility of the Commonwealth government who have received no financial compensation at all. They are still waiting for 'sorry' to be matched by making good. It's time the government lived up to its rhetoric, and that is why Labor will offer each of the survivors removed from their families, country and culture an ex gratia payment of $75,000 and a one-off payment to cover funeral costs. As Mr Shorten said, compensation is about resolving some of the unfinished business of the apology. I also note that this promise meets an original recommendation of the Bringing them home report from over 20 years ago. Regrettably, these payments come too late for many members of the stolen generations. We also recognise that the trauma of forced removal reverberates through the generations—hence the commitment to an additional $10 million of programs to assist with the healing of stolen generations members and their descendants, to be administered by the Healing Foundation.

Reconciliation and making amends are not about confronting the failures of the past; they are about ensuring that such failures are not repeated. Today there are over 17,500 first nations children who are growing up away from country and culture—twice as many as 10 years ago, when Closing the Gap began. Twenty years ago, 20 per cent of the children in out-of-home care were Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people; today it is 35 per cent and rising. The Northern Territory royal commission highlighted the stark reality that incarceration is the lot of far too many young people from broken homes and dysfunctional families. It isn't acceptable, because jails aren't places in which young people should be growing up. We all have to do better, and that is why Labor has called for justice targets. I disagree fundamentally with the minister's statement today that such targets are daft. They provide accountability and they provide an objective measure by which governments of all political persuasions and at all levels can work to improve outcomes for our young people.

We also call on the government to provide new funding for the Remote Indigenous Housing Program. Without a roof over your head, you can't be healthy, you can't receive education and you can't be safe. It is a fundamental right, and we on this side are astonished that the government isn't prepared to indicate ongoing financial Commonwealth support for this program. Many children in out-of-home care lead lives of trauma and broken trust. We need to understand that, when we are talking about achieving a certain goal by 2028 or 2030, it is these children that we are counting on to get it done. We are putting our faith in these kids getting a great education, finding decent jobs and being role models for others. There's nothing more important than the safety of our children and there is no time more precious and influential than the early years of life.

As I said earlier, the solutions to the issues identified by Closing the Gap must be authored, owned and controlled by First Australians. This includes a meaningful say by First Australians in the decisions that affect their lives—a voice to the parliament. The statement from the heart delivered at Uluru was not what many expected, but, after decades of parliaments delivering well-intentioned, incremental disappointments, who are we to say that this idea is too big, that is it too bold and—the refuge of many scoundrels—that it is unconstitutional? Who are we to say that, when it comes to constitutional change, we're capable only of minimalism? And who are we to tell 1,200 representatives from 12 regional dialogues, 'Go back to the drawing board and try again'? As the Leader of the Opposition has said, it is time for us to be better and braver. It is time we took the Uluru Statement from the Heart into our hearts and worked together to deliver on its key recommendations: a voice enshrined in the Constitution; a declaration, to be passed by all parliaments, acknowledging the unique place of our First Australians in Australian history, their cultures and their connection to the land; and a makarrata commission to oversee a process of agreement making and truth telling. This is not much to ask.

The Uluru Statement from the Heart calls for what both sides of this parliament say we are committed to: a genuine partnership, real empowerment and solutions constructed by first nations people. Six months ago, after Garma, the Leader of the Opposition wrote to the Prime Minister proposing a joint parliamentary committee to put momentum behind makarrata and to work towards finalising a referendum question, and that invitation stands. Bipartisanship doesn't mean an agreement to do nothing. If the current stalemate can't be broken, if the government cannot reconsider its rejection of the Uluru Statement from the Heart, we on this side will not let the matter rest. The next Labor government will, as a first step, look to legislate for a voice to parliament.

I was in this parliament on the day of the apology, and I count it as one of the finest moments that I have been privileged to witness in this parliament, if not the finest moment. I have also been here at every Closing the Gap speech since that time, and I have heard some wonderful speeches. I have heard many fine words. But we have heard a lot of defence and justification for results which have not been good enough. So now we need to listen, not just talk. The gap can be closed, and it is our First Australians who will show us how.

Patrick Dodson (WA, Australian Labor Party, Shadow Minister for Indigenous Affairs and Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islanders (Senate)) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

I note the Minister for Indigenous Affairs' reporting of the Prime Minister's statement on closing the gap and thank him for conveying that report to the Senate. I had the opportunity to sit in the chamber in the other place and hear the Prime Minister's address and the Leader of the Opposition's reply. It was an important event and one that showcased the significance of first nations peoples in the contemporary politics and policies of our parliamentary processes.

The Kevin Rudd apology and the subsequent Closing the Gap national commitments are indicative of a decade of national commitments and partnership aimed at fundamentally changing the status and position of first nations peoples when measured against the status of other Australians. The apology was the first step. In the international experience of making good after crisis and conflict, whether it be in Germany or South Africa or East Timor, the steps of reparation and reconciliation are well understood. The apology is a crucial step because it opens up the healing process. But it does not end it. It requires a sense of acceptance by the victims of hurt, accompanied by a parallel sense of recognition from the victors that they have done harm and caused injury. Then there is the need for a state of reparation or restitution—making good. Internationally, this has been through agreements on practical measures to ease the burden inflicted by the wrong, through cooperative projects in social and educational, political and economic arenas. That is what the apology and the closing the gap process are all about. It is fundamental to any process of truly reaching a stage of reconciliation that combines the delicate threads of our national fabric.

On a day when first nations people are being measured microscopically against a set of criteria and outcomes which successive governments have failed to meet, we in this place should step back and take stock of ourselves as leaders. We should recall that really it is axiological change that the first nations people want. They want a relationship based on justice, institutional participation and critical participation in their own solutions to the problems that they are confronted with. I said this morning on a radio program that closing the gap is not a game between the Labor and Liberal parties, or the other parties; it’s about the future of Aboriginal people having equality of life in this country and about the wounds of injustice that they have encountered since colonialism being healed. For all of us in politics it is about ensuring that we can collaborate in an effective way with the states and territories and work in direct partnership with Aboriginal organisations to get these results. I heard the minister say much about this.

The government has been quick to blow its trumpet of success—this is the most successful report since 2011. I do not belittle the positive elements of which the minister has spoken, but, while the life expectancy gap remains, it is hard to be positive. While people remain in poverty—incapable of paying their bills or rent and facing eviction to the streets—we all remain diminished. Of course it's welcome news that in today’s report three of the seven targets are on track—any progress, as microscopic as it might be, is refreshing—but we are a long way from closing the gap in 2031.

I welcome with great relief that there is at last some measure of improvement in three areas, as reported by the Prime Minister. The target to halve the gap in child mortality by 2018 is on track. The target to have 95 per cent of all Indigenous four-year-olds enrolled in early childhood education by 2025 is on track. The target to halve the gap in year 12 attainment by 2020 is on track. However, the four remaining targets, including the essential target to close the 10-year gap in life expectancy between Indigenous and non-Indigenous Australians, are lagging. Far greater attention needs to be focussed on intergenerational trauma, anxiety and frustration with the lot in life that many of our people have been subjected to. As well, three of the remaining four targets—to halve the gaps in employment, reading and numeracy, and school attendance for Indigenous students—are due to expire in 2018. We know the minister is in some further discussions about refreshing these goals. We look forward to those outcomes.

It is paramount that the first nations peoples participation in closing the gap on all fronts is fully resourced and that they are not passive recipients at the end of a conveyor belt of service delivery. They want to make their own contribution, and many have and ought to be acknowledged for the roles that they have played.

The minister made reference to the Prime Minister's comment that he is taking measures to turbocharge the Indigenous business sector. I respectfully suggest to the minister, given his fishing background, that he trade in the oars that he has been using to row this dinghy called closing the gap and put some decent turbocharged outboard motors on it to enable those without hope or belief that the government is committed to closing the gap to take the government seriously and see merit in participation in these endeavours to close the gap and ensure that their own lives have got some equality.

We are faced with this huge challenge. It's hard to understand a government that talks about not renewing the remote-housing funds to communities, and we've had a discussion about that today. But housing is one of those essential planks to all these other imperatives and social determinants of a good life and quality of life. If the government cannot see its way clear with the states to find an agreement about this, then many of the good intentions the government's got will fail, unfortunately, and many of our people will be left behind in these remote parts of the country and not share in the benefits or the positive outcomes that the minister so often brings to our attention in this place.

Minister, this is a good report, but it's one that obviously needs more work, more collaboration. As I've said, it needs some turbocharged motors on the back of that dinghy.

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

I rise to make a contribution on the response to the Prime Minister's statements on Close the Gap and the latest report. At this time every year, I also table what used to be called the shadow report, which is the report by the Close the Gap campaign steering committee. This year, I seek leave to table the report. I did actually have leave from the two whips that were in the chamber at the time. It is the report that I table every year.

Sue Lines (WA, Deputy-President) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

Is leave granted? Just keep going, Senator Siewert. We'll come back at the end of your contribution.

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

Okay, thank you. The report this year from the steering committee is in fact a 10-year review of the Closing the Gap strategy and recommendations for reset. I always start from this point because this is the community who are reporting on the efforts that have been made to close the gap. This year, I've got to say that, while Senator Dodson just made the comment about the more positive aspects, and the government's report is certainly better than last year's, unfortunately I don't think the 10-year review makes very happy reading at all. It points out that in fact the 10-year strategy was abandoned after five years, and I notice that the minister just made comments on that. In fact, the strategy was effectively abandoned after five years, when this government cut half a billion dollars worth of funding out of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people's programs through the health programs and through all the other areas of funding for Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples.

This report finds that we are not on target to achieve life expectancy equality for Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples by 2030, and it won't be met if this current course continues—and in fact that's what the government's report finds. It finds that mortality and life expectancy gaps are actually widening due to the gains in these areas by the non-Aboriginal population.

The report outlines that the Closing the Gap strategy, as I articulated, was effectively abandoned after five years. The report also outlines that there is urgent need for the strategy to be reset, based on the existing Close the Gap Statement of Intent commitments, with a corresponding national response and equitable needs based investment. At the same time, the government should not take their eyes off the main game, as they put it, which is sustainable long-term improvement to the health of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples by addressing the underlying structural factors, treating the causes rather than focusing on the symptoms.

This is particularly important, because what I haven't heard from government, from either the Prime Minister or the minister, is a proper acknowledgment that these underlying structural factors need to be addressed. The minister made these fantastic statements about the Aboriginal owned industry and business powering the charge. That does not address these underlying structural issues. If we don't address them, we are not going to achieve closing the gap in life expectancy. These causes that need to be addressed include social determinants, institutional racism, the quality of housing—we've heard how the government is abandoning its commitment to agreements on remote housing—and access to appropriate primary health care. Without addressing these causes, it is unlikely that we are going to see permanent health gains and life expectancy and quality.

They state:

A refreshed Closing the Gap Strategy must focus on delivering equality of opportunity in relation to health goods and services, especially primary health care, according to need and in relation to health infrastructure (an adequate and capable health workforce, housing, food, water). This should be in addition to the focus on maternal and infant health, chronic disease and other health needs. The social determinants of health inequality (income, education, racism) also must be addressed at a fundamental level.

Of utmost importance is self-determination. Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people and their communities should be determining where the resources should be invested.

The report also speaks of a funding myth with regard to Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander health. The myth relates to 'dedicated health expenditure being a waste of taxpayer funds'. This myth has to be tackled head on. They say:

… the Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander population have, on average, 2.3 times the disease burden of non-Indigenous people.

Therefore, spending on Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander health requires higher expenditure to tackle this. They say:

Yet on a per person basis, Australian government health expenditure was $1.38 per Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander person for every $1.00 spent per non-Indigenous person in 2013-14. So, for the duration of the Closing the Gap Strategy Australian government expenditure was not commensurate with these substantially greater and more complex health needs.

This is still true today, so increased expenditure is needed.

The report makes six recommendations, with a number of points. These relate to the refreshed strategy being co-designed with Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander health leaders, and proper community consultation; a tripartite approach with state and territory governments; reinvigorating the architecture, such as the national agreement; federal leadership; national funding agreements; targets; implementation plans and accountability; and addressing the social determinants of health inequality. Those are the sorts of things we should be doing. That is not what we heard from the government's report. As I said, they made a great show of talking about the business they have helped to drive, which does not address these fundamental issues.

Yes, we have seen some progress in three of the seven targets, but we have seen things fall backwards before. With the three targets that are on track, I think we need to be looking at the data in much greater detail. Key things like employment and reading and numeracy are not being attained. And, of course, we've heard that closing the gap in life expectancy is not on track, and nor is school attendance. Many of these areas are subject to top-down punitive approaches, such as school attendance. School attendance in remote communities, which Senator Scullion keeps claiming credit for—going around and rounding people up—is not improving our target for school attendance. The failing, flawed, policy of the Community Development Program is having a disastrous impact in communities. It is undermining progress on trying to make sure that we close the gap. Flawed punitive policies such as income management and the cashless welfare card are things being done to Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples, not with Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples.

The government said today that they are going to set up another select committee on recognition. They have already rejected out of hand the Uluru statement and a voice to parliament. I heard the ALP talk about legislation for the voice to parliament. The community wants change to the Constitution. Unless that's on the table, I know a lot of people in community are going to say, 'Why bother, if you're not prepared to talk about that?' Ultimately we need to talk about sovereignty and a treaty. That is fundamental to this country. It's fundamental to ensure that we close the gap. It's fundamental that we address that ultimate use of dispossession and colonisation in this place. I heard not one word from the government about those very serious issues. We need to address that unfinished business if we're going to truly close the gap.

David Leyonhjelm (NSW, Liberal Democratic Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

There is a vast gap between average Indigenous and non-Indigenous living standards, and the gap is not narrowing. It didn't narrow last year or the year before that or the year before that either, and, unless something changes, it won't narrow next year. There are a number of reasons for this. Most of them relate to poor outcomes in rural and remote Aboriginal communities. This is where the government continues to treat Aborigines like exhibits in a museum. It's where Aborigines go to school the least, where employment is rare, where you see the most hospitalisation from assaults and substance abuse, and where we see the most appalling family violence, child abuse and neglect—including babies with syphilis, for example.

To their credit, many Aborigines are voting with their feet and getting out of these hellholes—may there be many more!—but the government holds back this exodus with programs like the Community Development Program. This is a Work for the Dole scheme specific to remote areas, where 83 per cent of participants are Aborigines. It's a poor cousin to the general Work for the Dole scheme. Under the general scheme, long-term unemployed Australians must do community service for 15 to 25 hours a week for half a year. In the other half of the year, they're required to look for a real job, take a job that is offered, and are penalised if they move to an area with high unemployment.

Under the Community Development Program, long-term unemployed are required to do up to 25 hours a week of community service all year, so there is no requirement—and indeed, little opportunity—to look for a real job. Instead, there is continuing support to stay in dysfunctional communities where there are next to no real jobs. It's worth noting that a job propped up by a government procurement program isn't a real job. Under the Community Development Program, decisions about what community service needs to be done are devolved to self-appointed Aboriginal leaders, and the community service can entail tasks like mowing the lawns of these same Aboriginal leaders. It's neither a real job nor preparation for a real job.

The Closing the Gap reports have reaffirmed the squalor of rural and remote Aboriginal communities, but the government's response is to always redouble already failing efforts, including the mantra of local empowerment. As it stands, local empowerment is a big part of the problem. For example, the local Aboriginal leaders who get to act like bosses under the Community Development Program have no expertise or qualifications in preparing people for real employment, no track record in improving the lot of Aboriginal communities and in many cases were not chosen by those they lord over. What's more, as the program boosts their status and power, they have a strong incentive to keep it going and preserve their fiefdoms. At the heart the current approach to closing the gap reflects a preference for fawning and hand-wringing rather than pragmatism, for sounding good rather than doing good, for empty symbolism rather than practical change, and for truthiness rather than truth.

Governments enable child abuse neglect through their Aboriginal child placement principles. These require child protection departments to consult with Aboriginal organisations prior to the removal of any Aboriginal child, to arrange alternative care with extended family or another local Aboriginal family, if possible, and to ensure that the child maintains a connection to Aboriginal culture. This results in delays and uncertainty regarding the removal of children at risk, does not necessarily mean the child is any better off and discourages people from reporting abuse and neglect. This is destructive racism. We should not pretend that it is okay to allow kids, Indigenous or not, to remain in situations of neglect and abuse.

Finally, our governments are holding back Aboriginal living standards by propping up dysfunctional attitudes. Dysfunctional behaviour is propped up by having Indigenous sentencing courts. These give Aboriginal offenders more options for how their sentence will be determined, but they haven't reduced the high rates of Aboriginal reoffending. Governments maintain affirmative action programs, including targets for government employment of Aborigines in the Public Service and government procurement from designated Aboriginal businesses. These programs extend to anyone who is accepted by Aboriginal elders as being Aboriginal, even fair-skinned people who have had more opportunities than many of their fellow Australians.

Affirmative action programs encourage Aborigines to get ahead through special pleading, and they encourage non-Indigenous Australians to view Aborigines as charity cases. So it's disappointing that the Prime Minister in his Closing the Gap contribution chose to claim that government procurement policies that favour Aboriginal businesses are a great success. Such government favouritism and cronyism distorts the instincts of budding entrepreneurs, treats Aboriginal businesses as charity cases and is racist. More to the point, giving a handout to Aboriginal businesspeople, who are generally in urban areas, educated, working and looking after themselves, isn't going to help the Aboriginal people in rural and regional areas who are poorly educated, unemployed and in poor health. It is the disadvantage of this group of Aborigines that is at the heart of the gap between Aboriginal and non-Aboriginal people. Governments encourage dysfunctional attitudes not just in their sentencing and their affirmative action policies but also by lamenting the injustices done to Aborigines while failing to note that this refers to previous generations. Many non-Indigenous Australians have ancestors who suffered terrible injustices too. Hanging onto injustices that weren't done to you is paralysing and shouldn't be encouraged.

We honour Aboriginal culture and want to see it preserved, but we should not expect Aboriginal Australians to endure Third World living, health and education standards in the process. Their culture is not at risk when they own property in their own names, learn to read and write in English, gain a decent education, are encouraged to move to where the jobs are, get real jobs instead of pretend jobs, and their kids are removed from abuse and neglect. As thousands of Aborigines would attest, the essence of their culture is not at risk by joining the mainstream. When refugees come to Australia, we expect them to join mainstream Australia. Indeed we go to great lengths to help them achieve that. The gap would close a lot quicker if we took the same approach to our Indigenous people. The more of them who join mainstream Australia, the better off we all are.

Sue Lines (WA, Deputy-President) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

Senator Siewert sought leave to table a document earlier. I understand that leave has been granted.

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

I now table the document A ten-year review: the closing the gap strategy and recommendations for reset.

Ian Macdonald (Queensland, Liberal Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

Coincidentally, I join this debate following Senator Leyonhjelm, and in a broad way I share the views that he's just enunciated—perhaps not in his language. I have often said to Indigenous leaders who've come to see me that the best thing we can do for Indigenous people is to treat them like every other Australian, with no special deals. Do not have Big Brother in the Public Service in Canberra looking at these people and saying: 'You're a second-rate group of people, so we're going to decide everything for you. We're going to feed and clothe you, and we're going to do everything for you. You don't need to do it because we think you're not capable.' That's the greatest insult and the greatest form of racism I have seen.

I have said this to Indigenous leaders over many years now. I have to say that most agree with me. I'm sure Senator McCarthy would, sitting in this chamber. Senator McCarthy doesn't need special deals. What we do need for Indigenous people is a good education and an opportunity to join mainstream Australia. A lot of people of Indigenous heritage that I know have had that opportunity, have been properly educated, and they are like every other Australian. They don't need any special deals. They don't need people looking at them, saying, 'This is a deal just for you, and not for other Australians.'

The issue of housing was the subject of comment at question time today. The Indigenous leaders came to see me and I had a chat to them. We explained to them to that Commonwealth provides $6.4 billion every year to the states for welfare housing, some of which we expect the states to send to remote Indigenous communities. As I said to this group the other day, the best thing would be if Indigenous people were treated like every other Australian: if they worked hard, bought their own house and paid it off over a lifetime, perhaps with a little bit of assistance from the banks, that would be good. But I recognise that in the remote communities this can't happen because it's very difficult to get well-paid work. This is where I think the gap needs to be closed. We need to make sure there are employment opportunities—opportunities for Indigenous people to get real work. Then they can be like every other Australian: buy their own block of land, build their house, pay it off over a lifetime and have it be theirs. Senator Leyonhjelm touched on this too.

It's no good saying to Indigenous people, 'You can live where you were born because it's nice being there and it's your culture to be there,' if there is no prospect of them ever getting further advanced than some sort of welfare support. Indigenous people in the cities do have good schooling, do have the opportunities, and—as Senator McCarthy and Mr Wyatt and former Senator Lindgren have done—have gone out like everybody else, made a success of their lives, acquired a house and acquired a good education for their children. That's how it should be. What governments have got to do is not just say to Indigenous people, 'Well, everyone else has to move if they can't find a job in that locality'—Senator Leyonhjelm touched upon this—'but you can stay there forever, even though you've got no prospect of getting a real job and, therefore, a life like every other Australian.'

It's the same with languages. Some on the left go to what I think are inordinate lengths to teach, promote and protect Indigenous language. Yes, that is good. That's nice. But the more important thing is to teach young children everywhere, be they Indigenous or not Indigenous, how to read and speak and properly appreciate the English language. Why? Because if they can do that they then have an opportunity in joining the rest of the world and getting well-paid jobs, as Senator McCarthy has done, as Mr Ken Wyatt has done, and as Senator Lindgren did. I have just mentioned those three because they're people who have shown that to be the case. In the system we currently have, there are always going to be disadvantaged people. I say that some on the left look at them as second-class citizens, which I refuse to accept. I won't accept that. They are as good as me. They're as good as anyone in this chamber. But they don't have the opportunities.

When you get a company like Adani—and I don't want to really get onto that subject except to say, here was an opportunity for Indigenous people in Central Queensland to get a real job. And Indigenous people knew that, and that's why—by 98 per cent to two per cent—they voted to support that thing. Why? They didn't really care about Adani, or India or anything, but they knew it meant jobs and an opportunity and a chance for a proper life for their children and their people. The government has tried to develop the north, but we're finding enormous difficulty in getting state governments, in particular, to do the things that need to be done to enable development to occur. And if the development occurs, it provides opportunities for Indigenous people. There are so many dam proposals in the north of Queensland—Indigenous people in those localities love the idea. Why do they love the idea? Because they know it will mean some form of development, mainly in agriculture, that they can be part of. And in fact, in many cases, they want to use their lands to take on farming enterprises, and give their kids a real job, a job that will let them be like every other Australian.

I acknowledge that Prime Minister Turnbull and the Minister for Indigenous Affairs, Senator Scullion, have a passion for Indigenous people, and I know that they follow the accepted norm of Canberra and the Left of our society, in thinking, 'All we've got to do is throw money at it, and everything will be right.' Well, most Indigenous leaders know that is not what it's about. It is about opportunity. As much as I can, I will continue to help the mayors of the Cape, the Torres Strait, and the north-west of my state, because they are my constituency, to get real jobs—to allow them to be part of Australia like every other Australian. As I say, this is not a new comment from me. I've spoken to Indigenous leaders over many, many years, and as recently as last week, on this same issue. We've got to give them the opportunity to be like every other Australian, and not just to be recipients of some welfare that the well-meaning bureaucrats and the latte set from the south think is what it's all about. That is not helping Indigenous people, and it never will.

I get very distressed at the way that people down here treat Indigenous people in remote areas as second-class citizens. I don't. I reject that. But we've got to give them the opportunity. Whilst the Closing the gap report has all the rhetoric in it—it has all the cliches, and it makes everyone around their latte tables in Sydney, Melbourne and Canberra feel really good about doing something for Indigenous people—it doesn't attack the real problem. The real problem is how to give Indigenous people opportunity, and enable development, so there are real jobs for Indigenous people—and, apart from that, Indigenous people should follow the same rules and the same laws, and have the same opportunities and the same responsibilities, as every other Australian. If we can achieve that, we really will close the gap permanently. It's going to take a long time. I'm pleased to hear that Senator Leyonhjelm, coincidentally, is of the same general view. And can I say, it's not just Senator Leyonhjelm; there are many Indigenous leaders who accept what I say is right. Don't just hand over the welfare, don't just throw money at the problem. Give Indigenous people a real opportunity to advance, the same as every other Australian. Make the kids go to school, make the children learn when they leave school, so that they will have an opportunity to take their part fully in Australia, as every other Australian has that opportunity.

Malarndirri McCarthy (NT, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

Ten years ago, my families and I were grieving for the loss of my mother. She had died six months earlier and had been on dialysis. She had been on dialysis for quite some time—a number of years, actually. And in that same year, just prior to the apology and the first Closing the gapreport, my cousin-brother died as well. He was in his 40s. So our families were still grieving, in sorry business. In February 2008, the Australian parliament navigated through incredibly complex political walls, hard hearts and deaf ears to persevere and do what no other parliament in the history of the Australian parliament had done—to apologise, to say 'sorry' for the policies of previous parliaments and previous politicians that had moulded and shaped the tortuous and at times confusing and frustrating future for Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people in this country.

So on that day in February 2008, in the Northern Territory parliament, stolen generation members gathered to witness what they couldn't see in person, what many couldn't make the journey to see here in this parliament. While those stolen generation members who had been removed from their homes and country sat in that hall, they watched family members, people they knew and people they didn't know enter the halls of this parliament. They watched where, on the lawns at the front of Parliament House, thousands and thousands of Australians had walked or driven to for that moment in our history. We must always hold onto that moment of incredible generosity of spirit of the stolen generations that received the words 'I'm sorry'. This parliament says, 'We are sorry.' It is that generosity of spirit that we all need to call upon and to reflect upon.

I pay tribute to the elders of this country, the traditional owners, the Ngunawal and Ngambri peoples—Senator McCarthy then spoke in languagefor my peoples, the Yanyuwa in the Gulf Country, because I know that when this parliament, which represents the Australian people, comes together on this day to seek a better future for the first nations people, we must do it with a generosity of spirit. We must allow the memory of this day to enable us to still persevere, to still strive to work together, because we know that there are deep systemic issues facing Indigenous people across this country in various places—remote, rural and urban.

Close the gap has a face. My family, my extended families: the Yanyuwa, the Garrwa, the Mara and the Kudanji peoples. They are the people, the faces, of close the gap. Senator Dodson and his family, his people, and the people that he represents are the face of close the gap. The member for Barton, Linda Burney, in the House of Representatives, is the first-ever Indigenous woman to stand in the parliament where the Prime Minister said 'sorry'. She is the face of closing the gap—her family and her children. And Minister Ken Wyatt and his family and extended family, and his history. That is the face of Close the Gap. So when members come into this house, or the other house, to talk figures and statistics, they are our figures and statistics. If I came in here to talk about your family, how would you feel? Each year, standing here, wondering if your family is going to have their children finish high school; if your family is going to go on to jail, which is what is expected; if your family is going to have a future on dialysis; or if your family is going to have employment opportunities on CDP to look forward to, for those who can graduate. That's what we're talking about here. This is the human story of closing the gap. It matters. It matters that this parliament takes it seriously.

When the minister stands up and talks about all these things—I know Minister Scullion and have worked with him over many years—I don't ever doubt the good intent behind what he tries to do. But he's not really the problem. It's the rest of you who sit beside him in cabinet. Where is your willingness to close the gap, to provide the housing instead of providing excuses?

I'm immensely proud of Labor's plan to establish a stolen generations scheme for members of the stolen generation in the Northern Territory and here in the ACT. When we come to government, we will offer payments of $75,000 to living stolen generation survivors who were removed from their families and committed to the care of the New South Wales Aboriginal protection or welfare boards. We will provide a funeral assistance fund, which will provide one-off payments of $7,000 to stolen generation survivors to assist with the cost of funerals. This scheme will cover approximately 150 surviving members of the stolen generations.

It's really sad, because three weeks ago I buried my cousin. He was a stolen generation member. He'll never get to see that support. But he did get to see the apology. When Australians came together on 13 February 2008, they came together in this House and there were many members on that side who didn't want to know the apology. I hope you may be able to reflect on where you were 10 years ago and where your spirit of generosity is this day. Because it was that gathering of all Australians who said, 'This is the right thing for this parliament to do,' and as one heartbeat our country came together. Let's hold onto that. Always remember that, and that is the spirit of the Ngunawal and Ngambri peoples of this country that lives on every time and every year we stand to close the gap. (Time expired)

Richard Di Natale (Victoria, Australian Greens) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

Ten years on from the National Apology to the Stolen Generations and the start of the Closing the Gap strategy, I rise in this parliament to acknowledge the traditional owners of this land, the Ngunawal and Ngambri people, and their elders, past and present. These are the First Australians, people who have, for more than 50,000 years, had a culture that we admire and respect, a culture that they share with us and with the world. This is a people who have endured such suffering as a result of colonisation. While some people might like to talk about the arrival of European settlement here as unambiguously good for Aboriginal people, most Australians understand that it represents the dispossession of land, the decimation of a culture, the beginning of an ongoing genocide and children taken away from their mothers. This is the legacy that we are living with today, and it behoves all of us to accept, understand it and acknowledge it, because without doing that we'll never make progress. This is a land that was never ceded; it was and always will be Aboriginal land.

The Closing the Gap strategy was an acknowledgment of this legacy of the unfinished business that must be done to bring Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander health, education and wellbeing into line with non-Indigenous Australians. It was a commitment that was made by our parliament to our first peoples: to work together, listen, learn and dedicate ourselves to righting the wrongs of the past and to bringing about equality. Sadly, it has been a story of failure. The 10 years since have been a sobering reminder that words are just wind, that real outcomes happen only when actions follows words. Year after year we've seen targets that have been missed or ignored. We know that progress has been painfully slow. Sadly, governments of all political colours have gift-wrapped their failures in glossy reports. This year it's 130 pages.

Last year the Prime Minister spoke at length about listening and working with Aboriginal Australians, rather than doing things to them. Those lofty ideals from this Prime Minister are simply not borne out by his actions or the actions of his government. As Senator Siewert pointed out earlier, still today we see the imposition of policies and programs upon Indigenous Australians, the legacy of the intervention—the cashless welfare card, for example, without consultation, taking away the rights and freedoms that the rest of us enjoy. Today, 10 years on, is a moment of sombre reflection on the state of our relations as a parliament with the first people of this nation. The Uluru Statement from the Heart is a poignant and powerful plea for acknowledgement, respect and substantive recognition of Indigenous justice and self-determination. The Australian Greens welcome this statement into our hearts as we implore the government to wake up and commit to the makarrata commission.

Just last week the Close the Gap breakfast saw Indigenous health leaders come to this place and implore the government and the parliament to do better. As we just heard earlier from Senator Malarndirri McCarthy, they are sick and tired of watching their people die. These are their stories. These are real stories of people living with chronic illness, of people living with diseases like diabetes, heart disease and ear disease. These are the stories of families. These are the lives of ordinary people. Yet today the government is crowing about the fact that this year, after 10 years, just three of the seven targets might be on track to be met. The sad reality is that does represent some progress, because the report highlights that the last time we were on track to meet as many as three targets was back in 2011. That's hardly cause for celebration. We welcome any improvements in child mortality, Indigenous enrolment, early childhood education and year 12 attainment. They are positive, but we are still not on track to meet basic targets such as school attendance, reading and numeracy, employment and, crucially, closing the gap in life expectancy between Indigenous and non-Indigenous Australians.

Of course, the Greens join with Indigenous leaders in calling for a justice target to be included. We are locking up Aboriginal people at rates that are higher than almost any other population anywhere in the world. We need a justice target to be included. The so-called refreshing of the targets has to be more than a bureaucratic process resulting in more targets that we simply fail to reach. We need action. But to get that action it has to be a collaborative process with Indigenous Australians. And with those targets we need to have tangible commitments to working together with Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people, and to implement the funding to ensure that we meet those targets.

The Greens are looking to the Close the Gap 10-year review, which was published last week by the Indigenous health community and Australia's broader health sector, as to exactly where we should be focusing our attention. One thing's crystal clear: we have to fund the national Indigenous health action plan and the implementation plan. We have a blueprint there for what should be done—let's fund it. We need a recommitment to community controlled health care and the resources and the workforce to support it. I know the value that Aboriginal community controlled care provides, because I've worked there. I know the impact that it has on Aboriginal people—culturally appropriate services delivered in a setting controlled only by Aboriginal people for Aboriginal people.

The Closing the Gap strategy will never be realised without the appropriate architecture for collaboration to make it happen. Ultimately, what we need is a government that's committed to action, and to working with Aboriginal people to stop the top-down interventions that build resentment and build disengagement, which we know make matters worse. Unfortunately, this is a legacy that we continue to live with today. At the moment we're debating the cashless welfare card, but let's not forget the impact of the intervention. After my return visit to Tennant Creek last year, we were promised that the result of the intervention would be a community with improved health and educational opportunities. This was a community that, 17 years after I first worked there, in many respects, and in many areas, had fewer opportunities than when I was working there.

I welcome the remarks of the Prime Minister today. I welcome the commitment to working with Aboriginal communities on refreshing and meeting the Closing the Gap targets. But with all due respect to the Prime Minister, let me say that I share the frustration of Indigenous people around the country at hearing him speak again and making those commitments only to be disappointed, as we have been in the past. Last week, the PM attended the close the gap breakfast, and it was so disappointing to see him walk out in the middle of that breakfast. I know he's a busy man, but what could be more important than listening to Aboriginal Australians as they try to offer solutions on how to save Indigenous lives. I thought it showed a profound lack of respect.

Mr Turnbull, Indigenous Australians have told you how to work with them. They've provided you with the blueprint on how to engage and include them. The ball is now in your court. I say to the many Indigenous Australians: we will continue to listen to you; we will create opportunities to empower you, because we know that the only way that we will be able to close the gap is when you take the lead in shaping the solutions for your communities.

Doug Cameron (NSW, Australian Labor Party, Shadow Minister for Human Services) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

I want to concentrate on the area of housing in relation to the issues that this delivers in trying to deal with closing the gap. I must say, listening to Senator Leyonhjelm and Senator Macdonald, it beggars belief that they can ignore the history of this country and the history that Indigenous communities have had to bear over the period of white settlement in this country.

Senator Leyonhjelm discussed how jobs, propped up by a procurement program, are not real jobs. I'm sure the South Australian coalition senators will not be saying that about jobs created in South Australia arising from government procurement in the defence sector. For Senator Leyonhjelm to argue that you can't count anything that's been aligned with government procurement as a real job is a crazy proposition. Australia is not a market economy. We are a mixed economy. That mixed economy is the market and government. Government play a huge role in providing employment, housing, health and education in this country. To simply pass judgement on Indigenous communities, to say that if they got some government support through a procurement program then it's not a real job, just doesn't stack up on the basis of common sense.

Senator Macdonald argues that if you treat Indigenous communities like every other Australian community, then things will be different. He argues that employment opportunities are what should be in place, that you'll fix all this by providing a block of land that an Indigenous person can buy and pay off and that that will result in well-paid jobs and opportunities for Indigenous Australians. Nothing could be further from the truth, because if that scenario doesn't work for white Australians and Australians living in metropolitan areas then it certainly won't work in other areas such as remote communities in this country.

AHURI, the government-funded body that looks at these issues, has done some simulation estimates on what the issues are. Across Australia about 1.3 million households—that's 14 per cent of households—are estimated to be in housing need. That includes people in overcrowded households, people who can't access rental accommodation at a reasonable price, and people living in stress because they're paying off a mortgage or they're trying to pay rates. Fixing Indigenous issues by saying that you will create a market in housing is just not realistic.

My first day in this place coincided with the apology. It was a remarkable day not only for me, personally, in becoming a senator but also for what Labor was trying to do through the apology and through focusing on the real issues for Indigenous Australians. You can't argue that you'll simply provide opportunity and everything will be fixed. I've heard the argument of equality of opportunity from my own side—I've heard it many times in this place—but there is no equality of opportunity for an Indigenous Australian against a barrister's kid or a QC's kid in the eastern suburbs of Sydney. That equality of opportunity is just not there; it's a myth. In these communities where we have real problems in relation to housing we need government procurement, we need government jobs and we need access to government social security payments to keep those communities alive.

The argument that I've heard here today is basically that, if you need that, you shouldn't be in that community. I think that is the height of contempt for our Indigenous people in this country. We heard those arguments today and we heard Senator Macdonald raise the issue of how much money is spent on housing. In 2008 Labor invested $5.4 billion in the National Partnership Agreement for Remote Indigenous Housing to build and refurbish houses in remote Indigenous communities. We are not saying, 'Put the bulldozer through remote communities and send all these remote Indigenous families to other areas where they can get jobs and live like whitefellas.' That is an absolute nonsense. We want to build and refurbish houses in remote Indigenous communities. We do want to implement robust and standardised property and tenancy management in Indigenous housing. We want to increase employment opportunities for local residents in remote Indigenous communities. The National Partnership Agreement on Remote and Indigenous Housing did that.

I have spoken to both the Minister for Housing and Public Works in Queensland and the Minister for Housing and Community Development in the Northern Territory this week. They both outlined how there's been a steady increase in employment arising from the investment that governments have made in these communities on housing. For instance, in Western Australia there has been an increase of 22 per cent to 47 per cent in jobs. Jobs for concreters, plumbers, carpenters, electricians, roofers, labourers, painters, tilers and cabinetmakers are being created through this program across the country. Yet Senator Scullion today couldn't give a clear answer on whether the program would continue. What Senator Scullion indicated was that the program had finished; it was a 10-year program. He indicated to the minister for housing in Queensland that the program was over. That is not a way to bring jobs and employment into Indigenous communities across the country.

Apprenticeships are being created in Indigenous communities. We need to get away from reliance on fly-in fly-out tradespeople from major metropolitan sectors into those communities. We need to create the jobs, we need to create the apprenticeships. If you want to create a market then you have to actually intervene, as we do in many areas in this country. We hear so much about jobs growth from the coalition, but the bulk of the jobs growth is coming from government initiated programs. The NBN is creating jobs, as a government initiated program. Even though the outcome is not great for many communities, the program is there. It's the government initiated programs in many areas, like the National Disability Insurance Scheme, that are creating jobs. In all these social areas where jobs are increasing, it's been government that has increased the jobs—predominantly initiatives from the previous Labor government that this government is crowing about now. It was Labor that initiated those programs that created those jobs.

We need to treat our Indigenous communities the same as you want to treat white communities and metropolitan communities. Government plays a role in job creation, government plays a role in housing, and that should be the way that we treat our Indigenous communities in the future.

Sitting suspended from 18 : 29 to 19 : 30

Sue Lines (WA, Deputy-President) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

I too rise to make my contribution to the debate on today's Closing the gap report. I pay my respects to the Ngunawal and Ngambri peoples, who are the traditional custodians of the Canberra area on which the parliament sits, and I pay my respects to elders past and present. I also want to comment on the speech before dinner by Senator Malarndirri McCarthy, who reminded us that Close the Gap has a face. I think it's easy in this place to forget that. They were very powerful words from Senator McCarthy, and I thank her from the bottom of my heart for the contribution she made in talking about her family and the families of many other first nations peoples in this country. So let us remember today that Close the Gap has a face. It is one of the few opportunities we have left in this parliament, sadly, where we come together as a parliament and make that contribution and make that commitment to close the gap.

Whilst today's report shows some improvement, it's not nearly good enough. First nations people still lag behind in so many key, fundamental areas in our country. They are the first nations people, and nothing we do or say or believe will ever change that, and we must do a lot better. The only way to do that is with a partnership with first nations people.

I was really honoured to be able to attend the release last week of the review on 10 years of Close the Gap, which was done by the Australian Human Rights Commission. We had amazing leaders such as Ms June Oscar, Mr Rod Little and Mr Tom Calma, who spoke to us about what needs to be done and how we need to do that. But, for me, I was incredibly impressed with the contribution of a young Yamatji-Badimia woman, Banok Rind, who told us about her life. She was told by teachers, 'You'll never make it; you'll never amount to anything,' and she's now studying registered nursing at the University of Melbourne. She reminded us not only that first nations people have the solutions but that they want to make the contribution. She had a message for the Prime Minister. Unfortunately, he'd left by the time Ms Rind got up to speak and, in my view, he missed one of the most powerful speeches, her speech. She said very simply, 'We want you to sit down and yarn with us.' Now, I don't think that is a big ask. It is way beyond time that we do sit down and listen and put first nations responses front and centre and at the heart of whatever we do to fix the gap, because we must fix the gap. If we are a fair country and a just country, we can no longer have such a glaring gap as we have today.

The wise words of June Oscar, Rod Little and Tom Calma resonate with me. They were incredibly powerful. June Oscar, in her polite but determined way, well and truly gave us all a message last week. To ignore that message—to listen to the fine words that we've had today and to fail to act yet again—would be to do a great disservice to those speakers who put their hearts and souls into the contributions that they made last week.

I am really proud to stand here today to revisit the sorts of commitments that Labor has made today. We will set up a compensation scheme for the stolen generations. My own granddaughter's family are stolen generations. They're Gija people, but they have lived their lives in Geraldton. They were taken from their homeland at Turkey Creek, first to Broome and then settled on the missions in Geraldton. Actually, in the museum there are photos of them as kids running around outside the tin shacks that the family lived in. Members of the family were taken to Moore River. Just in Charlie's family you see that dispossession, that loss and that continuing trauma being played out in her family—just a small family. And as we heard from Senator McCarthy today, when she talked about her family and many other families, that trauma lives on and on.

That's not to say that people don't achieve. They do, despite what gets done to them. But there is an ongoing trauma that needs to be acknowledged, and Labor will do that. We will look at the kind of healing that needs to be done. Within 100 days of winning government we will also hold a summit to look at and to put into place action to stop the horrifying taking of children out of homes and putting them into out-of-home care. In my own state of Western Australia the stats are really way too high. It is not an area we need to be leading on. I am really pleased the state government, through my good friend Minister Simone McGurk, has put $20 million to Aboriginal organisations to look at the solutions. Four Aboriginal organisations will do the lead work on this. Family Matters has been directly involved in having conversations with Premier McGowan about what needs to happen. But we will again fail if we have fine words that are not followed up with action.

We have a department in Western Australia that has a set of principles about how important it is for young first nations children to remain, if not with their immediate parents, at least with family members. Yet time and time again in Western Australia we see that those policy commitments are set aside and children are taken at birth and put with non-Indigenous parents and they miss out on the importance of culture and the importance of family. So, much more needs to be done. I would urge people to look at the report launched last week on how we need to move forward.

As I said earlier today in my contribution on the cashless debit card, that is absolutely not a solution. It flies in the face of the sorts of reports that we've seen today from Closing the Gap. The CDP has robbed so many communities of good projects in communities that were making a difference and has also provided people with just the most menial, dehumanising kinds of tasks. The sorts of tasks we saw people undertaking when we did the CDP inquiry were shocking. We saw men working in nothing more than old chook sheds that would have not have passed any comparable health and safety standard for a workplace, and using the pine packing crates to build stuff out of. Of course, they can't compete and learn real skills because that would put local businesses out of business. If anyone thinks that is meaningful work for people to be doing, they are kidding themselves. It was dehumanising and, quite frankly, I just felt so much for the participants.

The other thing that's happening is that people are getting breached. We heard lots of stories of people not being able to buy electricity because they missed a day of their 25-hours-a-week CDP requirement and therefore lost income. This is not how you create equality. This is not just. Those are whitefella solutions being imposed on our first nations people. Yet in this same community we saw the town council largely made up of first nations people—I think 100 per cent—who had really good, solid infrastructure projects that would have created employment, if only we were able to fund them. So let's take some of that CDP money and look at how, in consultation with traditional owners, with local people, we can create proper, meaningful employment. It is way beyond the time that we continue to ignore the voices of Aboriginal people—the voices of June Oscar, Rod Little and Tom Calma and the young voice of Banok Rind, who gave such a powerful speech last week. That is who we need to be listening to. As she said, and as I said earlier in this place, 'You tell me why two-year-olds in my community are walking around with hearing aids.' That's a shame; it's a shame on all of us, and there are very easy solutions to the question that Ms Rind posed to the group last week. I would urge the government to continue the bipartisanship spirit of Close the Gap, but let's get real; let's put our first nations people front and centre of the solutions. Let's get the Uluru statement back on track. Let's really close the gap. We are capable of this. It requires goodwill; the goodwill is certainly there from first nations people and it's there from the Labor Party. Let's get this done.

Claire Moore (Queensland, Australian Labor Party, Shadow Minister for Women) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

We all know that anniversaries are important, and one of the key messages out of the original Closing the Gap statement 10 years ago was that every year we would bring back to this parliament the experience and the knowledge that had been gained the previous year, to ensure that we remembered exactly what the original Closing the Gap statement had been about and that we, as a parliament, would listen to people who are living the experience: people in Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander communities across our nation and the people who work in those areas. We said that we would bring the research and the knowledge we had from across the nation back to the parliament and take notice of what had occurred and how we were progressing. We made a solemn commitment, together as a parliament, to Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people that we would acknowledge there was a gap. In fact, for the first time in the parliament it was clearly stated that we as a nation accepted that there was not genuine equality in our nation. We acknowledged that people living side by side with us were not benefiting, the way that everyone should, from the value and the wealth of our nation. First of all we acknowledged that there was a gap and then, together, we made a commitment that we would work to close that gap.

Now, 10 years down the track, the government has decided that we will do a refresh program around the whole process. But during the refresh it's important we understand that this is not moving away from the original process; it's just taking note and ensuring that we work effectively together and become stronger. On that basis, it's important to remember the goals from the original Closing the Gap statement 10 years ago. They were deliberately challenging targets. They were not meant to be easy. They acknowledged the situation in our community, and we said that things had to change and that there had to be concentrated effort at every level of government and every level of the community to effectively identify the gap, address the difference and then learn as we worked together to close it.

Today we heard the Prime Minister talk about the fact that there had been encouraging progress across three of the original goals of the Closing the Gap statement. But, because there has been activity across the three, we shouldn't forget that through this concentrated process of working together over 10 years there has been improvement across the board. Things have been focused now for 10 years and, whilst we may not have met the original targets in every one of the areas, we should not run away from the fact that there has been improvement. That's the idea of coming together every 10 years and assessing how we're going.

But we should not ignore the original goals of the program. No. 1—the first step, the first process—was to look at the fact that there was a gap in life expectancy in our community. That was identified, and it was shameful that there was such a gap in life expectancy. So the very first goal was to close the life expectancy gap within a generation—that is, by 2031. There has been movement, but we have not met what we'd hoped to do by this stage. But that is no reason to turn away from that incredibly important element of the commitment that we as a parliament made to the people of Australia—that is, that we would look at the health aspects of communities to ensure that we closed that life expectancy gap. So through any process of refresh we should not move away from that core goal.

We need to ensure that people in Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander communities across the country have the clear expectation of equality in health and wellbeing. We have the support mechanisms to do that in our country. If we look at the work that has been done around the social determinants of health programs across the country, we see the range of different elements that work together to ensure that there is a basis for equality. It is so essential that we continue to work with this framework and to look at all the elements that work together to ensure that there is equality, there is safety and there is security. That will continue to be the challenge around the issue of closing the gap on life expectancy. We would halve that gap in mortality rates for Indigenous children under five within a decade, which is now, the 10th anniversary. We have not met that claim, but we have worked together to ensure that there is that national focus—and again I use that term—on something that is shameful for our community—the gap in expectation. On the mortality rates for children there has been progress, so we need to assess how far we've come and what we can do in the future.

On childhood education for four-year-old Indigenous children in remote communities, there is progress towards that goal. It is not to say that we need to have a big tick against that. A tendency that we have in parliament, in government, is to set up a checklist and, as soon as we think that we've actually achieved something, we put a big cross through it, as though there is no need for ongoing work. The message of the Closing the Gap agenda has always been that we do not cease to concentrate on the work. We maintain the effort, we maintain the engagement and we listen to and work with the people who have the lived experience. That there has been improvement in the early childhood education goal does not mean that we can say that work has been concluded. We need to continue to work in this space to maintain it. When we do that, it necessarily leads on to the gap in reading, writing and numeracy achievements, which is one where we haven't actually met the original target. No child should be able to complete their schooling without having effective reading, writing and numeracy achievements. That's the solid basis for opportunity in life, for progress and for education and employment achievements. So there has to be continuing work on that. The grade 12 attainment rates have again improved. The gap in employment outcomes between Indigenous and non-Indigenous Australians has been a shared agreement across this parliament for many years.

All the goals work together. The idea was not to say that one goal was more important than another. This was a concentrated process of determining where the key gaps were and then working together as governments across the board to ensure that we have the best possible response. What we have continued to know, when we have this annual focus on the Closing the gap report, is that there is more work to be done. The reminder to all of us is that it is important that we maintain that we as a parliament come together, once a year, to assess how we're going and to look at how we can better the process and how we can work into the future.

I have always felt that this is a positive program. I know that there are elements who say that we concentrate on the negativity. I have always felt it was a positive process to have parliamentarians who were prepared to work on, and to speak openly about, what we have done and what we can do better. I am very hopeful that the refresh process—though I have to admit I do not like that term—will actually re-energise the response. We will work closely with Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander communities, we will truly review what we came together for and committed to 10 years ago and we will rebuild that commitment into the future. This is a positive process, but the incredibly important element is that we work together.

As always, the message we heard last week, when people came together in this place to talk about the Closing the Gap process and to identify the fears and concerns about where it would go next, was the clear concern about the need to continue to do this together. Single groups of parliamentarians will never make the effective change that we must have. The ongoing message is that we listen to our first peoples, we respond to their needs and we accept the wisdom, the resilience and the power of their lived experience over many generations. Only then will we be able to continue the very important commitment that we made 10 years ago, which is that the gap exists and the gap can be changed, but only if we continue to work together. Question agreed to.