James Paterson (Victoria, Liberal Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

Given the other business that the Senate has to conduct, I won't dwell too long on concluding my remarks, but I just want to revisit the original point I made in my contribution earlier, which was that it is a very welcome thing that COAG has agreed to refresh the Closing the Gap targets. That's not because targets are an unworthy thing to pursue and not because this hasn't been an illuminating exercise for the last decade but because not enough progress has been made and there were some design flaws at the outset. It's really important that we partner with Indigenous organisations in setting what are ambitious, but appropriate and realistic, targets, and a realistic means of achieving those targets in the years ahead.