Patrick Dodson (WA, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

My question is to the Minister representing the Prime Minister, Senator Wong. Can the minister update the Senate on the findings of the Closing the gap report 2022?

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

I thank Senator Dodson for his question and I thank him for his leadership in this parliament and his leadership for Australians—our First Nations peoples and non-Indigenous Australians—for decades.

Today the Prime Minister tabled the annual Commonwealth Closing the gap report 2022 and, deeply regrettably, the progress is mixed, with only four of the nine targets for which we have updated data being on track. There is some good news: there are some areas where we are on track. More than 89 per cent of babies are being born with a healthy birth weight, which is on track, and 96.7 per cent of children were enrolled in preschool in 2021, which is also on track. But there has been unacceptably slow progress in other areas, and some metrics have gone backwards. This includes children being school ready, rates of incarceration, the number of children in out-of-home care and deaths by suicide. For the majority of socioeconomic targets, there is little new data available to track trends reliably. Work has started to improve this data so that we will have a clearer picture of how we are tracking in future years.

But I think we are obliged on all sides of this chamber to recognise that decades of inadequate government policies have failed First Nations people and have failed to close the gap. We must reverse the entrenched inequality, disadvantage and structural racism faced by First Nations peoples. We on this side of the chamber—and I hope all across the chamber—are committed to doing this, and to ensuring sustained progress over the life of the 2020 National Agreement on Closing the Gap and the Commonwealth Closing the Gap Implementation Plan. It is clear that the Closing the Gap architecture can only work if we work together, when there are coordinated efforts from all jurisdictions and, most importantly, when we work in genuine partnership with First Nations peoples. It is only when Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples— (Time expired)

Sue Lines (President) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

Senator Dodson, your first supplementary.

Patrick Dodson (WA, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

Can the minister outline how the government is working to accelerate progress towards closing the gap?

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

Thank you again for your contribution to the government's commitments in this area, Senator Dodson. They include, in the October budget: $54 million for 500 First Nations health workers and practitioners; $164 million for vital health infrastructure; $33 million to make early education more accessible; $100 million to improve remote housing, particularly in the Northern Territory homelands; and, importantly—and I know Senator Dodson has spoken about this—$81 million in up to 30 community-led justice reinvestment initiatives to seek to divert young people from the criminal justice system and to reduce crime.

But we must do more, and I think the compelling message from this report is why it is so important for First Nations people to be heard and to be part of designing and delivering the solutions to this disadvantage. (Time expired)

Sue Lines (President) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

Senator Dodson, your second supplementary.

Patrick Dodson (WA, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

Can the minister outline how the Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Voice to parliament supports the objective to close the gap?

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

So-called solutions conceived in Canberra and imposed on communities without consultation are more likely than not to end in expensive, ineffective and even counterproductive failure. This is what the Prime Minister said today. But when a government listens to people with experience, with earned knowledge of kinship and country, and of culture and community, and when we trust in the value of self-determination and empowerment, then the results are always better. At its core, the Closing the gap report asks us if we're going to continue to do the same thing whilst expecting a different outcome.

The Uluru Statement from the Heart had a humble request at its core: we seek to be heard. It is the same message that we see in this report today and why it is so important for that hand outstretched, which is the Uluru Statement from the Heart, to be met generously by all Australians.