Michael McCormack (Riverina, National Party, Parliamentary Secretary to the Minister for Finance) Share this | Hansard source

Yesterday in Wagga Wagga I attended the 23rd annual combined Rotary Clubs of Wagga Wagga Peace Day. Wagga Wagga was the first of Rotary Peace City in the world, and that concept has spread throughout the Wagga Wagga region, throughout the state of New South Wales, throughout Australia and, indeed, internationally. Cities are lining up now to become Rotary Peace Cities. At that marvellous function, the school captains of many, if not all, of the high schools of Wagga Wagga spoke of the ways which they have identified to promote peace and harmony within the community. Many of those school captains talked about the progress that their schools have made in reaching out to Aboriginal Australians, and about the programs whereby they have put in place peaceful ways to help Aboriginal communities within the Riverina electorate and within the City of Wagga Wagga, which is part of the Wiradjuri nation.

The welcome to country at this Peace Day ceremony in the Victory Memorial Gardens was given by Aunty Isabel Reid, a former Citizen of the Year of Wagga Wagga; a fine upstanding citizen; and an elder of the very best qualities and attributes. Aunty Isabel Reid gave a speech at the recent National Sorry Day ceremony and, in this Closing the Gap debate, I thought it would be appropriate to read Aunty Isabel's speech into the Hansard. She said:

It has now been 7 years since Kevin Rudd made the historical apology speech which brings us all here together today.

I stand up here every year as I have done in years before the apology. I am one of the many children who didn't have a choice where they wanted to be, who were given a path to walk which we weren't prepared for. A path which took us from our homes, our family, our kin—a culture which had been all that we had known.

I've shared my personal story time and time again as have my other brothers and sisters. I don't do this to revisit the hurt or to blame governments past and present. I do this because sharing knowledge and having understanding breaks down barriers and the more that people are aware the more we reach common ground.

The apology laid the groundwork; we cannot rest on the speech alone for the words must be living and breathing. Make the effort on significant days such as today. I said this last year: "By being involved we deepen our knowledge and understanding, by being involved we share our unity and being in unity we have strength."

The journey for us going forward is about not forgetting the past. We cannot do that. We can close our eyes but the memory of past atrocities is engraved in our history: deep within our history. I will not focus on the negative—yes, I was taken, however I am not a victim I am a survivor and a leader for justice who was once a little girl without a home who became the Elder I am today.

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Fine words from a fine person—Aunty Isabel Reid of Wagga Wagga, a Wiradjuri elder. We could do well in this parliament to occasionally reflect on those words of Aunty Isabel and other Aboriginal elders, who no doubt also made fine speeches on Sorry Day, and who continue to make fine contributions when they do welcomes to country to welcome people onto their lands or to events.

While reflecting on the Closing the gap report of 2015, as the member for Throsby just indicated, we note there is much work to be done and many more important initiatives to be gained. There is much more than we can do as parliamentarians, as a parliament, as a government and as an opposition to help bridge that gap. But the report had some positives. The life expectancy of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander men in 2005-07 was 67.5 years; in 2010-12 it was 69.1 years. For Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander women in 2005-07 it was 73.1 years, and 73.7 years in 2010-12. They are not big gains but they are, nonetheless, important gains. This report notes that:

The Campaign Steering Committee welcomes the absolute gains in Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander life expectancy from 2005-2007 to 2010-2012.

These are on the ground improvements to the lives of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples and should not be underestimated. Another year a father can spend with his son, or a grandmother with her grandchildren, or that a trusted elder can spend guiding the life of their community, is to be treasured. Certainly, that is very much the case.

When you look at the report, lifetime risky drinking and binge drinking is down in Aboriginal communities. On the child mortality rate, the Council of Australian Governments Reform Council reports that Australian governments are on track to meet COAG's target to halve the gap in child death rates—that is, the mortality rates of children under five—by 2018. However, the death rate for Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander children is still more than double the rate for non-Indigenous children. It is still unacceptable. We know that; we appreciate that. But we are working hard at lowering those dreadful rates of infant death.

I know how hard the Prime Minister works. He goes into a remote Aboriginal community every year and spends a week there—he governs the nation from a remote Aboriginal community. I know what the efforts are of the Indigenous affairs minister, Senator Nigel Scullion. He has come into my community to talk to the Wiradjuri people on a number of occasions—to communities such as Brungle, Wagga Wagga, Griffith, Coleambally and Tumbarumba—and to tell them of the expectations of the government and the expectations of the parliament. I know he is pleased at the fact that more Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people are graduating from university and that more Indigenous people are attaining year 12 levels at school. That is great. We obviously need to improve upon it—it is not the same rate as for non-Indigenous Australians—but we are making progress. As Senator Scullion says:

A good school education gives children the best start in life. Children need to be at school every day – no excuses.

He said that in an opinion piece on 11 February.

In his speech to the Senate on the Closing the gap report, Senator Scullion talked about the more than 410 school attendance officers and more than 100 school attendance supervisors now operating in the 69 priority Remote School Attendance Strategy, or RSAS, communities and 73 schools. In term three of 2014, there was a 13 per cent rise in the number of children attending school across 29 Northern Territory government RSAS schools and an eight per cent rise in the number of children attending the 11 Queensland government RSAS schools, compared with term three of 2013. They are small but not insignificant achievements, and the government is working hard.

I know there is bipartisan support to do all we can to close the gap. I see member for Chifley nodding; he knows how important it is. He has a number of Aboriginal people in his electorate and I know how hard he works to help those Aboriginal people in his electorate. I know how hard you work, too, Deputy Speaker Jones, in your electorate of Herbert, to do what you can to help Aboriginal people: to lower incarceration rates and to lower obesity rates, all those things which are affecting the life expectancy and opportunities other Australians take for granted.

As Senator Scullion said:

Guaranteed employment and job-specific training is the aim of vocational training and employment centres—VTECs—which build on the GenerationOne model. There are 28 VTECs around Australia and another VTEC in the pipeline.

So there is work and planning being done to help get better educational outcomes for Indigenous Australians. The government will also strengthen the Commonwealth's Indigenous procurement policy, using the Commonwealth's $39 billion procurement budget, to encourage Indigenous businesses in employment. Giving someone a job means giving them opportunity—giving them an income and getting them off welfare. We know that is the case for all Australians, but particularly so when jobs are so much harder to get; and it is so much harder for Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islanders to actually start a business and make it work. We are doing what we can. There is much more work to be done. Let us hope that next year's Closing the gap report can indicate even further gains in this very important policy area.

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