Tanya Plibersek (Sydney, Australian Labor Party, Minister for the Environment and Water) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

I want to talk today about specifically what the government is doing to close some of the gaps in the area of water policy between Indigenous and non-Indigenous Australians. It's simply not okay that in 2024 Australia still has communities where you can't access safe drinking water. Our government believes that, as a basic human right, every Australian should be able to access secure and clean water—of course for drinking and sanitation but also so that communities can be built on and expanded. We know that water needs to come first in our remote communities so that housing can be built, so that health infrastructure can be built and so that education and other social goods can follow.

That's why last year, as part of the government's Closing the Gap implementation plan, we announced $150 million to deliver clean and reliable water to remote First Nations communities. This has allowed us to undertake projects like installing pipes that are more resilient in our harsh climate, more able to withstand damage and easier to fix if leaks occur; treating water using water treatment technology that doesn't require expensive chemicals that are difficult to source and complex to handle; increasing the use of water sources that are sensitive to country, practical to supply and resilient to the effects of climate change; and, crucially, training local people with the knowledge and skills needed to maintain the new systems we're building so communities aren't relying on fly-in fly-out workers to fix broken water systems, waiting weeks at a time for that to happen.

Delivering this water infrastructure can transform communities, and we're already seeing that happen. In Yuendumu, which is just one example, there is $11.1 million for three critical construction projects to upgrade and replace infrastructure and prevent leakage. In Milingimbi, we're investing $6.44 million in three projects to improve access and reliability of water supply in the area. I'll give one example of the flow-on benefits of these types of investments. In Milingimbi, this extra investment in water has made it possible to build 32 additional homes and extend 32 existing homes. You can't expand communities if there's not enough drinking water or if there's not enough water for the homes that are being built. They are just two examples of the $50 million that we've already committed of the $150 million announcement last year, and of course we're working very closely with states and territories to add to this list. This is the type of practical difference that additional funding for water can make. A community that doesn't have adequate water will also suffer from overcrowding. It will go without basic services. Now these communities have running water, more housing and more services.

It's important to note that, under the previous government, there were water infrastructure investment programs. They could not deliver water in circumstances like this to remote Indigenous communities. These communities were left dry because of the way those previous programs were run, in terms of the restrictions around what they could fund. In November we also announced an important increase in funding for First Nations water entitlements in the Murray-Darling Basin. We increased that funding to $100 million. We know how very important the health of our rivers is to our First Nations communities. Across the Murray-Darling Basin we've got about 40 First Nations groups that are absolutely determined and absolutely committed to seeing the river systems restored to health. The Aboriginal Water Entitlements Program was a promise made in 2018 by the previous government and broken by the previous government. Forty million dollars was promised and was never delivered. We'll finally deliver this funding and much more, with the first water purchases towards this program to begin later this year, making sure that communities get the water entitlements that they were promised and that they need.

We know that there is still an enormous amount of work to be done to close the gap on water security, and we can't do it alone. We're working with state and territory governments, with local government and with First Nations organisations like the committee on Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander water interests to make sure that we get full consultation. We're working with water users, scientists and environmentalists to make sure that we plan across this nation to identify where we need to deliver more safe and secure drinking water, to plan for that delivery and to make sure that we get those water security projects built. We're helping in this program also to build the foundations of many remote and regional communities so that they can prosper and thrive. Fresh water will always be a key to that.

Adam Bandt (Melbourne, Australian Greens) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

I want to speak about the Closing the Gap annual statement and some of the report cards that have been delivered that show how things are going in this country. The picture is not good. The Productivity Commission's report showed what many of us have known for a long time, which is that the gaps are not closing and that governments need to take a fundamentally different approach to the way that they engage with the National Agreement on Closing the Gap.

The report said that actions by governments exacerbate rather than remedy disadvantage and discrimination, in many situations. This is the definition of institutional racism, and it shows how government departments and systems are reinforcing the disempowerment of First Nations people right across the country.

The report was also a necessary act of truth-telling. It painted a true picture of what the 'government knows best' approach is doing to communities, and the clear need for a different approach. The attitudes underlined by criticisms contained within the Productivity Commission report are what keep First Nations people out of schools, hospitals, universities and workplaces.

Out of the 19 Closing the Gap targets across 17 outcomes, seven are improving but not on track to be met, four are on track to be met, four are getting worse and four have no data to assess progress. We're expecting an update to the data early this year. Hopefully it will show some improvement, but, if the report from the Productivity Commission is anything to go by, we shouldn't necessarily hold our breath.

On the anniversary of the national apology, the government handed down the annual report on the Closing the Gap implementation plan. We heard a number of announcements, including the creation of a National Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Children's Commissioner, and the Greens welcome this announcement.

There are also some simple things that the government could do now—right now—that would help significantly improve the lives of First Nations people. Medicare in prisons would make a huge difference, because we know that incarceration rates are appallingly high for First Nations people, especially in places like the Northern Territory. When you look at youth detention in the Northern Territory, you find that, in some places, almost everyone is a First Nations person. Medicare in prisons for First Nations people across the country would make a huge difference, and that's something the government could do right now.

Raising the age of criminal responsibility to 14 is also absolutely critical. We have an incredibly high rate of locking up children—and First Nations children in particular. Children as young as 10 do not belong in prison. We need to raise the age of criminal responsibility to 14. It's something that First Nations communities are crying out for. It's something that people fighting for justice are crying out for. It's a reform whose time has come.

We're seeing some first steps—under pressure from the community, from First Nations groups, from the Greens and from others—in some jurisdictions, but the federal government has to take the lead. The government's got a very big megaphone and a very big ability to help corral the states and territories and push them to raise the age of criminal responsibility to 14—to get those states and territories on board. Bear in mind: everywhere on the mainland at the moment, there's a Labor head of state.

Raising the age of criminal responsibility to 14 will go a long way to help close the gap and improve the lives of First Nations people. I would just ask everyone to reflect on whether they think the 10-, 11-, 12- or 13-year-olds that they know, in their life, deserve to be in prison—because that is what is happening to First Nations people, right across the country.

People trusted this government when they said that they wanted to put First Nations people in charge of their own solutions. Now it's time for the government to put their money where their mouth is and start handing decision-making power to Aboriginal-controlled community organisations, because we know—and the evidence is clear, in so many places—that, when you do that, you get a better result. You get a better result because First Nations people have the solutions; they know what they need.

First Nations people have sustained themselves for over 65,000 years. Governments need to support and enable community-led solutions, designed by communities for communities. This will allow for the diversity of the hundreds of nations to be taken into account and help ensure programs actually deliver what is needed for each individual community. Every government department and every minister has a role to play. Everyone needs to do their part.

The Productivity Commission report said that, without urgent action, closing the gap risks becoming another broken promise to First Nations people, but this is bigger than just broken promises. It's life or death for so many of our first peoples.

The Greens shared in the disappointment and could see the gutting effect having an unsuccessful result in the referendum had on so many First Nations people. We campaigned very hard for a successful outcome to that referendum. Certainly people in Greens electorates responded in record numbers, and I thank them and everyone else across the country who voted, but we got the result. It was not the result that we wanted, but we got the result that we did. But one of the things that became clear during the referendum was that, when you looked at the misinformation campaign that was spearheaded by the Leader of the Opposition—the misinformation and the untruths told about the history of our country; about the violence and dispossession and the effect that that has on First Nations people; and even about the proposals that were being put in the referendum. When you see the massive misinformation campaign spearheaded by the Leader of the Opposition and by others, it underlines the need for truth-telling in this country.

Before the election, the Greens said, 'We actually think that we need to begin the process of truth-telling first because, if we have the process of truth-telling first, we start to lay the foundations for real reform.' The process of truth-telling allows First Nations people and others—everyone else—to come forward and tell their story about what the history of violence, dispossession and colonisation has meant for them, what it has meant for them in generations past and also what it means for generations now. When we have that process of encouraging people to come forward and tell the truth and encouraging everyone across this country to come and tell their stories, we can begin the process of healing. We begin the process of understanding and begin the process of people listening to each other. Then we can begin the process of having justice and healing and then move on to have a treaty. What we're seeing in Victoria is this process of truth-telling playing out at the moment. There are things that in the past might have been done differently in terms of setting it up, but, at the moment, it is bringing forward people to tell their stories. When you bring people out to tell their stories, especially in an environment where there is not a vote at stake and it is about increasing understanding, you start to create discussion and you start to create understanding. That lays the foundation for lasting reform.

It was bitterly disappointed to see the referendum result that we did, but it was also incredibly disappointing not to see the government now get on with the remainder of the Uluru Statement from the Heart, which we could start to progress now. Beginning a truth and justice process and this country and establishing a truth and justice commission at the national level goes a long way towards delivering First Nations justice and closing the gap, because it begins the process of laying a really strong foundation for reform. Having that informed and honest discussion about our shared history helps us heal and then move forward together towards a treaty.

Given that we find ourselves in this situation now, the Greens are urging the government to press forward now with the establishment of a truth and justice commission and also beginning the process towards treaty, because it will take some time, but we've got to start now. In Victoria we can see the processes unfolding over a number of years. If we don't start now, it's going to be justice delayed. I urge the government to get on with the remaining elements of truth and justice and treaty.

Sharon Claydon (Newcastle, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

I rise to speak today on the 16th anniversary of the National Apology to the Stolen Generations and the Closing the gap annual report. I was here in Parliament House in 2008 when Prime Minister Kevin Rudd offered the formal apology to Australia's Indigenous people, with a special focus on the stolen generations, on behalf of all of us in the nation. It was an honour and a privilege to be present alongside so many people from my community in Newcastle. It was very important that the Labor government acknowledge that those laws and policies of successive parliaments and governments had resulted in the forcible removal of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander children from their families and that those actions had inflicted profound grief, suffering and loss on our fellow Australians. The apology was a powerful recognition of the destruction caused to families and communities at the hands of former governments and acknowledged the very real and ongoing pain and trauma caused by forced removals.

Last week I was reading and reflecting on the life of one member of the stolen generation, Dr Lowitja O'Donoghue, a trailblazing Aboriginal woman and leader who died on Kaurna country surrounded by her loved ones just last Sunday. Like so many people in the House, I grieve her passing. Like so many Aboriginal people of her time, Lowitja's life was as extraordinary as it was heartbreaking. Lowitja's mother, Lily, was a Yankunytjatjara woman and her father, Tom O'Donoghue, was a first-generation Irish Australian. At age two she was taken from her mother and placed in a mission home in South Australia. Her name was Anglicised and she was prohibited from speaking her own language. There was harsh discipline and no love and, like many Aboriginal children the country over, she was raised to be a servant. Without a birth certificate, the white missionaries gave her the birthdate of 1 August. For those that don't know, that is the horse's birthday in Australia. It was the day that she celebrated throughout her life. I can tell you that in my time living in Fitzroy Crossing up in the Kimberley time and time again I came across people's births registered as 1 August. It says something about those times. Let's not kid ourselves that they were that long ago.

At age 16, Lowitja was sent to Victor Harbour as a servant for a large family where she served for two years until she fought to train as a nurse. When the matron at the Royal Adelaide Hospital refused because she was Aboriginal, she took her battle to the state Premier and anyone else in government who would listen. She went on to become the first Aboriginal nurse, the first Aboriginal person named a Companion of the Order of Australia, the first Aboriginal person to address the UN General Assembly and the first chair of ATSIC, overseeing its most successful years, including leading very complex negotiations with then Prime Minister Keating following the High Court Mabo decision.

Lowitja did go on to be reunited with her mother as an adult following a trip to Coober Pedy when she was working with the South Australia department of Aboriginal affairs. Her biographer, Stuart Rintoul, described how not long after arriving in Coober Pedy she heard a group of people sitting outside the store saying, 'That's Lily's daughter.' From there she learned that her birth name was Lowitja and that her mother was a heartbroken woman living in poverty in Oodnadatta. She had five children taken from her. In the weeks that followed, Lily waited for her daughter in the outback town of Oodnadatta, staring off into the desert. The reunion at the age of 30 was not an easy one. There was tension and there was a language barrier. These are stories repeated across the nation. Rintoul writes that she would later talk of their reunion as a lesson in 'the limitlessness of hope and the strength of patience'. Let me say that again: the limitlessness of hope and the strength of patience. So many First Nations people have demonstrated that limitlessness of hope and strength of patience over and over again. The national apology was one such moment. Of course, apologies are never the full stop in the process; they're just the very start. Each year we mark this anniversary, it is a timely reminder of how much work we still have to do as a country, as a parliament and as a community to help right the wrongs of the past, to address and improve the inequalities and injustices that remain and to help heal the ongoing pain and trauma passed down from generation to generation.