Ann Sudmalis (Gilmore, Liberal Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

It is now 10 years since the eventful day when the national apology was made to our nation's first people. I was sitting in Macca's, Goulburn, and there were many Indigenous people stopping, talking and, in some instances, crying. The day was eventful and significant, and it was not just a symbol; it was the beginning of a new consciousness that would—and it continues to this day—make our nation a better place, filled with acknowledgement that what had gone on before was not the way we should keep going.

This year, 2018, closing the gap remains a shared commitment. This is a shared journey that I hope will always draw on the wisdom, strength and resilience, learned over thousands of years, of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander civilisation, as well as the learning of present Australians and those yet to come. There is a statement that we should not have to reinvent the wheel. While that is not the complete case here, it should be noted that effective programs and services need to be designed, developed and implemented in partnership with Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people. This should not surprise us. It's blatantly obvious.

In addition, and also of great importance, is that governments must take a far more holistic approach, involving agencies from different departments to develop policies and deliver services to First Australians. And, although that phrase is taken directly from the report, I actually argue with the idea of delivering services to our First Australians. It should rather be with our Indigenous family. The lives of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people have improved, but there's still a lot more to be done.

There are four main pillars in any community, and the Closing the Gap targets are no different: health, education, employment and community safety. Each is clearly inter-related. For instance, improving education standards helps to increase employment rates and levels of health. And community safety is fundamental to making sure children attend school and adults maintain employment. Three targets for closing the gap are on track. The first is halving child mortality by this year. Improvements in key drivers of child and maternal health over the past few years suggest that we could even do better. The second target is to have 95 per cent of all Indigenous four-year-olds enrolled in early childhood education by 2025. Personally, I see this as one of the foundation stones for long-term change, and I believe it is the indicator in the community for the greatest development potential. Finally, the target to halve the gap in year 12 attainment by 2020 is definitely on track. Nationally, the proportion of Indigenous students aged 20 to 24 who have achieved year 12 or equivalent has increased from 47.4 per cent in 2006 to 65.3 per cent in 2016.

In Gilmore especially, I am so very proud of our young Indigenous students, the schools they attend and their teachers. Along with their families, they are making huge inroads of change and achievement. Special mention is deserved for Batemans Bay High, Ulladulla High, Shoalhaven High, Vincentia High and Bomaderry High. With special reference to culture and confidence building, we are getting great outcomes. I'd like to thank some Indigenous leaders in my community in particular for all their efforts to close the gap: Uncle Tom and Aunty Muriel Slocky, Aunty Nell Mooney, Uncle Fred Carriage, Aunty Ruth Simms, Aunty Pat Lester, Aunty Delia Lowe, Alfred and Noel Wellington and Greg Peterson. There are many others, but these individuals I have come to know and I have a very deep respect for them.

We still have to work on overall attendance rates for Indigenous students, and I suspect that we need to develop different strategies to get to that target. Numeracy is on track for year 9 students across the nation, but, gosh, there's a lot more to do here. We do see the gap in NAPLAN results narrowing in reading in years 3 and 5 and in numeracy in years 5 and 9, but we still need to work there. Halving the gap in employment by this year didn't quite come together, so we've still got work to get on with in that area. The last measure is to close the gap in life expectancy by 2031, and I believe we all recognise that it's going to take more than a decade to bring that together.

Developing collaborative working relationships between government agencies and other organisations, and delivering services and programs in consultation with the Indigenous community will be essential in identifying the key social and economic determinants. A necessary part of this is valuing Indigenous knowledge and cultural beliefs and practices that are important for promoting positive cultural identity and social and emotional wellbeing for all Australians. Just this morning I visited the National Museum of Australia and was guided by the enthusiastic Indigenous curator, Margo Neale, to share in our Australian story of the Seven Sisters—the meanings, the evolution and the essential message that should be shared by all Australians. We really must build Indigenous and Torres Strait Islander capacity, involving good and positive mentoring for staff, and making sure their ideas and cultural influences are fully integrated in program design, delivery and evaluation.

Recently, one of my successful Gilmore Indigenous organisations sent me a bit of a report, and this is an excerpt from it:

Waminda's work in the community is driven by its vision for women and their Indigenous families being positive, happy and healthy. Waminda is guided by a vision where Indigenous women are admired and proud of their achievements in their own community …

Their service model is a 'comprehensive and holistic care' model, 'enabling a focus on the social determinants'. They're very successful. Glen Ella of sporting fame is trying to establish a program for sporting development that incentivises students to attend school on a more regular basis. His program is for both boys and girls. There are, in fact, dozens of small-scale programs that are working and making a difference for Indigenous children and their families, including the team at Cullunghutti and the community of Jerrinja. These are huge changes in attitude and expectations of change in themselves.

As education has been and continues to be a priority for me, I see many of the recommendations from the report of the last inquiry, The power of education: From surviving to thriving, presented by the House of Representatives Standing Committee on Indigenous affairs, which I now chair, as great stepping stones for change. These steps will help to close the gap. We should collect the data relating to successful programs and figure out what's working and what's not. How good would it be to have school-age Indigenous young mothers still attending school while we help them with their maternal responsibilities? We need to alleviate the difficulties of learning where there are hearing impediments for children—or perhaps we should prevent them in the first place. We must work with the states and territories to have a clear strategy in relation to fetal alcohol spectrum disorder, as well as having appropriate screening so that learning disorders can be identified and steps taken to remediate these children. How wonderful it would be for some health interventions to be available close to our primary schools, just as Nowra East Public School is developing. In addition to their plan, the school parents and neighbours will be constructing a community kitchen in the garden next to their mini health unit. It's a terrific concept, and I'm only too pleased that we've been able to negotiate a grant of $12,000 to assist them. Ultimately, if we have a cooperative model of information exchange between education and health, what a great advantage that would be for the nurses, the teachers and the other professionals trying to help Indigenous children and their families.

It's wonderful to see the emergence of language in our schools and also that all students are learning language. But what about the rural and, importantly, the remote schools where English is in fact the second language? We really must train the teachers to be proficient in English as a second language. It's not the same as somebody who's trained to improve language, literacy and numeracy. They're actually quite different techniques.

I mentioned the possible Ellavation program in my area, but there truly need to be sporting opportunities for our Indigenous girls. The pride on the faces of our PCYC-sponsored Yuin Snake Teams was magic! Their parents were proud, the young women were proud, and it just showed what potential such a scheme has to change the self-confidence of our Indigenous young women. But other programs besides sport need to be explored to help our young girls. I'm especially thinking about encouraging them towards robotics and STEM subjects. In the report of the inquiry there's a strong call to review Abstudy. It observes how, in many cases, it is acting as an educational barrier. Let's bring in a review, as this too, once remedied, will surely help with closing the gap of Indigenous difference.

I say with pride that today the annual growth rate of Supply-Nation-registered Indigenous businesses is an average of 12.5 per cent. It is actually the envy of all other sectors in the Australian community.

Around 14,700 Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander children are enrolled in early childhood education, which, as I said before, is in fact one of my priorities for all children. Each time I'm a guest at the VET awards night for our Indigenous students, I quietly burst with pride. Each successive year there's been an increasing number of students completing year 12 with a VET qualification. They're proud of themselves, and our entire community is proud of them.

We are closing the gap in Gilmore, and I believe we can upscale all the different and successful programs, not only in my region but across the nation, so that in the next 10 years we'll have six out of seven of the targets met and only the last one to work on. As we know, it will probably take a couple of decades to bring us closer in lifespan, because there are some entrenched health issues that have arisen in the past that we need to address in the future. I think we're doing well, but we can do better.

Lisa Chesters (Bendigo, Australian Labor Party, Shadow Assistant Minister for Workplace Relations) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

I rise to speak to the Closing the Gap report that's been tabled in parliament. I will begin by acknowledging the traditional owners of the land on which we meet and paying my respects to their elders, both past and present. I also acknowledge the Dja Dja Wurrung people, who are traditional owners of my electorate of Bendigo in Central Victoria, and pay my respects to their elders, past, present and future.

'Closing the gap': it is language that is commonly known now, which is about bridging the gap between Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Australians and non Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Australians. All of us in this place have a responsibility. Our governments—our local, state and federal governments—have a responsibility, as do our communities, and in this contribution I'd like to acknowledge some of the great work that is going on in my community to help close the gap.

In that spirit, I'd like to start with some of the words of Aunty Julie, who has kindly let me share some of her Australia Day speech from 2017. Aunty Julie was the Mount Alexander citizen of the year for 2016, and in her Australia Day address in 2017 she reflected on the year she had been the area's citizen of the year. She said:

I have run formal cultural awareness days where we can share and yarn about issues. One of the activities I do when taking cultural awareness days is a timeline of the Dja Dja Wurrung history in the Mount Alexander shire. I have historically significant events on cards and ask participants to put them in order …

One of the cards explains how two-thirds of the Dja Dja Wurrung population was wiped out before a white person set foot in Central Victoria. Who knows why? The timeline shows what it was like before the arrival of others. It was basically a paradise, plenty of food, plenty of water, amazing sites to held Ceremony, et cetera.

Then came disease, massacres, poisoning, dispossession of land. Of the whole Dja Dja Wurrung nation in the Mount Alexander shire, which numbered around 2,000 before invasion, only 70 were left on country by 1863. In less than 30 years nearly a whole nation of proud people was decimated by greed. This is part of the history which must be understood, not dwelled on, but understood so that we, as a People, can be understood.

Those are powerful words by Aunty Julie, and I thank her for allowing me to share them with this place. It goes to the heart of why we must continue to work to close the gap.

We are fortunate in Bendigo and Central Victoria that we have reached settlement without having to go to the High Court. On 15 November 2013, the Dja Dja Wurrung people and the state of Victoria celebrated recognition and settlement. I want to acknowledge the great spirit in which the Dja Dja Wurrung people approached this. The settlement acknowledged that, before European colonisation, the natural places within the Dja Dja Wurrung country were well known, and names and songs were celebrated as part of their culture.

Their vision is for the health and wellbeing of those people to be strong and underpinned by their living culture. As the first peoples of the land, their vision is to be included and politically empowered, establishing a place in society and being capable of managing their own affairs from a strong and diverse economic base. They are working with the Bendigo community and businesses to achieve their own economic independence.

It's always inspiring to catch up with the Dja Dja Wurrung, to learn of their successes, the way in which they're working, the pride that they have in restoring country, their businesses, their enterprises and what they're achieving. They're a demonstration of what can happen when we do stand to the side and allow them to be empowered and to work collectively and collaboratively together.

We've also had amazing success with BDAC, Bendigo & District Aboriginal Co-operative, and the work that they're doing in regard to health, wellbeing, and family and community services. It's important, when acknowledging Closing the gap, to note the tireless work that they do in our community to ensure that the people who they support the most are achieving the best outcomes. But they're also pragmatic and realistic about the challenges that they have.

BDAC now employs more than 50 people, and 80 per cent of their staff identify as Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander. They have been honest and frank with me in the way that only they can about the struggles that they've had with a number of government programs. They say that their clients and their community struggle with the changes to My Aged Care, with packages that are unfair and which don't meet the costs of support. They say that they struggle to help make sure that their clients and their community aren't ripped off by people who charge exorbitant administration fees. By that I mean that their clients and community aren't receiving the best support that they need. This is an example of where government policy is making it hard for us to close the gap.

The Dja Dja Wurrung community includes regional Bendigo, where just under 2,000 Aboriginal people live. They reside in districts like Boort, Redesdale and Creswick. More than half the Aboriginal people in Bendigo are under 24, and therefore there are a number of programs BDAC are working on, such as the men's shed, the youth service facilities, and making sure that we have record numbers of health checks and ongoing health care. Their Prouses Road development is another way in which they're helping to close the gap.

Another program is the way in which BDAC is working to reduce the number of children in out-of-home care. It is quite innovative; it is an Australian first and it was recognised last year. In Victoria, the number of children in the Victorian child protection system has risen 70 per cent over the last three years. According to the Australian Institute of Family Studies, the rate of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander children in out-of-home care was 10 times higher than the rate of non-Aboriginal children. This is an overrepresentation of children, and the reason why a new approach was called for by Aboriginal leaders. Raylene Harradine, the chief executive of BDAC, said to her staff and to the community:

It's around trying to keep our kids in our community and in the care of our own people …

So they stepped up. It's about having a range of services across an organisation that enable options for children in our community.

One couple shared their experience with a dramatic new child protection approach being trialled in Bendigo, known as section 18, or Aboriginal guardianship. Yorta Yorta man Simon Penrose said it was important that Aboriginal foster children had access to culture. Mr Penrose and his partner have fostered children for just over two years, and in the past six months have been fostering local Aboriginal children into their family. This new trial and approach towards Aboriginal children is, basically, the state government, through the Department of Health, saying, 'We will work with BDAC and these local families to take care of their own.'

But, for all the successes, there is still a lot of work to do. Incarceration rates of Aboriginal people in Victoria remain too high. Statistics for 2016 show that Aboriginal men make up eight per cent of the male population in the corrections centre. The prison rate for Aboriginal women is 10.3 per cent of the female population, and it's high for youth. A lot of these prisons are in my electorate. We have prisons in our electorate for youth, women, and men.

We must do more as a society. We must do more as a community. We must do more as parliamentarians to help close the gap. It's not enough just to have rhetoric saying that we will work with them. We need to demonstrate it through funding. We need to demonstrate it through empowerment. We need to make sure that we're doing all we can to help close the gap.

Andrew Gee (Calare, National Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

In parliament this week, the tenth annual Closing the gap report was delivered, revealing that four of its seven targets to improve Indigenous health and welfare were not on track. Whilst there has been some progress to acknowledge, it needs to be said that there is also a palpable sense of disappointment. This year, the categories of progress include the target to halving the gap in year 12 attainment by 2020, halving the gap in child mortality by 2018, and having 95 per cent of all Indigenous four-year-olds enrolled in early childhood education by 2025. Those are the targets reported to be on track. The areas the report declares to be off track include school attendance, literacy and numeracy, employment and the key target of closing the 10-year gap in life expectancy between Indigenous and non-Indigenous Australians by 2031.

In Calare, I consider myself fortunate to be representing an electorate that is, from border to border, Wiradjuri country. It has been a privilege to get to know the Wiradjuri elders in the various communities of the Central West. I've known some for a number of years and I've worked with some more recently, since coming to this place. One of the inspiring things about all of them is that they constantly look to the future, striving to make life better, not only for Indigenous communities but all in our country towns and cities. I could tell this House of many remarkable people working to close the gap in central western New South Wales. They are the teachers in our schools; the men and women of the Clontarf academies and girls' academies; doctors, nurses and allied health professionals; sporting coaches and service club members; lawyers and community workers—the list goes on, and it is as long as it is distinguished.

After a decade, we all know that there is no easy answer to closing the gap, no panacea. However, I'm grateful that in our communities the work by so many unsung community heroes goes on. In the work that they do there are challenges and there is difficulty. There is tragedy and sometimes even heartbreak. But through the efforts of these people there are success and triumph as well. I've seen it. Time doesn't permit me to speak today of all of their individual contributions to closing the gap, but they are out there in our communities today, even as we speak, working in so many different ways. Today, I express to them the thanks of a grateful electorate and region.

While we all acknowledge that there are no simple answers, I mention Stan Grant, who said this week:

Clearly there is a need to create meaningful links between Indigenous communities and individuals and the mainstream Australian economy.

I think it's a point well made.

The overall findings contained in the Closing the gap report are unsatisfactory. The gaps in key areas still exist and, in some cases, they're getting wider. In the Australia of 2018, it's not good enough. It's not good enough by a long shot, and all of us here need to recommit ourselves to closing those gaps. I thank and acknowledge all in Calare who are working so hard to do just that.

Ed Husic (Chifley, Australian Labor Party, Shadow Minister for the Digital Economy) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

I acknowledge the traditional owners of this land, the Ngunawal and Ngambri people, here in Canberra and pay respect to elders, past and present. I want to recognise too, back at home, the traditional owners, the Dharug, in which the electorate of Chifley sits. I want to pay my respects to them and thank them for their custodianship.

Today I particularly want to acknowledge the surviving members of the stolen generation who, for so many decades, spoke their truth without recognition. That they persevered to expose the injustices they suffered deserves our utmost respect but also our thanks. As a country we are better and stronger when we acknowledge our history, imperfect as it may be, and work together to build something better. The Leader of the Opposition expressed this so well the other day, when he said:

If you just talk about the problems you're accused of not looking at the successes, if you talk about the successes you're accused of not understanding the problems. It is a mixed record, I understand that.

But one thing I know is that when we work with First Australians, when we genuinely empower First Australians to take control of their lives, when we don't have top-down but bottom-up decision-making we will get it right more than we will get it wrong.

We can't be afraid of change if we intend to act; we will only fail if we don't. When there is so much to improve, action is essential.

I also want to recognise the determination and decency of many in the previous Labor government who were absolutely focused on the need to ensure that we did not just say sorry but that we acted to improve the lives of so many who had been affected. I want to place on the record my thanks to Prime Minister Kevin Rudd and also the support that he got from the member for Jagajaga, Jenny Macklin, who had for many years been championing this cause. As I reflected with her the other day, it would be tremendous to be part of a national milestone, in the way that so many people were, but also to do something that was right and was a long time in coming.

This parliament is at its best when it speaks with a sense of unity and respect, when it's acting for all Australians and when it's looking to the future. I believe that as we reflect on the apology we see parliament doing just that. The apology acknowledged our past. It was a crucial step in moving forward together. Recognition by the Prime Minister allowed and encouraged more Australians to share and voice the same sentiments. The apology is a moment in our country's history that I certainly hold close to my heart, as many others do, and I've had the honour of representing the Chifley electorate during that period.

I've never failed to be amazed and inspired by the work of a variety of Aboriginal groups in the Chifley electorate. There are the traditional owners of the land, the Dharug people, but also Indigenous peoples from all over Australia who now call the suburbs within Chifley home and contribute to our vibrant community. I'm honoured to call elders like Uncle Greg Simms, Uncle Wes Marn, Auntie Jenny Ebsworth and Auntie Rita Tobin my friends, and people who I rely upon for counsel and advice. As I reflect on the apology, 10 years on, I can't help but think of the generous response from Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islanders, which is, in some ways, the more remarkable act. These proud communities have led the spirit of healing over many years and provided a true service to our nation. In Chifley, this exemplary leadership has been demonstrated in many ways. I'd like to touch on some of these now.

A big event is the reconciliation walk and concert every May, which spreads the message of reconciliation, gives a meeting place to honour Indigenous elders, provides a stage for artists and encourages young people to enjoy a few moments to display their blossoming talents.

Chifley's got the largest urban Aboriginal population in the country. Many Aboriginal people in the electorate are either members of the stolen generation or their direct descendants. The apology made by former Prime Minister Rudd was an enormously healing moment for many in our electorate and they continue to commemorate this historic occasion. This year the walk will take place for the 21st time, led again by Mount Druitt and District Reconciliation Group and its many volunteers. The spirit of the event makes it one of the most significant dates for me personally every single year. I look forward to continuing my involvement, and I would certainly encourage people that live within the electorate of Chifley to get involved and share in the celebration. While recognising our past, I'd also encourage local businesses to get behind the event, which attracts so many people each year; it's such an important date in our community calendar.

Every day in Chifley there are programs and people working to support our Indigenous population and our community more broadly. Ngallu Wal centre, for example, provides outreach services, Centrelink support, financial management support and legal advice. There is also a supported playgroup with activities and engagement for parents and children. It's reaching out further into the community as it develops its new youth drop-in centre. It will provide arts, crafts and indoor and outdoor sport and supervision for young people in our area. It will no doubt be very successful and I wish them all the best with this project. They recently expanded to offer mental health services as well as a baby health service, which is fantastic. These are invaluable services and I congratulate them.

Marrin Weejali is another instrumental organisation, supporting the community by providing one-on-one and group addiction services, combating addiction for people struggling with that in our community. They are providing chronic care for those suffering long-term illnesses. I also want to mention Butucarbin, who are continuing their great work providing TAFE accredited access to work and training, and Aboriginal cultural arts courses. They're also holding a debutante ball, which will return this year. I know it's an event the community enthusiastically gets behind.

Baabayn Aboriginal Corporation, founded by five Aboriginal elders from Western Sydney, is another group providing an incredible service. It was set up with the purpose of connecting individuals and families in a welcoming environment. It provides counselling and advocacy, and hosts invited speakers and a homework club as well, which is a terrific initiative. This is by no means all the excellent work being undertaken in the electorate, but I do want to place on the public record my thanks and the thanks of many grateful people for that work.

With the release of the Closing the gap report there are positives to be drawn from outside the Chifley electorate. I welcome some of those improvements that have been celebrated in this year's report. It has been said already that it's heartening to see the reduction in child mortality and the improvements in childhood education back on track. Year 12 attainment remains strong. But these improvements simply aren't enough. We know the statistics are far worse for the Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander community than for the rest of society. For the Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander population, the education rate is lower, life expectancy is lower and income rates are lower. At the same time, chronic disease rates are higher, the percentage of the prison population is higher and the percentage of homelessness is higher. So we have a lot to do.

That's why I welcome the announcement by federal Labor on approaches we have set ourselves. For example, we have said that we'll establish a stolen generations compensation scheme to support intergenerational healing. We have listened to First Australians who have called for justice targets to reduce incarceration rates and we have called on the government to urgently sign up to the remote Indigenous agreement with the states. We will also hold a national summit for our first-nation children.

I want to make these closing remarks. Closing the gap is not a statistical ambition. It is designed to bring the nation together with a sense of unified purpose to right wrongs and build better futures. It is important we all work together on this, but I cannot fail to reflect on two unfortunate events that occurred this week. First, when the parliament was supposed to be together in the House of Representatives to hear the Prime Minister's speech, we had a near full representation from the opposition and we had a strong representation from the coalition. As soon as that speech was over, the bulk of the coalition left, and that was disheartening. I said 'bulk'; I noted the presence of certain members during that speech. As I said, this is about national unity; it's not a time for partisan politics. We should all be there together.

The other thing—and I think the Prime Minister's well aware of this—is that his failure to attend the national breakfast yesterday recognising the 10-year anniversary of the apology was something that saddened a lot of the participants there and was reflected upon publicly. Again, it doesn't matter what your politics are. The Prime Minister and the coalition are doing some good things to address closing the gap. There are other things we can do better. But it doesn't matter about your politics. This is a sense of national purpose, that something that had been done badly in the past will be committed to by all of us to be corrected in the future. That's all I'd say on that, but, again, we look forward to better outcomes down the track. (Time expired)

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

It's with mixed feelings that I rise again, this year, to speak on the Closing the Gap statement that was presented to the Australian parliament. Last Thursday, a very powerful presentation was made by the Social Justice Commissioner, June Oscar, in her capacity as one of the co-convenors of the Close the Gap committee, to those who were in attendance at the breakfast and presentation meeting around some of the very profound concerns that first nation peoples have in Australia with regard to the progress or, indeed, probably more accurately, the lack of progress that is being made on a number of fronts. This was not a platform for politicians to speak at—that was made very clear—it was an opportunity for Indigenous people to stand and speak freely to all of us who were able to be present there. I know the Prime Minister had some other commitments and had to leave early, and that was a shame, but a good number of us remained to really try to just listen. Indeed, that was the profound message that came from that event. As I said, it was shaped by Aboriginal people. The message very clearly back to politicians was, 'You need to sit down, be quiet, listen to what we have to say, reflect on this and be serious about a genuine partnership with first nation peoples to develop a pathway going forward and mechanisms to redress what can only be described as a grossly inadequate response to date to the challenge of closing the gap.' That was the profound message I took home. Closing the gap on Indigenous health, education and wellbeing in general must start with a profound commitment to close the gap, but it must also be founded on a respectful and genuine partnership with first nation peoples.

I'd like to turn now to the Close the Gap statement that was presented. As other speakers before me have acknowledged, there have been a few wins in the sense of some gains in some of those targeted areas. We are on track, as others have mentioned, towards halving the gap in child mortality. The most recent data showed that by 2016 that gap had shrunk by 32 per cent, which is an excellent outcome. The goal of achieving 95 per cent enrolment of Indigenous four-year-olds in early childhood education by 2025 is also on track. That rate is now at 91 per cent. Halving the gap in year 12 attainment by 2020 is on track. That gap has shrunk to 23.8 per cent. None of those gaps, despite the progress, mean that we should rest on our laurels, of course. We should not be satisfied until there is complete equity in all of these goals.

The very disturbing part of the Closing the gap report is seeing the consistent failure that we have had in the remaining targets. They are, of course, really critical targets around literacy and numeracy and closing the gap on employment. We've seen Indigenous unemployment rise. We are not closing the gap there. That is going in exactly the opposite direction to what we want.

We've also seen, regretfully, a sliding back on the life expectancy scale. We had an ambition of closing the gap on life expectancy by 2031, but we are clearly going in the wrong direction on that one. Indeed, Indigenous students are still 10 percentage points behind on school attendance rates in 2018, despite some inroads there. I think it is worth reflecting on what programs are in place around them now and why they are failing.

I put it to this parliament that the fundamental reason for those failures is that they are not community owned programs. They are not done in genuine partnership with Indigenous communities. I don't know how many times it takes for us to understand. I heard the Prime Minister standing up in parliament the other day repeating on a number of occasions, 'It's not doing things to Aboriginal people, it's doing things with Aboriginal people.' The only way to make that something more than cheap political talk is to start walking the action now. You cannot keep repeating that phrase and think it's going to somehow come true when your actions actually defy what you are saying in parliament.

The only way that we can close the gap on all of these important targets is with a very deep and respectful commitment to do so, but in a genuine partnership with Aboriginal people. I'm sorry that this government's inability to work consistently in a genuine partnership with first-nation peoples is deeply problematic. It is deeply problematic. When you do not have that partnership basis, when these programs are not owned by the communities in which you seek to implement them and when they are not systematically targeted programs delivered in coordinated ways, there is a problem, because all of the evidence tells us that you need each of those ingredients to be in operation in order to have a successful program. We know, for example, health issues cannot be adequately tackled without also addressing a whole range of other very key social and cultural determiners.

So, when this government decides to backflip on a commitment around a national partnership on remote housing agreement, that has profound ramifications for all of the targets that we're trying to achieve here. How on earth do we provide safe housing for children in communities while they are growing up when there are an average of 17 to 23 people living in any given home in a community? How do we expect kids to be able to do their learning at school and come home and do homework? The concept that there would be some quiet space to retreat to at home in order to do some homework is just ludicrous. I think the government's inability to make those connections between the programs that must be community owned, clearly targeted and coordinated carefully, and the outcomes that they desire is very problematic.

The Leader of the Opposition, Bill Shorten, made very clear in his comments around the Closing the gap report in parliament on Monday that, whilst we are very keen to work with the government to deliver better outcomes, this bipartisanship cannot be used as an alibi for inaction by this government. I join with the Leader of the Opposition to say that we wish to work with you to deliver better outcomes, but we are not going to sit by and wait for you guys to catch up. We don't have time for that. So I absolutely applaud Labor's initiatives in taking seriously the Uluru Statement from the Heart and those very real issues that were raised there before us. I am absolutely supportive of the idea of adding some additional targets around incarceration and out-of-home care to the list. I think the compensation packages in the Commonwealth jurisdiction for the stolen generations are critical, with money to the Healing Foundation. All of these are necessary— (Time expired)

Terri Butler (Griffith, Australian Labor Party, Shadow Assistant Minister for Preventing Family Violence) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

It is both a pleasure and a surprise to follow the member for Newcastle in this debate. It's a pleasure because she is an articulate and passionate advocate for better engagement with Aboriginal people and with Torres Strait Islander people and she is someone who constantly works to put her money where her mouth is, to go out to the community and listen to people. It's a surprise because I would have thought I'd follow a Liberal Party speaker in this debate, but seemingly the Turnbull government has run out of speakers in relation to the Prime Minister's Closing the Gap statement, even though they're in majority government. So I'm a bit surprised to be up next, after the member for Newcastle, but there you have it.

The Closing the Gap statement, of course, cannot be considered in isolation. It must be considered in the context in which it was originally created by then Prime Minister Kevin Rudd. As you'll remember, as everyone of a certain age will remember, the entire nation had been moved by the Bringing them home report, brought down in 1997. I certainly remember where I was and how I felt at the time that report was brought down, and on hearing the stories—you almost can't call them stories; it's almost too kind a word for the harrowing accounts of what happened to children, what happened to parents, what happened to families. I was reminded of how that felt recently, on the weekend, when I attended an event organised with Link-Up and with the state of Queensland to acknowledge the 10th anniversary of Prime Minister Rudd's apology. That was an excellent event.

Link-Up is a sterling organisation. It is an organisation that reunifies members of the stolen generations with their families. Sometimes that's very joyous, sometimes they get time with parents they have had no time with before and sometimes it is very sad. Sometimes it's sorry business. Sometimes it's reunification, not with a living parent but with someone who's already passed away, at the graveside. So it's very important work and it's work that must be absolutely endorsed.

At the event held on the weekend with Link-Up and the state of Queensland, the former Prime Minister and member for Griffith, the Hon. Kevin Rudd, spoke in commemoration of the 10th anniversary of the giving of the apology. Many other people spoke at the event as well, but the people who were there I think would have found the most striking speech to have been the one given by an elder, Brian Gray, a member of the stolen generations, who told us what it was like for him as a three-year-old and a four-year-old. He told us of the treatment that he suffered and what that had meant for him as he grew older and grew into an adult. There wasn't a person there who wasn't crying. And there wasn't a person there who didn't want to reach back through time and stop it. But we can't, of course. We can't do that.

We can express the nation's feelings about what happened and we can commit to doing better—and that's what the apology was. The apology was an acknowledgement of pain. The apology was something that brought our nation together and forced us to confront the past. And it forced us to do it in a way that would inspire us to do better, not just in relation to the removal of children—and, of course, that remains a significant issue today—but in relation to all of the measures by which the quality of life of someone who was born Aboriginal or Torres Strait Islander in this country can be assessed in a comparative way with everyone else. That's what closing the gap should be about. That's what the Closing the gap report was about, and I wanted to thank Prime Minister Kevin Rudd for what he did and for his leadership.

I made this point when I spoke at the event with Link-Up on the weekend. After the Bringing them home report, there wasn't consensus. The apology wasn't inevitable. It wasn't something that would definitely happen. It was really far from that. Calls for an apology were radical politics back then. We had to march; we had to fight—all of us, with Aboriginal people and Torres Strait Islander people leading that, of course, and other members of the community, allies, standing beside them. It seemed impossible that anyone would apologise and that the then Prime Minister was staunchly opposed to a national apology being given. But with the change of government, with the new Prime Minister, what had previously been impossible was done.

Now, 10 years later, it seems as though it was inevitable. It seems as though it was something that was always going to happen, but, of course, it wasn't. It took that leadership from the then Prime Minister Kevin Rudd to bring us together, to unify us. He has many legacies, of course, but one of his greatest legacies, if not the greatest, is that his work, his leadership and the leadership of others with him in the cabinet at the time, have brought us together to commit at least to measuring and to actually asking, 'What's going on?'

There is a saying in business: you don't manage what you don't measure. It's the same for our nation. We have to measure, because it forces us to admit that we're not doing well enough, that we're not meeting the targets that we set, that we're falling short as a nation and that, in doing that, we're letting down our friends, our colleagues and complete strangers. We're letting them down. So it is with this year's Closing the Gap statement. Three measures out of seven are on track. That's better than last year. The reduction in child mortality is on track, the improvement of involvement in early education for Indigenous kids is on track and year 12 attainment is on track. But there are four other measures that aren't, and isn't it terrible that life expectancy is one of those that are not on track and that employment is not on track?

I think it's appropriate to note that the Prime Minister is seeking to review the targets. In doing so, I hope that he will not try to make them less ambitious. We need ambitious targets. As was the case with the apology, some things seem impossible until they're done; then you've done them and you move on. We owe it to Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people to be ambitious and to have ambitious targets. As the member for Newcastle said so eloquently, we need to think about why we're failing and think about the role of Aboriginal and Islander led organisations, or the lack of them, in our success or otherwise.

Being able to speak a few words in Ngunawal, as the Prime Minister can, is great. What's even better is listening to the words that are spoken to us by Aboriginal and Islander people. It's not enough, as the member for Newcastle said, to recite the proposition that we will do things with Aboriginal people, not to them. That's not enough. We have to walk that talk.

The Uluru Statement from the Heart was too readily dismissed by this Prime Minister and this government. If we're serious, and we should be, because we have to be, then respect should be paid to the Statement from the Heart. We should acknowledge the importance of truth telling. We should acknowledge that we need a voice to this parliament, a continuous voice to this parliament, so that it's not close the gap speeches once a year but a continuous engagement with Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples about what we're doing—about what the parliament is doing and what the executive government is doing. And ultimately we need to come to the view that treaty is something that we can do, that we can have a more mature relationship as a nation and that we can be reconciled in a much fuller sense of the word.

The apology was so crucial. It was such a watershed moment for our nation. It was absolutely fundamental and necessary for healing and for progress. But it's not enough of itself, because we need to continue to push. Let's never stop seeking to make progress, and let's place Aboriginal and Islander led organisations and voices at the centre of the progress that we seek to make.

Emma Husar (Lindsay, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

I acknowledge the traditional owners, the Ngunawal people, of the land on which this speech is given today, and I pay my respect to their elders past, present and emerging, two of whom I had the pleasure of sitting with at breakfast on Monday. In doing so, in acknowledging that this was, is and always will be Aboriginal land, I recommit myself to ending the scourge that is entrenched Aboriginal disadvantage. I commit myself to reducing the high rates of incarceration of young people, so that it is not the case that if you are young and Aboriginal you are more likely to be in jail than you are to graduate from university. I recommit myself to reducing the numbers of children in out-of-home care—away from their families, culture and community—which have doubled in the last 10 years since the apology to the stolen generation was given. I commit myself to reducing the alarmingly high rate of family violence in Aboriginal communities, which is 32 times higher for Aboriginal women. I commit myself to closing the gap. It is a reminder to all of us that each of us has a role to play in closing the gap, and I use my acknowledgment here today to remind and energise each of us to go back to our communities and do something about it. When you say sorry for something, you make a commitment to yourself and to that person or group of people that you will not repeat the mistakes of the past or your wrongdoing. I've raised my children and the children I used to teach in my classrooms like this.

This is how I open all of the addresses I am lucky and privileged to give as the member for Lindsay, as the representative of my community—every speech. In every meeting, in every room where there is a gathering I speak at, those are the words I speak. I feel it's imperative to provide that reminder that this country was well cared for, enriched by the culture and practices of Aboriginal people for some 60,000 years or more, long before colonisation, long before Captain Cook arrived and well before we here making rules about everyone's lives were even born.

I am disgusted, quite frankly, by those who see this as tokenism, by those like the Hills Shire Council in the electorate of the member for Mitchell, Alex Hawke, who have refused to include the acknowledgement at the start of council proceedings, which is at odds with the rest of the Western Sydney councils. It is out of time, out of touch and out of place. Western Sydney, where his electorate lies, also happens to have some of the highest numbers of Aboriginal people in an urban setting.

I am proud, though, of my local Penrith council for how they acknowledged and marked the 10th anniversary of the apology on Monday. Penrith's mayor, John Thain, acknowledged that Apology Day is a reminder to everyone to continue:

… to build on lessons from the past and work for better outcomes for Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people in the future.

The mayor also acknowledged that the council's ceremony was:

… a powerful reminder that our community's future is shared between Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander and non-Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples, and that our future—

is much brighter, not dampened—

because of it

My local council celebrated the importance of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander culture and their important contribution to the lands and waters of Penrith city.

This week, when we marked the 10th anniversary of the apology made to Aboriginal people, their families, their communities and their future generations, I was incredibly proud to be there. It was an apology and an acknowledgement of our past—our past mistakes and our past wrongdoings—and of how we as legislators are given the opportunity in here to promote equality for everybody.

Sadly, the Prime Minister was not in attendance. He attended the photo gathering at the front of the Marble Foyer but then he nicked away in a not-so-sneaky sneak off. Unfortunately, it didn't rate as a significant enough event for 'His Honour the Prince of Point Piper', also known as the Prime Minister, to attend. Sure, I get the workloads of this place are demanding. But what is more important than attending an anniversary of an apology that meant so much to so many? After he snuck off from the Closing the Gap event last week, one would have thought he might have taken the hint. It just shows that when you're born to rule learning from your errors is not essential, which is why the apology probably means very little. On further reflection, I am actually glad he didn't come, because the time for paternalism, tokenism and excuses is over. Frankly, that's all we would have heard.

The leader of this country should have bothered to show up and be accountable on this day to Indigenous people and the rest of us non-Indigenous people who care enough to take up the fight on their behalf. That is our job in this place and that will always be our job in this place. The reality is when it comes to closing the gap, when it comes to actions for First Australians, this government is weak and out of touch. That weakness drips down into the conservative hearts of commentators who don't understand the inaction that not closing the gap is bringing. This inaction—far from dripping into the lives of our first nations people—causes deluges of inequality to rain down on them. The gaps are not closing. The list of targets that are not on track should fill us all with a sense of great shame and regret, because consistently falling short of the benchmarks we've set ourselves is not an outcome. We cannot amplify our limited successes in this place. We need action and we need acknowledgement.

Would it be such a difficult thing to fly the Aboriginal flag on the top of the Sydney Harbour Bridge, for example? Absolutely not. But would it mean the world of difference to many people in our communities? Absolutely. Would it mean that we as Australians acknowledge that we are a country of not all white Australian settlers and that there were people here before us? Absolutely not. But it would mean a great deal to those people in those communities where that flag means the most.

We are given two ears to listen and one mouth to speak. Therefore, we should always listen twice as much as we speak. I heard my good friend the member for Griffith in here remarking on the Prime Minister's grasp on the Ngunnawal language and his ability to give his acknowledgement in language from country. But, unfortunately, he doesn't use his two ears to listen as much as he's obviously taken the time to learn that. The Uluru Statement from the Heart would be a perfect instance where the Prime Minister could listen twice as much as he speaks. The response to that from those on the other side of the House—and the lack of listening to the voices of our first nations people—is not good enough. I acknowledge that there are not very many speakers on this report. If this issue is not a priority for the government, then I'm not quite sure what they're busying themselves with at the moment.

I echo the comments from the Leader of the Opposition, Bill Shorten, in the response to the Uluru Statement from the Heart:

… who are we in this parliament to simply reject it out of hand?

As he said:

It's time we worked together to deliver—

We will work together, but we will not wait—

… a voice enshrined in the Constitution; a declaration to be passed by all parliaments—Commonwealth and state—acknowledging the unique place of the first nations in Australian history, their culture and connection; and a Makarrata commission to oversee a process of agreement making and truth telling.

We will deliver a compensation scheme for those people who were removed many, many years ago—not that for any second do any of us on this side believe that that would wipe out any hurt or damage that has been caused.

These are small steps to addressing the inequality that exists and a small way of going forward to help close some of those gaps. Reconciliation is not just about confronting the past. It's about making sure mistakes are not repeated. As I said, when you say sorry, you mean it and you move forward so that you don't repeat or continue to repeat those mistakes. There is much, much more to be done to close the gap, and every small step to do so is greeted with warm welcomes, providing that those steps are the right ones. I believe that is absolutely on track when we say we should do things with Aboriginal people and not to them. I am not quite sure why the Prime Minister's action on the Uluru statement is at odds with the rhetoric that we keep hearing.

I am proud to stand up for all people in this House, especially those who don't have the opportunity to do so for themselves. With the work that I have already done in my community around helping to end Aboriginal disadvantage, I will continue to do that, in spite of those who seek to railroad that and ensure that we don't actually address this.

Lucy Wicks (Robertson, Liberal Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

Before I call on the next speaker, I would request that members refer to members by their correct title. The question is that the document be noted.

Andrew Giles (Scullin, Australian Labor Party, Shadow Assistant Minister for Schools) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

I'm pleased to make a contribution to take note of the Prime Minister's report on closing the gap. I do so recognising what a momentous week it is in this place as we all reflect on our responsibilities as lawmakers to do justice to first-nations people.

Yesterday, in particular, was a day to think—I was thinking—about the power of politics, what happens in this place and its limitations. It's 10 years since former Prime Minister Rudd apologised. He said sorry. The commemoration of that was fittingly done in the Great Hall. The video that was shown was terribly moving and I, like the previous speaker, the member for Lindsay, have reflected also on this Prime Minister's constant evocation about doing things 'with' rather than 'to'. That video showed the experience of those men who were stolen and had their identities ripped away from them, where people sought to diminish their humanity by referring to them as numbers. They had things done to them by us.

If we are to discharge our moral obligations to those men, to their descendants and to all first-nations people, we have to continue to acknowledge those injustices and our complicity in them. That's something that struck me in the power of the words spoken by Prime Minister Rudd—beautiful words—and the power of the statement that marked the opening of parliament 10 years ago. I acknowledge also the extraordinary work and commitment to this cause by my friend the member for Jagajaga. We also have to take stock of how far we have to go. Sadly, the Closing the gap report for this year shows how far we have to go. I will turn to that briefly.

I also wanted to acknowledge some former colleagues of mine. I am very proud to have worked at the law firm Holding Redlich. In the 1990s they acted on behalf of two incredibly brave people, Lorna Cubillo and Peter Gunner, members of the stolen generation in the Northern Territory, in litigation that was unsuccessful, on behalf of all stolen generation members. I want to acknowledge the work of that team of solicitors and their counsel, which includes the now member for Isaacs. They are Michael Schaefer, Andrea Tsalamandris, Mark Champion and Luke Brown in particular. Andrea Tsalamandris—now Her Honour Judge Tsalamandris—told me yesterday that while the litigation was unsuccessful in the court she regarded the apology as completing that journey. That's something I wanted to share with the chamber today.

I spoke about the power and limitations of actions in this place, of words spoken in this place, and I think that's something we should all reflect on. If we are to talk about doing things with rather than to people, we should accord people respect. Too little respect has been accorded to our first-nations people this week by our Prime Minister. On Monday, at the presentation of the report we are debating now, the Prime Minister left early. He did not attend the gathering in the Great Hall yesterday. He should have attended that gathering. So the Prime Minister can say 'with, not to', but these words are belied by his actions. In particular, they are belied by the government's approach to refresh, in its terms, the Close the Gap Statement of Intent. I think there is room to talk about how the Closing the Gap statement and its targets can be better considered, but we should think about how we do that. The member for Barton has made some very constructive suggestions in that regard.

When we talk about refreshing our approach to closing the gap let's think about what Aboriginal people have been saying about this. I just want to note the comments of Professor Megan Davis, someone who is always worth listening to on these matters, when she referred to the refreshing of the targets as reflecting the aspirations of the government and its policy priorities rather than those of Aboriginal people. I hope the Prime Minister and his minister will reflect on that criticism, and on the need to engage more broadly across the parliament around closing the gap.

On the Closing the Gap targets, I think all of us welcome the progress that we are seeing in three of the seven target areas but, in doing so, we also have to confront the fact that in four of the areas we are falling behind: in school attendance, in literacy and numeracy and in life expectancy, probably most problematically of all. As the member for Barton said, as well as looking to this mechanism to keep us on track—of course, one of the reasons we are not on track is that very significant cuts are inhibiting our progress at a federal level—let's also think about expanding our aspiration, because the Closing the Gap targets are a mechanism by which we can judge our progress towards equity and equality. They're not an end in themselves. It seems to me that to look only at the seven present targets is blinding us to some real imperatives.

I want to put on the record my strong support for two additional targets being looked at: incarceration—the Leader of the Opposition has looked at the injustices facing Aboriginal people, particularly young Aboriginal men, and that's a matter that requires much closer attention in this place—and also out-of-home care. If we are to reflect on the experience of the stolen generation, we cannot turn away from the moral stain that is the increasing number of Aboriginal children in out-of-home care today. I'd encourage all members to reflect on the contribution of the member for Barton in this debate in this regard.

I also want to touch very briefly on some issues that impact the communities that I'm so proud to represent in this place. Melbourne's northern suburbs are home to an increasing number of Aboriginal people and I want to acknowledge the leadership of the council in pushing for reconciliation and support for the Aboriginal communities that make up the City of Whittlesea in that part of my electorate. As I have in previous years, I also want to touch upon the extra ordinary work of Bubup Wilam early childhood centre. The leadership that's shown by Lisa Thorpe, the CEO, and her team is extraordinary. I am so proud of her fearsome advocacy, especially on behalf of young Aboriginal children in Melbourne's northern suburbs, and her determination to ensure that they can overcome intergenerational trauma. We're seeing extraordinary results, thanks to her work and the work of the community that is behind her. Of all the things I'm proud of in my electorate, Bubup Wilam is so dear to my heart.

I also want to acknowledge a conversation I had with another amazing Aboriginal constituent of mine, Marcus Stewart, who came to see me in parliament last week. I know Marcus will make a great impact right across public life. He drew to my attention the work that he is doing around language preservation, as well as work he is doing on behalf of traditional owners generally. In thinking about closing the gap in the wider sense, obviously, culture is so important and so is language. It does mean something that the Prime Minister acknowledges country in language—it matters—but it matters so much more profoundly that we don't allow language to die and with it so much of culture.

I am pleased to make a contribution to this debate. It is a really important debate. It forces all of us to look not only at what we say about our responsibilities towards Aboriginal people but how they can be realised. We have not done enough. We must all recommit ourselves to work hard; not just to use this as an exercise to mark off a date in the parliamentary calendar but as a reminder of the obligation that weighs so heavily on every non-Indigenous Australian to accept that we are responsible for dispossession and that we are responsible with Aboriginal people, with our first nation Australians, for ensuring the gap is closed.

Cathy McGowan (Indi, Independent) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

Much has been said in this debate which I'm not going to repeat. My contribution today is to bring to the table some input from the people in Indi—the importance of giving voice, self-determination, supporting leadership and making sure that we actually have accurate data.

As many colleagues in parliament know, many members of my community come to parliament as part of our Indi volunteer program. Today I'd like to acknowledge three of my volunteers, Catherine, Tracy and Luke. I would particularly like to acknowledge Catherine, who has provided much of the background for this speech that I'm going to give. I asked Catherine for input and I'll be using her words as I move through. She talks about her leadership, particularly her work with the Wodonga Aboriginal Network. She talks about the need to support young people in leadership and she also talks about the need for accurate data.

So let's start with data. There's general agreement within the Aboriginal community that the population data issued by the ABS significantly underestimates the Aboriginal population living in Albury-Wodonga. The 2016 data reports a combined total of approximately 113,000 people, with the Aboriginal population making up 2.6 per cent, or around 3,000 people, whereas anecdotal evidence from the community suggests there are about 4,000 people of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander background living in Albury-Wodonga. The significance of this is that the allocation of funds is based on population data, and our numbers are way short of what the reality is. So we really need to look at that.

I want to speak now in Catherine's words. I asked her to help me with my speech today. I asked her to introduce herself. As I move through I'll be using the personal pronoun 'I', as in Catherine's voice. 'So who am I? I am a proud Gunditjmara woman, a descendant of Susannah McDonald from the Lake Condah area of south-western Victoria. I've grown up and lived most of my life in the Wodonga Aboriginal community. I'd like to also acknowledge my father's English-Irish heritage and I believe having contributions from both worlds has provided me with the difficulties and challenges that living in both worlds can present.

'I, along with my sisters, Jacqueline, Lucy and Mary, attended local primary schools and high schools before studying a Bachelor of Behavioural Science, Psychology, at La Trobe University in Wodonga. I continued my education by completing a postgraduate Diploma of Psychology with Central Queensland University via distance education. I was employed with the Department of Human Services for over 10 years, before becoming a senior planner with the National Disability Insurance Scheme in July 2017.'

Catherine is still currently living in Wodonga with her husband, Ash, and her twin daughters, Charlotte and Maya. That is no small beginning in life. Catherine says she attributes her strong cultural connection to her mother, Aunty Judith Ahmat, a respected Aboriginal elder within the Wodonga community, and she's inspired by other local Aboriginal people, including Darren Moffitt, Aunty Liz Heta, Tammy Campbell and the local Koori young people she's connected with. She says, 'I have watched and listen to mum and influential aunties sitting around my kitchen table as we discuss local issues for as long as I can remember. I have a strong desire to fuel change, reduce racism, increase self-determination and close the gap between Aboriginal and non-Aboriginal people.' Catherine is currently on the board of Albury-Wodonga Aboriginal Health Services. She's a 2017 recipient of the Fellow of Indigenous Leadership, emerging leader, and she's current chairperson of the Wodonga Aboriginal Network.

I'd like briefly to talk of the Wodonga Aboriginal Network. It's one of 39 local Aboriginal networks operating in Victoria, made up of community volunteers. The network is a fantastic way to bring Aboriginal people together from many different nations within Australia. They are a strong and diverse community. The networks' participants support each other in a safe environment and they assist individuals and organisations to connect, share, learn and lead to improve outcomes for Aboriginal people. The network promotes self-determination and helps local people determine local priorities and develop local solutions. What a fantastic resource that is to a member of parliament.

The local network's current community plan has four main goals. These include reviving the Burraja Indigenous Cultural and Environmental Discovery Centre, supporting opportunities for young Aboriginal people, cross-border cooperation between Albury and Wodonga, and vice versa, and collaborating with other local Aboriginal networks to assist in progressing initiatives and programs at the regional level.

I'd like to speak briefly about some of these programs. The Burraja youth program is for Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander young people between the ages of 10 and 15. It's designed to connect Koori young people to cultural local services and community, and to improve cultural identity. Over the last six months, the youth program has had 67 students enrolled over five programs, and has delivered 120 activities to participants. It's really working well and I'd like to acknowledge the committee: the co-chairpeople, Walter Melrose and Valda Murray; Liz Heta, who is the treasurer; Tammy Campbell, the secretary; and Mark Cottee as a mentor. I want to thank them for their work, and particularly Uncle Alan Murray and Brendan Kennedy for their work. The program is auspiced by Gateway Health Wodonga.

There are a number of other projects done by the Wodonga Aboriginal Network in partnership with the City of Wodonga and the Koori Youth Council. In 2016 they hosted the first Victorian BLACKOUT youth event. Yarning sessions were held to address three main topics: the need for stronger cultural connection, issues with drug and alcohol and the need for youth activities. As a direct result, the Wodonga Koori Youth Network was established. It works with young people living in Wodonga, supporting them to do the work that they need to do. Fantastic work!

Another work is the Mara Healing Possum Skin program. I think you'll love this one, Madam Deputy Speaker Wicks! The aim of the Mara Healing Possum Skin pilot program is for families who have a family member diagnosed with a terminal illness to work through the grief they're experiencing when they have that diagnosis. A pilot workshop was held in 2017, and 21 community members participated. A possum skin sash was made up to help the family during their sorry business and for future ceremonies. We're currently seeking funding to take this project much wider. It's so powerful, and the little pieces that were made are now being put into a quilt which is going to be held in the Aboriginal Health Service. It's great work.

I'm conscious that my time to speak is running out and I want to use some more of Catherine's words. I asked her what her future vision is for the Albury-Wodonga Aboriginal community. She said: 'I have strong responsibility and obligation to ensure our culture is honoured with authenticity, and the Aboriginal communities across Indi are sustained with strong, recognised leaders. The key to this is to strengthen our families to ensure healthy communities.' Catherine's vision for the future includes a rise in self-determination and a decrease in racism.

She said, 'Self-determination is the key for us to make our own decisions about our needs and taking ownership of our own culture and future.' She said that, historically, this right has been taken away and that, as a result, her people have suffered greatly. She said, 'In order for self-determination to be fully effective, further development of skills needs to be implemented to assist with strong governance and decision-making.' How right she is.

She said that the young Aboriginal people in her community have a significant role to play in leading self-determination into the future. And, therefore, it is important to provide the new generation of emerging leaders with the skills and knowledge required to ensure her people succeed in moving forward. Catherine commits to working towards this goal with the support of the Wodonga Aboriginal Network and community leaders.

So, colleagues, what a strong and powerful call! And how proud I am to say that I am a representative of my Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people in north-east Victoria. I'd like to take the opportunity today to acknowledge, honour and thank them for all their work. I'd particularly like to acknowledge their patience and tolerance as they work with non-Indigenous people like me, who come with goodwill but who often need tutoring and care.

I finish my comments like many others today, by making a commitment to work with the leaders in the community, to do everything we can do within my community and within this nation to close the gap. I'd like to particularly acknowledge you and thank you, Catherine, and wish you well in your leadership journey.

Warren Snowdon (Lingiari, Australian Labor Party, Shadow Assistant Minister for External Territories) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

It gives me great pride to be able to contribute to this discussion today. We saw earlier in the week the report to the parliament on the Closing the Gap targets and we heard eminent speeches from the Prime Minister and the Leader of the Opposition. We had a breakfast which, sadly, the Prime Minister failed to stay for and we had a wonderful opportunity just yesterday to see a great show of unity around the stolen generations—again, sadly, the Prime Minister wasn't present. I think that's indicative of some of the issues we're confronting here.

The Closing the Gap targets are to: close the gap in life expectancy by 2031, halve the gap in child mortality by 2018, have 95 per cent of all Indigenous four-year-olds enrolled in early childhood education by 2025, close the gap in school attendance by the end of 2018, halve the gap in reading and numeracy for Indigenous students by 2018, halve the gap in year 12 attainment by 2020 and halve the gap in employment by 2018. We know from the report that three of these targets are on track, which is a really good-news story. The target to halve child mortality is back on track. It had previously been on track and last year it fell off track, but, from 1998 to 2016, there's been a 32 per cent reduction in the gap in child mortality rates, and we are on track to halve those mortality rates by the end of this year. That's an important outcome. I want to pay tribute to all of those who are involved in that, particularly those involved in the primary healthcare networks across this country—most importantly, Aboriginal community controlled health organisations, who are a beacon as to what can be done when you work with local communities in addressing issues in those communities, including working on prevention.

The other targets, as we know, were commented on extensively by the Prime Minister and the Leader of the Opposition. The opposition has been proposing for some time now that there be an initial target around the question of justice. Sadly, this is yet to be picked up, but we understand that, as a result of the refresh of the Closing the Gap targets which is currently under way, it is very likely—we hope—that this target will be picked up, potentially along with others, but we are, most importantly, concerned that we address this justice target. As the Leader of the Opposition said in his contribution to this debate:

I think most Australians would be surprised to learn that, in 1997, 20 per cent of the children in out-of-home care were Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples, but today it is 35 per cent and growing.

And he asked the question, 'How can this be?'—a relevant question to be asked. He went on to note the relationship between broken communities and the justice system, and he said:

It's why Labor has listened to First Australians and long called for justice targets to reduce incarceration rates and improve community safety.

I think that's a very important message to all of us.

A number of issues were raised this week in the debate around Closing the Gap, not all of which have addressed the Closing the Gap targets directly, but what I want to do is concentrate for a moment on some of the issues which are outside of the Closing the Gap targets but which are fundamental if we're ever to reach those targets. They are related to the social determinants of health in particular but also of other outcomes. How do we expect to have a healthy young child if we don't have adequate housing? I think it's a question which all health economists and those involved in prevention appreciate. Those addressing the highest rates of rheumatic heart disease in the world, which are in this country, understand that, if we don't address the housing problem, we're not going to address the health problems; and, if we don't address the health problems, we won't get the educational outcomes we're after. It is very simple, in my view.

Yet this week, we've had confirmed that this Prime Minister and his government have said that they will not renew the Commonwealth's commitment to the remote housing agreement. In the case of the Northern Territory, instead of matching the $1.1 billion stumped up by the Northern Territory government for the next 10 years, they are prepared to provide funding for two years only, transitioning out of supporting the Northern Territory community in the provision of remote area housing. In the case of Queensland and the other jurisdictions, they've said that the end of June this year will be the end of their relationship in terms of investment in those states for remote-area housing. That raises a very serious question about whether we will ever address all of those comprehensive Closing the Gap targets, because if we don't improve the housing outcomes for Aboriginal people in remote Australia we will not meet those targets. It's plain and simple.

The government says, 'We're concerned this is a state problem.' It is not a state problem. It's a national problem, and we as a parliament and as a country are embarrassed by the fact that this government has chosen to withdraw its support from the most needy community in the world—almost—in the context of housing and the prevention of diseases like rheumatic fever. If we don't provide support, we're going to see a continuing escalation of rheumatic heart disease, a continuing escalation of diabetes and renal failure, and a continuing escalation in the other health issues that confront Aboriginal people who live in remote parts of this country on a daily basis. You don't have to be Einstein to work this out. Most informed people in the community would be able to tell you that this is the inevitable outcome of the failure of the government to agree to be involved in that discussion.

Then we had what I think is probably one of the sorriest moments of this week: seeing the Prime Minister stand up in the parliament yesterday and reject, out of hand, the concept of a national voice emanating out of the Uluru statement.

An honourable member: His view.

As my colleague reminds me, that is his view. But it's not a view which can be readily accepted, because what he's tried to do is say that, somehow or other, Aboriginal Australians and Torres Strait Islander Australians are saying to the rest of us that they want an extra chamber of the parliament solely for them. That's what he's implying, and that is just plain wrong. What they are saying is that they want an advisory body to the government. We had one of these in the past. It was called ATSIC. It was shot down in flames by the Howard government—one of the first acts of the Howard government was to get rid of ATSIC. There were issues around ATSIC, there is no question about that, but it didn't need to be abolished—reformed, yes; abolished, no. Instead of working with Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people around the country, what the Howard government did is what this government is doing, which is to say, 'We're not prepared to listen.' What they should be doing is sitting down with Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people and listening to what they are actually saying, as opposed to what the Prime Minister thinks they're saying.

It is not beyond the wit and wisdom of us in this parliament, as a national organisation responsible for the governance of this country, to work out with Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people, by sitting down and listening to them, what a voice to parliament—called something else, if you like—might look like. It could be built on the sort of thing that was proposed in the context of a reformed ATSIC, but it might be something entirely different. The Leader of the Opposition said in his statement to the parliament the other day:

It's time we took the Statement from the Heart into our hearts. It's time we worked together to deliver on its key recommendations: a voice enshrined in the Constitution; a declaration to be passed by all parliaments—Commonwealth and state—acknowledging the unique place of the first nations in Australian history, their culture and connection; and a Makarrata commission to oversee a process of agreement making and truth telling.

He went on to say:

The truth is that the Statement from the Heart calls for what both sides of the House say they are committed to: genuine partnership with, not to; real empowerment; and solutions constructed by first nations people.

As someone who's been here all but three decades, I say to this government and I say to the Prime Minister: instead of listening to selected voices, it's time you actually sat down and talked to Aboriginal people in a fair dinkum way, listened to what they have to say, understood the messages they're giving and did not interpret them in a way that is politically convenient to you. It's time to act truly and to properly represent the interests of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people across this nation.

Andrew Leigh (Fenner, Australian Labor Party, Shadow Assistant Treasurer) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

On Monday morning, I was privileged to attend the Deadly Fun Run, organised by the Indigenous Marathon Foundation's Indigenous Marathon Project to acknowledge Closing the Gap Week. The fun run was organised by Nadine Hunt of Cairns, Elsie Seriat of Thursday Island and Adrian Dodson-Shaw of Broome. Plenty of Canberra and Queanbeyan Deadly Runners showed up, including Cara Smith from last year's Indigenous Marathon Project squad. Cara is now leading a beginning running group in Queanbeyan which has proved extremely popular with local women and children who are looking after their own health and supporting Cara in her attempt to run the Berlin marathon in September. We were joined by Minister Scullion and Senator Ketter, and it was a pleasure and a privilege to run a lap of the lake with the Leader of the Opposition, Bill Shorten. Other Indigenous runners who attended were 62-year-old Rhonda Woodward, who began running last September and is now aiming to complete her first 10-kilometre in April; 32-year-old Emma Towney, who started running to help deal with mental health issues and hopes to complete her first marathon this year; and William Poi, who has lost over 15 kilograms after joining Canberra Deadly Runners.

I've been a strong supporter of the Indigenous Marathon Project for several years now, since running the New York marathon with the squad in November 2015. I've been proud to wear the Indigenous Marathon Project supporter singlet in the Tokyo, Berlin, London, New York, Sydney, Canberra and Gold Coast marathons, and always feel that donning the IMP supporter singlet makes me run a little faster. It puts a little more energy back in tired legs.

I acknowledge the squad from last year who ran the New York marathon. The 10 runners who completed the race on 5 November 2017 were Luke Reidy of Perth, Zane Sparke of Port Macquarie, TJ Cora of Cairns, Roy Tilmouth of Alice Springs, Scott Cox of Broome, Layne Brown of Warilla, Allirra Winmar of Perth, Natasha Shires of Karratha, Maletta Seriat of Thursday Island and Cara Smith of Queanbeyan. As head coach Adrian Dodson-Shaw said:

I selected these men and women for IMP because I saw in them the qualities of strength and resilience and the ability to lead by example.

I'm so excited for them. They've completed one of the hardest things you can put yourself through. It's very rewarding to see how proud and happy they are.

I recognise, too, the leadership of Rob de Castella, still the Australian marathon record holder with his extraordinary two hours and seven minutes; Lucy Campbell; Nadine Hunt; and Kellie O'Sullivan, who has recently finished up at the Indigenous Marathon Project. I thank them all for the important work that IMP does in order to work on closing the gap.

But, overall, the picture on closing the gap is not a pleasing one. Since the Closing the Gap targets were formed in 2008, there has never been moment in which a majority of those targets were on track. I seek leave to have incorporated into Hansard a table which shows from 2009 to 2018 whether particular targets have been on or off track.

Leave granted.

The table read as follows—

I thank the member for Fisher for providing leave on this occasion. This table shows that, for the period in which there were six targets up to 2014, we at best had three of the six targets on track. Since then, since the school attendance target was added in 2014, at best we've had three out of seven targets on track. Last year only one out of seven targets was on track, and that was the target to halve the gap for Indigenous students in year 12 or equivalent attainment rates by 2020. This year, we have three out of seven targets on track, but, as the House will note, the target to halve the gap in mortality rates for Indigenous children under five by 2018 is only just on track, given that it was off track last year.

The target to ensure access to early childhood education for all Indigenous four-year-olds in remote communities by 2013 is on track this year, but there was no data available last year. Throughout the period that it has been a target, the target to halve the gap in employment outcomes between Indigenous and non-Indigenous Australians by 2018 has not once been on track. The same is true of the target to close the life expectancy gap within a generation. Either it has not been on track or there was no available data.

So, as a nation, we have performed poorly in closing the gap, and it is only right for Indigenous Australians that we acknowledge this underperformance. The right response to that is not to lower the targets. As the Leader of the Opposition said in speaking to the Deadly fun-runners as we were about to set off on Monday morning, you don't deal with a tough race by moving the finish line a little closer. The marathon is an extraordinary effort, but no marathon runner worth their salt should be saying: 'Well, 42.195 kilometres is a bit tough. I'm feeling the pain in my legs. I think we'll just say 35 kilometres makes a marathon.'

An honourable member: As much as they would like to.

As much as they would like to, as the honourable member notes. As my friend Andrew Dodd likes to note, there's no such thing as a full marathon; there is simply a marathon. There is no such thing as lower Closing the Gap targets; there should only be the Closing the Gap targets.

The member for Lingiari, in addressing the issue of life expectancy in his speech, noted the most recent Indigenous life expectancy figures, published in late 2013, still show a gap of 10.6 years for men and 9.5 years for women. The reduction in the gap between the periods 2005-07 and 2010-12 was only small: 0.8 years for men and 0.1 years for women, suggesting that that gap still remains at about a decade, suggesting Indigenous men and women still die a decade before non-Indigenous men and women—that they enjoy 10 fewer Christmases, 10 fewer birthdays of their friends and family, 10 fewer years on this planet—and that's simply not good enough. Chronic disease remains the leading cause of mortality, with the second-highest leading cause being cancer, of which lung cancer is the leading cause of cancerous death. It is rising and the gap is widening.

The opposition announced that we will put in place a national healing fund, applying to ACT and the Jervis Bay territory. The announcement made by the Leader of the Opposition, along with the member for Barton, Linda Burney, Senator Pat Dodson, Senator Malarndirri McCarthy and the member for Lingiari, Warren Snowdon, was that a Labor government would provide stolen generations survivors in the Jervis Bay territory and the ACT with one-off ex gratia payments of $75,000, and $7,000 for funeral expenses. This is clearly an important announcement for my constituents, as I represent half the ACT and all of Jervis Bay. These are communities of great strength and resilience, with a legacy that is almost unimaginable to European settlers. We should honour and treasure that legacy, and these payments are an appropriate response to the trauma that was inflicted through the stolen generations.

A national healing fund will be set up to deal with intergenerational trauma caused by childhood dislocations, with a summit held on first nation children. As the Leader of the Opposition noted:

The traumatic effects of forced removal and separation from families, communities and culture have been severe and long-lasting for the Stolen Generations and their descendants.

The fund will be administered by the Healing Foundation—an Indigenous-run organisation that supports the ongoing needs of the Stolen Generations with services such as counselling, family reunion, return to country, and support for elderly survivors.

I have covered a range of topics in this speech, but closing the gap must remain a core focus for any Australian government. It is a vital performance metric, and the Closing the Gap targets must never be weakened.

Stephen Jones (Whitlam, Australian Labor Party, Shadow Minister for Regional Services, Territories and Local Government) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

Today we're taking note of the Prime Minister's annual report on the Closing the Gap targets. I'd like to open my contribution by joining with the member for Cunningham in paying tribute to the life of the late Aunty Agnes Donovan. Unfortunately, neither the member for Cunningham nor myself can attend her funeral in Wollongong today because of our parliamentary responsibilities. We send our sincerest condolences to the family and friends of Aunty Agnes. She was a much-loved elder within our community.

She was well respected as a member of the local community in the Shellharbour Aboriginal Community Youth Association, where she served as the chairperson of that organisation for many, many years. She always stood up for what she believed in and dedicated her life to closing the gap for Aboriginal people. In her role as the chair of SACYA, she implemented a range of programs helping disadvantaged Aboriginal families and young people, including the alternative learning centre for disengaged Aboriginal high school students. The aim of that program was to ensure that at-risk kids stayed engaged and stayed at school.

She has been a longstanding member of the Shellharbour Aboriginal Advisory Committee and worked on the council's Aboriginal employment strategy, which included the cultural heritage management assessment toolkit. She also worked with the Bass Point Interpretive Centre working group. She has made a tremendous contribution, not only to the Aboriginal community on the south coast and the Illawarra but to the broader community in our electorates. And we pass on our sincerest condolences to her daughter, Emma, her sons, Todd and PJ, and the many grandchildren that she loved and doted on. We thank you, the family, for sharing your mother, your grandmother, with us.

The Closing the Gap targets were established by the former Prime Minister Kevin Rudd in 2008. We are 10 years on. In 2018 the report has found that only three of the seven targets are on track to be met. These targets include halving the gap in child mortality rate by 2018, having 95 per cent of all Indigenous four-year-olds enrolled in early childhood education by 2025, and halving the gap in year 2 attainment by 2020. These three targets are on track. Nothing that I say hereafter should take away from the fact that these achievements should be celebrated. It is unequivocally a good thing.

However, if we look at the targets that have not yet been achieved, we still have a lot of work to do. Over the long term, between 1998 and 2016, the Indigenous child mortality rate has declined by 35 per cent. That is a great thing. We've also been narrowing the gap by 32 per cent. Improvements in the key drivers of child and maternal health over the past years suggest that there are significant gains that can be made. I'll have something to say in a moment about addressing the rates of smoking within Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander communities and the benefits that can be gained if we are only able to bring those rates down to the background rates in the general community.

In the area of early childhood education, in 2016, 14,700 Indigenous children or 91 per cent were enrolled in early childhood programs. Again, that is a great thing. We should celebrate that. Nationally, the proportion of Indigenous 20- to-24-year olds who have achieved year 12 or equivalent increased from 47 per cent in 2006 to 65 per cent. The gap has narrowed some 12.6 per cent.

We can pause for a moment and say these are good things, but let's focus on the work that is yet to be done. The target to close the gap in school attendance is not on track. Overall, attendance in 2017 for Indigenous students was 83 per cent compared to 93 per cent for non-Indigenous students—a lot of rhetoric but not a lot of achievement on this important target. The target to halve the gap in reading and numeracy attainments by 2018 is also not on track. The target to halve the gap in employment by 2018 is not on track. Indigenous unemployment has fallen slightly over the decade, but far more needs to be done. In 2016, the Indigenous employment rate was 46 per cent compared to 71 per cent for non-Indigenous Australians. The target to close the gap in life expectancy by 2031 is not on track. Between the periods 2005-07 and 2010-12, there was only a small reduction of only 0.8 years for males and 0.1 years for females.

We don't have to look far to find some of the causes for this. Can I say, in a bipartisan manner, that nobody expected that we were going to make immediate gains in the first one or two or three years of establishing these targets. But that is, indeed, why you set yourself long-term targets and measure them on a year-by-year basis, to ensure that we are making progress. Last week the Closing the Gap campaign released its 10-year review of the Closing the Gap progress. It found that the aim of achieving health parity between Indigenous and non-Indigenous Australians by 2030 was effectively abandoned after five years—it was effectively abandoned after five years. The report highlighted that the government's $530 million cut to Indigenous affairs and programs in the 2014 budget had a material impact on this nation's ability to meet those objectives.

I said a moment ago that, if we could just focus on one area for a moment to achieve some of those gains, particularly in health outcomes, we could address the smoking rates in the Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander communities and bring them down to the background rates in the general communities. We know that this is possible if we look at some of the areas where they have achieved this successfully. In the Darug community in Western Sydney, intensive programs invested in over a long term have seen a significant drop in the smoking rates, particularly the maternal smoking rates, in the Aboriginal community in Western Sydney. But, when the government seeks to congratulate itself, as it did this week, for reintroducing an anti-smoking program that it had cut in 2014—it axed an anti-smoking program in 2014 and it now seeks applause for reintroducing that program this year—we cannot do anything but criticise the government for what has been an appalling record in this area. If we want to do something about the life expectancy rates and we want to do something about the low birth-weight rate in infants, this is one program that, if invested in over a long period of time, can make a significant difference.

I want to say one final thing about the relationship between this government and the Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander community. I have no doubt that, in his heart, the Prime Minister wants to do the right thing, but, when you commission a process that resulted in the Uluru Statement from the Heart and had significant support right across the Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander community about a way forward on reconciliation between Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander communities and the rest of the country, and you reject that statement out of hand, by way of press release, and do not even have the courage to stand up and explain to the community why you did that, is it any wonder that the community is deeply sceptical of this government's commitment to the project ahead?

Luke Gosling (Solomon, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

I want to also note the Prime Minister's Closing the Gap report and the Leader of the Opposition's excellent response, in particular the commitment, as we've heard here from other speakers, to have a system of reparations for those members of the Stolen Generation from both the Northern Territory and the ACT, who were the responsibility of the Commonwealth during that period, so that that part of our history is addressed. It is excellent that we've had some progress on some of the targets, as we have already heard. However, I must, by way of representing the Northern Territory, say that we are not on track to close the gap in early childhood education, school attendance, reading and numeracy, employment or life expectancy.

Indigenous children make up close to 80 per cent of the child mortalities in the Northern Territory, making it the worst rate in the country. That sets a bit of a benchmark for priorities in our society. If we have infants dying at such a high rate in those communities, it does speak to the widening gap. It is a real issue in the Northern Territory. In regard to Indigenous school attendance, the rate of Indigenous kids going to school in the Northern Territory fell. In 2014 it was 70 per cent of Indigenous kids going to school, and last year, in 2017, it was down to 66 per cent, so that's fewer Indigenous kids going to school.

Initially, it was encouraging that the Minister for Indigenous Affairs and senator for the NT, Nigel Scullion, said that he would match the NT government's record commitment to funding remote housing. However, after the Prime Minister's intervention, he's had to backflip on that. That is disappointing because housing is such an important enabler of healthy communities, families and lives. Education will improve if housing improves. So in terms of the Commonwealth's commitment, instead of backing away from the Northern Territory, we want to see the federal government step up and do more. Housing and land servicing is important, and I call on the Prime Minister to make a serious commitment in that area.

I also want to mention that the Turnbull government's response to the NT royal commission has, unfortunately, been totally inadequate. The protection and detention of Australia's young people is a national issue and a national responsibility. These are young kids we're talking about. They need and deserve better, especially from the federal government that called the royal commission in the first place.

I'll say this in a spirit of bipartisanship, but the Prime Minister must understand that national leadership includes looking beyond the harbour side view to the broad horizons of our country, and that includes, obviously, the Northern Territory—one-sixth of the Australian landmass. I encourage him to listen to the experts in the field and to show some real commitment so we can see some real progress on the ground in the Northern Territory in relation to these targets.

Debate adjourned.