Gordon Reid (Robertson, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

My question is to the Prime Minister. What message will the government take to the Garma Festival, given the importance of the Uluru Statement from the Heart and of Closing the Gap?

Anthony Albanese (Grayndler, Australian Labor Party, Prime Minister) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

I thank the member for Robertson for his question, and I congratulate him on his election and in joining the growing number of First Nations people who are represented across the political spectrum in this House and in the Senate.

The Garma Festival is Australia's most significant gathering of First Nations people to celebrate culture, but also to discuss their future. It's a real opportunity, and I'll be travelling there tomorrow with the Minister for Indigenous Australians and the shadow minister for Indigenous Australians, along with Senator Dodson, who has been given special responsibility as the envoy for reconciliation and the Uluru implementation.

The Uluru statement is a gracious, generous hand being extended to non-Indigenous Australians, and I believe we should seize the opportunity and grasp it to advance us as a nation. It will be one of those moments, just like the apology was, where, after it happened, everyone will wonder why we didn't do it beforehand. Everyone will be lifted up, the entire nation, by recognising in our Constitution, in our national birth certificate, that Australia didn't begin in 1788, nor did we end. It should be a great source of pride that we have the oldest continuous civilisation on the planet sharing this island continent of ours. It is a great privilege, and we should honour it.

But we also need to recognise that it's not a matter of doing that or closing the gap. It's not a matter of symbolism, as some people would see it. It's a matter of empowerment. Giving people respect is a first step to overcoming some of the challenges which are there—and we know that they're there. There's a life expectancy gap of some 20 years. We have some of the worst incarceration rates in the world. When a government listens to people, when you look at the programs that have been most successful—justice reinvestment, Indigenous rangers, the national partnership agreement process driven by the Coalition of Peaks and Pat Turner—that's why they are the successful programs.

Our policies include 500 additional Aboriginal healthcare workers, investing in life-saving kidney dialysis treatment, the Housing Australia Future Fund to repair remote housing, locally tailored justice reinvestment. We'll do all of that. At the same time we want to work across the parliament and, indeed, across the country to lift this nation up by recognising our First Nations people in our Constitution, giving them a voice to parliament, which is nothing more and nothing less than good manners, and consulting people on matters that affect them. That's why I look forward to advancing the discussions on the weekend. I'm pleased that, across the parliament, the shadow minister and the minister will be travelling with me tomorrow.