Simon Birmingham (SA, Liberal Party, Shadow Minister for Foreign Affairs) Share this | Hansard source

BIRMINGHAM (—) (): As we do at the commencement of every day of sittings, I want to acknowledge the traditional owners of the land on which we meet and pay my respects to elders past, present and emerging as part of this recognition of the Closing the Gap statement.

The 2022 Closing the gap report is the first since the launch under the previous coalition government of the 2020 national agreement and the Closing the Gap implementation plan released just over 12 months ago. The new implementation plan provides new targets established in genuine partnership with First Nations peoples, including, notably, the Coalition of Peaks, who I again thank for their detailed work through that process. It also includes state and territory governments, who play a critical role in delivering outcomes in Indigenous communities right across Australia.

The intent of the changes that were made to the Closing the Gap targets and the process of measuring them was to ensure that enhanced granularity of programs and targets to close the gap across areas of health, education, life expectancy and the range of different measures applied were even more measurable, even more effectively verifiable, so that we are able to ensure better progress of policies against those targets. When the former Prime Minister released the plan last year, it included $1 billion in new measures across a range of Commonwealth programs and strategies to help to ensure the actions across all areas of national government work towards closing the gap and achieving what we all seek: to improve the lives and circumstances of our First Australians and to see young Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander children having the same health, education and employment opportunities as anyone else in Australia, so that they too can share the same hopes and the same aspirations for their own future and for that of their families.

I'm pleased that we see today the first Closing the gap report to measure against the new priorities and the new, more granular targets which reflect very genuinely the input from First Australians to establish those targets and priorities. Sadly, though, yet again we have to acknowledge that there is still much more to do. In too many areas we are still not making progress, or are even going backwards. School readiness, adult incarceration rates and suicide rates are all statistics that paint a bleak and continually concerning picture. They must provide a clarion call to all of us across the Australian parliament, and in state and territory parliaments, to redouble our collective efforts.

But we should not overlook improvement where it has been achieved. To actually highlight improvements is to try to enhance confidence in the processes and policies applied by governments to seek to close the gap. Healthier birth weights, more children enrolled in preschool, fewer young people in detention—these are important steps forward. We should celebrate those steps and seek to redouble progress on them, but make sure in doing so that we say to Australians, 'We can make a difference and we can make progress when we work together and apply those policies.'

In acknowledging those gains I pay tribute to those who work every day with individuals and across communities, from inner cities suburbs through to the remotest parts of our country, to deliver the outcomes that the policy actions of governments seek to achieve. I reaffirm to the Senate the commitment made by the Leader of the Opposition and shadow minister for Indigenous affairs in the House to work with the government on addressing the challenge to truly close the gap. Together we must continue to act to ensure specific and detailed policies are delivered to close the many gaps that continue to exist. That may mean, sometimes, difficult conversations. It may mean, sometimes, doing things that don't necessarily fit neatly into our own party's policy agendas. After many decades of effort by parties of both sides when in government, we know that closing the gap has no simple answer and no easy solutions. That is why we must persevere, persist and, where necessary, adapt policies to make sure that progress is made and improved.

If in the years to come we can stand here—but more importantly than standing here, stand alongside Indigenous Australians—and acknowledge a list of improvements against the Closing the Gap targets and, more importantly, a list of improvements in their lives and their children's and grandchildren's lives, then that will have been an effort well worthwhile.