Penny Wong (SA, Australian Labor Party, Minister for Foreign Affairs) Share this | Hansard source

Senator Liddle would be aware that the Productivity Commission report today updated on Closing the Gap. Obviously we are making progress in some areas and insufficient progress in others, and the government acknowledges that. I think you would have heard Minister McCarthy speaking about this publicly. Four targets are on track to be met. That is insufficient. Encouragingly, 10 targets are improving, and some states, like Victoria and South Australia, are making real progress. That is obviously good news. Unfortunately, the Northern Territory is not, and the report shows that in fact the Northern Territory is going backwards.

Obviously Closing the Gap is a long-term commitment. It's a commitment I hope that can continue to have bipartisan support. Obviously the minister is continuing to work with Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander communities and the Coalition of Peaks to make a difference in the lives and life outcomes of Indigenous Australians.

As I said, we have four targets on track, including children enrolled in preschool, Indigenous employment, sea waters and land mass subject to legal rights and interests, all covered under Indigenous rights. But the targets that are improving, which do matter, are life expectancy, healthy birth weight, attainment of year 12, the completion of tertiary qualification, youth in employment, education or training, and Indigenous people living in appropriately sized housing. The really concerning ones are those not on track and worsening: early childhood, incarceration, which I know is something the chamber has been discussing, Indigenous children who are aged up to 17 held in out-of-home care, and Indigenous suicide rates. Obviously, as a country, we need to do better on those. (Time expired)