Dorinda Cox (WA, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Hansard source

I also rise to speak on the Closing the gap report tabled today. I want to echo the comments made by Senator David Pocock in thanking Minister McCarthy in particular for her stewardship and leadership, which has been unwavering, and the important, incredible work that she does for our mob across the country. It can be easy to talk about Closing the Gap as just a report, a bureaucratic checklist, a dashboard or even a speech, but Closing the Gap is lived. It's a house in Kalgoorlie with three families under one roof. It's a young boy in Hamilton Hill trying to concentrate at school after a night of chaos. It's a grandmother in Warburton holding onto language so her grandchildren know who they are and the culture they come from.

It's a national commitment negotiated in general partnership with Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people to change the lived reality of our communities, and it's about whether our people live long enough to actually become elders. It's about whether our children start school ready to learn and finish it believing they actually belong there, and it's about whether our families are safe living in their own homes. It's also about whether our young people meet a teacher before they meet a magistrate. It's about whether our communities can determine their own futures, and this year's report tells an honest story. There are areas where progress is being made. Early childhood participation is strengthening, and there are improvements in land and sea rights recognition. Community controlled services are delivering results where they are trusted and properly resourced. But the report also shows that there are too many targets that remain off track. Life expectancy gaps persist, incarceration rates remain far too high, and too many children grow up in out-of-home care. Overcrowding continues to affect too many households.

We should also acknowledge the context of this. For too long, under the previous Liberal government, Closing the Gap languished. Targets were repeatedly missed, structural reform was limited, and the community controlled sector was not positioned as a genuine partner in design and delivery. The reset came with the National Agreement on Closing the Gap, negotiated in partnership with the Coalition of Peaks. That agreement recognised something fundamental: that you can't close the gap without changing the systems that created it. This government has committed to implementing that agreement in full. This implementation plan builds on that foundation by setting out how those commitments are delivered in practice, and they are across health, housing, education, safety and justice.

For a moment I want to focus on justice in particular, which absolutely demands our attention. More than three decades after the Royal Commission into Aboriginal Deaths in Custody, our people remain overrepresented at every point in that system. We cannot keep responding only at the point of crisis, and that is why our government committed $69 million over four years to establish a National Justice Reinvestment Program, supporting 30 community led initiatives across the country alongside funding for an independent National Justice Reinvestment Unit. Justice reinvestment does something simple, but it is also something oh-so powerful. It asks: what if we invested in keeping young people connected to school, supported their mental health and made them stable in housing instead of waiting until they actually enter the system? In Western Australia, my home state, initiatives in Derby, Carnarvon, Halls Creek, Balga, Perth and the Pilbara demonstrate what place based responses look like in practice. If we are serious about reducing incarceration rates, we must invest in prevention.

The same is also true for safety. The launch of 'Our Ways—Strong Ways—Our Voices: National Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Plan to End Family, Domestic and Sexual Violence' recognises culturally informed prevention and human responses, which are absolutely essential. When women and children are safe, educational engagement improves, health outcomes improve and justice system contact decreases. Safety underpins every other outcome.

Housing underpins stability. In remote Western Australia, overcrowding is a daily lived reality. It affects health, it affects study and it affects the family's stability. The Albanese Labor government has invested $600 million to transform First Nations housing and support health under outcome 1, educational attainment under outcome 5 and justice outcomes under outcome 10. Secure housing provides stability, and stability improves everything.

Education remains central to the long-term change. A child who is developmentally strong in their early years is more likely to stay engaged. A young person who finishes year 12 has more employment options. Economic participation strengthens families. The First Nations Economic Partnership strengthens Indigenous procurement, business growth and local employment pathways. Economic partnership strengthens our families' stability and our communities' resilience.

Cultural strength must also be recognised, and I recently met with the team at the Noongar Boodjar Language Cultural Aboriginal Corporation. Their work to keep Noongar language strong and alive demonstrates language revitalisation which is practical, lived and absolutely community led. Language carries our culture, it carries our connection to country and it carries the stories of our old people. When we protect language, we protect who we are. Strengthening language supports identity. Identity supports wellbeing. Wellbeing supports and strengthens communities.

All of this work is underpinned by our priority reforms: shared decision-making, strengthening the community controlled sector, transforming our government institutions, and improving access to data and accountability. Without these structural reforms, funding alone will not close the gap. As a West Australian senator, I see the importance of place based responses every single day. What works in Derby might not look the same as what works in Balga. What works in Carnarvon may differ from Halls Creek. The implementation plan recognises that community led designs supported by national investment deliver more sustainable outcomes. We are not pretending that every target is on track. The report is clear about the scale of the challenge. But unlike in the years when progress stalled, we now have structural reform embedded in the system, we have sustained funding aligned to our commitments and our outcomes, and we have genuine partnership guiding that implementation.

Closing the gap will not be achieved overnight. The inequities we are addressing are the result of generations of exclusion and policy failure. What matters is that we are moving forward with clarity, accountability and partnership. The 2025 report shows the distance we have travelled, and the 2026 implementation plan sets the course. As a First Nations woman in this place, I know that Closing the Gap is not theoretical; it is absolutely lived. It is about whether our young people see more doors open than close, it is about whether women can live free from violence and fear and it is about whether our elders can age with dignity, supported by culturally safe services. It is also about whether our children grow up confident in who they are, grounded in language and culture, and equipped to succeed in two worlds.

But, ultimately, it is about something much larger. It is about whether this nation is prepared to confront inequity and inequality. In the face of rising targeted racism and white supremacy across the country, this is not an unfortunate statistic but absolutely a shared responsibility. And it is about whether we are willing to do the long-term structural work, even when it is complex, to ensure fairness. It is about whether partnership with First Nations people becomes permanent, embedded and unquestionable, not an exemption but the standard. Closing the Gap is not a favour, not a charity; it is a responsibility, and this government remains committed to honouring the national agreement, embedding those priority reforms and delivering Closing the gap outcomes, not only in our words but also in our actions.