Lidia Thorpe (Victoria, Independent) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

I have stood so many times in this chamber to speak on Closing the Gap, and it's always the same. I could almost copy and paste my previous speeches because we have seen no real progress at all. Each year we go through the same sad ritual: targets are not on track, some of the most crucial are going backwards, the Prime Minister and the Minister for Indigenous Australians make vague statements about partnership and hope, and then they move on. We've known for years that incarceration rates are rising, child removals are rising, suicide rates remain devastating. We all know this. With no real progress, Closing the Gap has now just become a sad reporting exercise on the racist state violence that continues to occur against First Peoples.

The problem is not a lack of information; the problem is a lack of political will for change. The problem is a racist colonial government across this country that continues to harm us.

Closing the Gap is the latest in a long line of failures. In the 1980s, Labor Prime Minister Bob Hawke stood at Barunga and promised a treaty. That promise was never delivered. Under Paul Keating, we saw a shift toward recognition of truth: the Redfern speech, the acknowledgement that dispossession and violence were not accidents of history but foundations of this nation. That period was imperfect, but it was at least grounded in the language of our rights. It was something that didn't last.

John Howard's era of practical reconciliation came next. Treaty was off the table. Power shifting was dismissed. The focus changed to a top-down approach. It was service delivery with a government-knows-best approach. This culminated in the horrific, racist NT intervention. Questions of sovereignty, justice and shifting power were completely scrapped. Does this sound familiar?

When Kevin Rudd formalised Closing the Gap in 2008, it carried elements of accountability, but it also inherited the top-down logic of Howard, and over time the framework has shrunk into a set of targets detached from the deeper structural causes of the harm perpetrated against First Peoples since invasion. By 2018, most targets were not on track and many were going backwards. In 2020, the new national agreement promised a reset. There would supposedly be genuine partnership with Aboriginal organisations, shared decision-making, community control and structural reform. Some hoped that would mark a return to something closer to the rights based approach that had once seemed possible. Instead, today we find ourselves back at the same dead end.

Today, Closing the Gap functions not as a vehicle for justice but as political cover for this Labor government. It is something they point to when asked what they are doing about the harm First Peoples face. It provides a language of progress without requiring any redistribution of power. And signatories to the agreement, governments across this country, are now actively betraying their supposed commitments.

Nowhere is that clearer than in the criminalisation, the jailing of our people, including our children. The Productivity Commission's latest data shows more than $7 billion spent annually on prisons—a record. Jailing children costs more than $1 billion a year and is rising. The national prison population is at an 80-year high under this Labor government. Across states and territories, new prisons are being built and expanded. The tightening of bail laws has seen remand numbers soaring. Aboriginal women are the fastest-growing prison population in the country and the most incarcerated in the world—under Labor. We've just recorded the most black deaths in custody in a year since records began in 1978—under Labor. This is the result of deliberate choices by governments that have supposedly committed to bringing down incarceration of First Peoples under the Closing the Gap framework. This is the system working as colonial governments around this country want it to.

We are told there is limited funding for housing, for community controlled legal services, for culturally safe mental health care, and for early intervention and prevention. Yet there is always funding—billions—for more prison beds. If Closing the Gap were truly about reducing incarceration, investment would flow into keeping families together, into bail support, into justice reinvestment, into programs that communities have been calling for over decades. Instead, governments are expanding prisons and calling it progress while a pittance is offered to supporting people.

This is a political choice, which brings me to the Prime Minister's recent comments. He has cautioned against talk of failure, suggesting that describing Closing the Gap as failing dismisses the aspirations and achievements of First Peoples. Let me be clear: criticising this framework is not criticising our people; it is criticising governments who are actively harming our people. It is criticising the Albanese government. They are failing. For the Prime Minister to imply otherwise is an attempt to shift responsibility away from himself and onto those who bear the consequences of policy.

Our communities are not tightening bail laws. We are not funding and arming police or allocating billions to prisons. We are not stealing children or shrugging when our people die in custody. The Prime Minister's reframing criticism of Closing the Gap as criticism of Aboriginal people is a deflection. It's about creating hesitation among allies and Labor voters, who can see that the framework is not delivering but feel unsure about whether they are permitted to say so. To those people, I give you permission: say it; call them out. They're gammin. Labor are fake allies. Stand with First Peoples by calling this approach what it is: an utter failure. If you are serious about justice, you must call out this Labor government's failure to act. History tells us that progress in this country has never come from silence. Nothing we have ever achieved has been gifted by government. Everything has been won through the resilience and power of our ancestors and elders—in spite of governments, not because of them.

Albanese committed to implementing the Uluru statement in full, but after the Voice failed he lost interest. Like so many before him, he has decided there is nothing for him to gain politically from pursuing justice for First Peoples. It is never about us; it's just about votes. The trajectory is clear: bandaid programs and short-term grants while prisons expand and deaths in custody rise. This is the same logic as Howard's 'practical reconciliation', not the rights based approach Labor claims. Where there is progress, it is because of our people, not governments. The federal Labor government will hand all responsibility to the states and territories. It is an absolute cop-out. They have the power to pull the states into line. They're choosing not to use it. That failure sits squarely with Albanese. We will not be silenced. Criticism of Closing the Gap is not criticism of our people; it is about holding this government to account and demanding they do their job. So do it.

Jana Stewart (Victoria, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

I rise today to speak about Closing the Gap, and to speak honestly about where we have fallen short in lifting up First Nations communities across the country. As Minister McCarthy has acknowledged, there is still a way to go to close the gap for our mob. We all know we need more than hope and promises. The latest Closing the gap data makes this painfully clear: only four the 19 targets are on track to be met. Every single year, we see more First Nations people impacted by disadvantage. Too many of our kids and communities are not getting the Australian 'fair go'. We are not progressing. This should be a wake-up call to every single person in this chamber, and we must speak frankly about where and why we are falling short.

Let's start with youth justice. First Nations children are being incarcerated at staggering rates. They are 27 times more likely to be locked up than other Australian kids, and 10 times more likely to be taken into out-of-home care. These figures unveil a justice system that is deeply out of balance. In Queensland, for example, First Nations people make up 4.6 per cent of the population but 37 per cent of the adult prisoners in custody and, staggeringly, 69 per cent of young people in detention. I don't need to be the one to say the math ain't mathing.

Then let's look at health. It's abundantly clear that our communities all over Australia are hurting. The suicide rate for Aboriginal people is approximately 2½ times higher than it is for other Australians. As the Prime Minister remarked, suicide shatters families and it tears apart communities, and it is the most urgent of crises to fix for our mob. Another lingering issue is preventable illnesses that have disappeared elsewhere, like rheumatic heart disease, for example. Yet, shamefully, it still affects First Nations community, and especially First Nations kids. Preventable deaths and diseases should never be accepted as normal anywhere, particularly in First Nations communities. For too many First Nations families, this is still their reality. We are letting them down when we do not close these gaps, when we lag behind.

This gap is also apparent in education. Only a handful of education targets are on track. Early childhood development—lagging; school attendance—far too low. If these gaps are left unchecked, they lock families and communities into cycles of disadvantage that last for generations.

Economic opportunities for First Nations people tell a similar story. Work and income gaps remain huge. We are still seeing housing shortages and food insecurity rampant through our communities. Too many people who want to and lots of people who do work hard still don't get a fair go. How is that fair? As politicians, we can often get caught up in the numbers. But First Nations people are facing real problems, and we are real people. We see and feel this in our towns, in our families and in our communities. The lives of First Nations people will not improve unless this parliament, and parliaments in every state and territory jurisdiction, do something about it. The Productivity Commission tells us that so many of the commitments and measures in the Closing the Gap framework are failing not because of First Nations communities but because parliaments and governments around the country have failed them and failed on their part in the Closing the Gap commitments.

It is well past time for that to change. Closing the Gap was agreed to by all governments, not just the federal government. State, territory and local governments agreed to joint accountability under the national agreement. But, too often, this work—the heavy lifting—has fallen back on Aboriginal communities themselves. We can't let the burden be left with communities who are underresourced to fix problems that they did not create. Every state and territory signed this agreement. Every one of them should be a part of the solution. But every jurisdiction is worsening on at least one priority measure; none of them have met all of their targets. Again, they're lagging behind. Queensland and the Northern Territory also face deeply concerning incarceration rates. Minister McCarthy has described these figures as alarming, and I echo her sentiments.

We know something else here: when governments invest properly, when programs are designed well and when barriers are removed, we see results on the ground. We see lives changed—real results. Let's look at Labor's free TAFE, for example. Across Australia, there have now been more than 44,000 enrolments by First Nations peoples. That represents 6.1 per cent of all free TAFE enrolments nationwide. That is incredible. This means thousands of people are gaining skills, building careers and creating new opportunities for themselves and their families for generations. This has a flow-on effect, too. We know that education and training opens so many doors. It creates independence and strengthens communities. Here in Victoria, we are seeing that impact as well. Since January 2023, there have been 143,000 free TAFE enrolments across the state. Within that, 1,800 have been First Nations students.

Behind those numbers are people who are helping their fellow Australians when they are sick. These numbers are the same people who are teaching our little ones when their parents have to work. They are the ones building homes across the country or upgrading your local parks. Theirs are skills that our economy needs and careers that change lives. These outcomes give insight into something important. Investment works. Removing financial barriers works. Access to education works. We need to see more action from state and territory governments to ensure the best chance for First Nations people. We must go further. This work is absolutely not done. While progress like this matters, it must happen at scale across education, health, housing and employment—and the list goes on.

Closing the gap does not happen through words alone. Governments need to have sustained investment and genuine partnership with communities at every level, taking responsibility for the commitments that they've made to their fellow Australians. We are lagging, and it's time to roll up our sleeves and get to work. We owe it to our communities, and we cannot let them down.

Jacinta Nampijinpa Price (NT, Country Liberal Party, Shadow Minister for Defence Industry) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

I'm an Australian. I have Warlpiri blood and Celtic blood, but, ultimately, above everything else, I'm an Australian. I want to see a country that is united, not divided; a country where we end Indigenous disadvantage and the retrograde view that disadvantage is synonymous with indigeneity; and a country where we stop treating each other as blackfellas and whitefellas and start seeing each other simply as fellow Australians, upholding the spirit of the Voice referendum outcome.

I've never been one to hold back in speaking uncomfortable truths. Real progress comes from a reverence for the truth. It's lies, dishonesty and distortion that inhibit progress and fuel regression. So, in responding to the government's Closing the Gap statement and report, I will again speak uncomfortable truths because I seek progress. A mature nation embraces its history in the round, successes and failures alike. While Prime Minister Rudd's National Apology to the Stolen Generations didn't fix things, it was a significant moment in our nation. The sorry in 2008 wasn't only for the stolen generations; the national apology was also a national commitment to not forget the sins of the past and to not repeat them. That intergenerational commitment must always be maintained. However, almost 20 years have passed since the national apology, and I believe it's time for something beyond remembering the apology each year. I believe it's time for Indigenous forgiveness.

The act of forgiving is not to forget the tragic past; rather, it's a means for our nation to move beyond the tragic past and no longer be its prisoner. Indigenous activists would prefer that Australians atone forevermore for our forebears' mistakes. That suits their political agenda of reparations and segregation, driven as they are by retribution and resentment. But, if we instil in future generations of Australians a default setting of national guilt, then we undermine the national pride that underpins national endeavour. Accordingly, forgiveness is not only essential for the cause of reconciliation; forgiveness also helps to nurture the love of country that's necessary for a strong, prosperous and united nation.

On the matter of Indigenous disadvantage, uncomfortable truths must be spoken too. Indigenous activists peddle the poisonous idea that every person of Indigenous heritage is a victim of British colonisation. The activists' goals are threefold: first, to rewrite history in the most hostile, unforgiving and unbalanced manner imaginable to demonise British settlement in its entirety; second, to give false legitimacy to the notion of intergenerational victimhood; and, third, to use that intergenerational victimhood as a means for financial and land settlements, concealed in the sweet-sounding phrases of truth-telling and treaty making.

The most perverse parts of the activists' propaganda are the denial of reality and the negation of individual agency. All around this country, especially in our cities, you'll find Indigenous Australians and Australians with Indigenous heritage who are doing well and even thriving. Indeed, many are doing better than Australians without Indigenous heritage. In 21st century Australia, race doesn't define disadvantage. To suggest otherwise is to perpetuate a dangerous activist myth, a myth we must bust. None of this is to deny that many Indigenous Australians experience profound disadvantage, nor is it to deny the hardships and troubles that afflict many Indigenous communities. But if we're going to address Indigenous disadvantage, especially where it exists in remote and regional parts of Australia, we need to be upfront about traditional culture.

There are aspects of traditional Indigenous culture which we can be proud of, such as the way our ancestors cared for the land. There are aspects of traditional culture worth remembering and preserving, like jukurrpa, the Dreaming. But there are regressive aspects of traditional culture that still exist today. Today, there are Indigenous men who still see women as inferior. One of those men beat a pregnant woman in Alice Springs recently. There are Indigenous men who treat women as possessions and who believe that beating a woman is acceptable behaviour. These regressive aspects of traditional culture must be expunged from Indigenous communities today, but they won't be while those in positions of power continue to turn a blind eye to all manner of sins. Moreover, there are leaders sitting on Indigenous bodies today with a history of violent offending. The Albanese government and the Minister for Indigenous Australians know these individuals are not fit and proper to hold leadership positions, and yet the government blocks inquiries and refuses to use its powers to remove these individuals. Frankly, this is wilful blindness, and it's a disgrace.

When we speak of closing the gap, one reason the gap hasn't been closed is due to a political class that romanticises traditional culture. That romanticisation is putting a force field around the most objectionable and violent behaviours that are at the very heart of Indigenous disadvantage. Is it any wonder that, in the latest Closing the gap report, only four of the 19 targets are on track? You're going backwards, Labor.

Tragically, more children are in out-of-home care, suicide remains a significant problem and there is still too much Aboriginal-on-Aboriginal violence. Come to Alice Springs, you mob. Check it out. It's on show for you all the time. If those objectionable and violent behaviours are rooted out of communities, it will go a long way to reducing violence and crime. Addressing violence and crime is critical. When the violence and crime stop, we start getting safe and stable communities. When we get stable and safe communities, families stay in homes, children stay in school, adults stay in work and people stay healthy.

Closing the gap also requires speaking uncomfortable truths about the need to reject the racism of low expectations. An excessive fixation on the historic injustices committed against Indigenous Australians has not only instilled an undue sense of national guilt; it's made our nation paternalistic towards Indigenous Australians. It's why we stand here and you can do as many acknowledgements as you want but it doesn't change the situation and clearly hasn't changed your targets. It is all just simple virtue signalling.

The Aboriginal Land Rights (Northern Territory) Act came into effect in 1976. There were good intentions behind it: to give traditional Indigenous owners of the Northern Territory not only greater ownership of their land but control over their land too. Land councils were established to hold lands in trust and to preside over the use of those lands through leases, licences and agreements. Today, some 50 per cent of the Northern Territory is owned by Indigenous Australians, and yet it's incredibly difficult for them to use this land for economic purposes. Indigenous Australians in the Territory are land rich but dirt poor. They can't create jobs from their own land. They have to rely on government. Government keeps them dependent. The land councils are not functioning as they were intended, and it's why over many years I've repeatedly called for the land rights act to be reviewed and modernised. It's why over many years I've called for inquiries into Indigenous spending.

My calls expect of a broader point about closing the gap. We must do away with the notions of victimhood and paternalism that sit at the centre of too many laws, too many government policies and too many bureaucratic processes. We must give Indigenous Australians the individual agency that all humans crave. As masters of their own fate and captains of their souls, many more Indigenous Australians in remote and regional of Australia will start new ventures, join new enterprises and unlock multigenerational wealth. Why do this government and the Greens deny this for Indigenous Australians? Why do you continue to allow Indigenous Australians, the most marginalised, to be dependent on your handouts, on taxpayer dollars? I know why. It is for their votes—to stay in power. Shame on you!

For Indigenous people in remote communities, in some of the places where English is not a first language to them, where they don't have the luxury of owning a property portfolio like some of my colleagues across from me, where they don't even own to their land privately, their success or their failure will be up to them, as it would be—as it should be—if they are given the opportunities to unlock these entrepreneurial ways of going forward.

If we want to close the gap, it's time to stop ring-fencing people based on race. It's time to let people stand on their own two feet. That is what I came here to do, to fight for, as part of the coalition. It's such a shame that Labor now want to handball the fact that their Closing the Gap is going backwards and say it's somehow the fault of states and territories. No, it's on you. It's all on you. Shame! (Time expired)

David Pocock (ACT, Independent) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

When we talk about Closing the Gap in this place, we often talk a lot about numbers, many of them extremely grim. We're clearly not seeing the progress that Australians would like to see. But today I want to talk about the people and stories behind those numbers. While many think the ACT is different, we're not immune from Indigenous disadvantage or the racism that is unfortunately still prevalent across this incredible continent that we call home. In fact, the ACT has the highest rate of Indigenous incarceration of any state or territory. Despite the royal commission, First Nations people in Canberra continue to die in custody, as they do in other states and territories across this country. This must stop.

We saw three deaths in six months, including two in a single week in February last year. There was huge pressure applied by community leaders, including Joe Hedger and Winnunga CEO, Julie Tongs. That eventually forced the ACT government to set up a board of inquiry into the deaths of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people in custody at the Alexander Maconochie Centre. There are clearly systemic issues at AMC that must be addressed, but those systemic issues extend far beyond AMC's walls. In November last year, a 17-year-old First Nations Canberran was pulled at gunpoint from a bus by ACT police. He'd done nothing wrong. It was a case of mistaken identity but also one of alleged racial profiling. It was obviously deeply unsettling for the boy and his family. A 17-year-old pulled from a bus at gunpoint having no idea what it was about—the most egregious thing was that, after they recognised that they had got the wrong person, they still searched him. Under what powers, I've got no idea.

This is the experience of too many First Nations people. Being subjected to racial profiling is an allegation that comes up time and again in the more than 500 pages of review by the Jumbunna institute, handed down last year. It was a review that described the lived experience of too many First Nations people in the ACT and around the country—an experience of widespread racism in ACT government electorates, schools, courtrooms, the prison and police actions. First Nations people in the ACT talk about being targeted, racially profiled and discriminated against by systems, structures and people across the board. The review makes 99 recommendations, and the ACT government has delivered an interim response and started work on delivering some of them.

This work is clearly urgent. At Bimberi, the ACT's youth justice centre, we've seen huge concerns raised. I really want to acknowledge the work of independent MLA for Kurrajong, Mr Thomas Emerson, in pushing the government to have a long-term youth justice road map and to implement the recommendations of multiple reviews.

We have to change the way we think about dealing with young people who find themselves in trouble with the law. We need to be investing in programs to help get them back on their feet, to divert them away from a life of interactions with the criminal justice system. This is an urgent undertaking, particularly in a jurisdiction that has such a terrible record when it comes to recidivism. We are not doing enough. We're not doing enough to take young people, and even older people, who have offended and actually work with them, give them the skills they need for when they are released. They could actually be a good neighbour. They could go back into communities and contribute.

It's good to see some small progress in responding to the most recent recommendations of ACT Custodial Inspector Rebecca Minty, including reinstating contact with visitors so young people can hug their loved ones again. Since COVID, the ACT government has stopped young people in juvenile detention from hugging their loved ones. What kind of sick system is this, where we don't even acknowledge people's humanity? A young person—sure, they've done the wrong thing. They're doing their time—but to stop someone from hugging a loved one when they come to visit them?

Again, we talk about closing the gap—all these numbers, all these metrics—but this is the lived experience. This is what's actually happening on the ground. At a roundtable into the government's rushed hate speech laws I held recently—laws that we've already seen cause unnecessary harm here in Canberra—Ngunnawal elder Aunty Violet Sheridan spoke powerfully about the decades of racism she and other First Nations people have been subjected to, from vile comments on Facebook to insults in the street and even the racially motivated vandalism of Indigenous memorials like that of Nathan Booth. Despite this, Aunty Violet and Richie both came to the roundtable with a message of love, shared hurt, shared humanity and the need to stand together—a very generous message. In that message, there was a plea for us to actually take up that offer, that request to find a better way of doing things, because, clearly, what we're doing isn't working. It's not working for First Nations people in this country.

I would like to acknowledge the ongoing efforts of Minister McCarthy to engage right across this parliament and her commitment to offering regular Closing the Gap briefings for any and all parliamentarians and providing those personally. That's not a regular occurrence, and I really would like to recognise that she goes out of her way to engage and to be available to talk about issues. I sincerely hope that her government will continue to back up her efforts and do more in this area.

I think that, as a country, we've seen a real vacation of this space after the referendum. There hasn't been a lot from government in terms of ambition. We've heard plenty about 'jobs, jobs, jobs' and some of the programs that we've seen over many decades, but, from talking to many Canberrans, there is a recognition that we can't just keep doing the same old thing over and over. I know the government is scarred by the referendum result, but let's not see that as a message not to do anything here. I think there is a lot of goodwill to actually crack on and start working together to build a better future for First Nations people and for all Australians.

Dorinda Cox (WA, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Link to 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.

Matt O'Sullivan (WA, Liberal Party, Shadow Assistant Minister for Fisheries and Forestry) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

I want to make a few short remarks in this discussion we are having tonight on the Closing the gap statement and report. Sadly, the Closing the gap report is another reminder that this Albanese government is not delivering the tangible outcomes that are necessary for Indigenous Australians. As we heard, targets pertaining to the development of children have worsened. Targets pertaining to the number of children in out-of-home care have worsened. The target pertaining to family safety—namely, the safety of women—has not even had data available for its assessment since 2018-19. We cannot expect to see sustainable economic outcomes without investing in the health and functionality of the family unit.

This Albanese Labor government has continually attempted to address intergenerational disadvantage with meaningless policy announcements. Sadly, the data does not lie. It wasn't a referendum that Australia needed. It is not just another ministerial statement and it is not just another report telling the story of the gap that never closes. What Australia needs, what our Indigenous community needs, is this Albanese government standing up and delivering what is absolutely essential—that is, leadership and urgency.

Prime Minister and Minister, your motherhood statements and sentimental platitudes simply do not cut it. Our communities need real action. Maybe start by acknowledging the mistake of abolishing the cashless debit card and reinstate it. Initiate a thorough inquiry into funding and outcomes, and promote economic opportunities for Indigenous communities through improved land tenure. These reforms would deliver meaningful benefits and genuinely assist in closing the gap. I call on this Albanese Labor government to provide the tangible outcomes that our Indigenous communities desperately need.

In closing, I want to take this moment to reflect on the events of 26 January this year in Perth. Tolerance and respect are foundational pillars of this great nation of ours. I want to condemn in the strongest possible terms the alleged act of terror that occurred at Forrest Place in Perth on Australia Day, 26 January. The throwing of a home-made explosive device into the crowd that was gathered there peacefully to protest their views was a shocking and reprehensible act with potentially devastating consequences. The fact is that Western Australians, including Indigenous Western Australians, were lawfully and peacefully exercising their right to express their views. Many of those views are not my views, but they have the right to express those views, and they were expressing them peacefully. They should have been able to do that in a way that felt safe. But, sadly, on that day, as we learned, they were not.

I stand with my Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander brothers and sisters, especially the Noongar community in Perth. While this incident could've resulted in serious injury or loss of life—and thank God it didn't—the fear and trauma that was inflicted will, sadly, leave lasting scars. So I stand shoulder to shoulder with the Noongar community and all Western Australians. We are united in our commitment to your safety, your dignity and your right to live without fear.

Mehreen Faruqi (NSW, Australian Greens) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

Closing the Gap—it's another colonial venture. You cannot close the gap on colonial rule and an unacknowledged genocide. As Djarindjin Aboriginal Corporation describes it, Closing the Gap 'asks communities to align with government systems that were never designed with us in mind, and it measures progress using indicators we did not write'.

The government thinks that it can slogan away the legacy of colonialism, but cheap words don't solve injustice. Yet the government cannot even manage to abide by its own agenda. How absolutely shameful but all too predictable is it that still only four out of 19 national agreement targets are on track to be met, and four are moving backwards—and this, 17 years after the first Closing the gap report was published!

The Albanese government is not delivering justice for First Peoples. They attempted a failed referendum in their first term and then just shut up shop. Intent on making matters worse, it seems, the Albanese government just signed off on the appointment of David Connolly as the Administrator of the Northern Territory. This is a man who has consistently made public his contempt for First Nations people, a man who has made jokes about domestic violence survivors and has mocked Indigenous languages. This is a white man who has said he is indigenous to Australia. But what is the punishment for this racism? It is a promotion to govern the territory that has the highest proportion of First Nations peoples.

Then we have the Allan Labor government in Victoria locking up black kids for life. In New South Wales, Premier Chris Minns has overseen a devastating record high number of First Nations deaths in custody almost 30 years on from the royal commission. In every corner of the country you will see that First Nations injustice is now core to Labor's policy platform.

How much does the government really care about closing the gap when it doesn't even know how much progress it has made since 2021 on the goal of increasing the proportion of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Island people aged 25 to 34 who have completed a tertiary education? At estimates last month, the department couldn't tell me whether they knew if the government's current initiatives would even achieve the goal of 70 per cent. How much do you really care when all you give out is empty words and half-baked programs with no regard to their effectiveness?

When a bomb was thrown into an Invasion Day protest, the police did not even call it a terrorist attack until nine days later. If a bomb had been thrown into almost any other crowd, the country would have been in uproar, and rightly so, but, when First Nations people are targeted for exercising their right to mourn, to protest and to speak truth about this country's violence, there is silence and there is denial.

But what has Closing the Gap actually achieved? Still, we have continuation of the Stolen Generation. Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander women experience violence three times more than non-Indigenous women. First Nations people remain some of the most incarcerated in the world. Incarceration rates are higher now than they were before Closing the Gap began. If the Albanese government wants to see First Nations justice, it needs to close the gap on its own racist systems, policies and practices.

David Shoebridge (NSW, Australian Greens) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

I rise here and, first of all, acknowledge we're here on Ngunnawal and Ngambri land. My home and my beautiful office in Sydney are on beautiful Gadigal land, and I acknowledge all those First Nations peoples across this country who have fought for their land, to protect their land, to protect their kids and to protect their culture. We're here to see yet another report on Closing the Gap. I've got to tell you this: as I travel around this extraordinary country, I meet First Nations people struggling to protect their land, fighting for it to stop being by poisoned by radiation, strip mined for minerals and covered in military assets. I see them fighting to keep their kids at home, to not have them stolen by government departments, who this report says are stealing First Nations kids at a greater rate than ever. I don't hear them talking about a Closing the gap report.

When I read the Prime Minister's forward of this and I read through the Closing the gap report and I see a glossy picture of the Prime Minister smiling and grinning and slapping himself on the back for making a positive difference and congratulating Labor for its partnership with Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people, I think about the communities I met in Alice Springs who said, 'Why is the federal government paying for 60 per cent of every spit hood that's put on First Nations kids in the Northern Territory?' I think about the mums and grandparents I've heard grieving for the fact that their kids and their grandkids are still being stolen. I think about the extraordinary young First Nations women I met in Sydney just last week who were desperately trying to find community driven solutions for what they said—when I asked a room full of young First Nations women about government, I asked them: 'What do you think when you think about federal government? What do you think when you think about government?' Do you know what they said? They just said, 'Racist.' It was the first thing they said. I asked them about how they felt about parliament, and they said that they just weren't connected to parliament and that what they saw from governments—they saw police and they saw their families being targeted. That's the lived experience. It's not some glossy, smiley prime minister they think about when they think about government. They think about cops knocking on their door. They think about the fact that, if you walk down the streets of my home town of Sydney and you're a young First Nations person, you're likely to get stopped and searched and targeted and profiled.

This report shows that the Labor government is just refusing to take on the states and territories. I want to give credit to the First Nations minister who says that, of course, the federal government should use its fiscal power and should say to states and territories who are putting more kids in jail and driving up First Nations incarcerations, 'No Commonwealth money is going to come without strings attached, and you can't spend Commonwealth money putting more kids in jail, and Commonwealth money can't be spent on spit hoods or torturing First Nations kids.' Let's have that in the next report, not a smiley, slap on the back from the Prime Minister when he dared go out to go out and talk with communities. If he went out and heard the reality, if he spoke to those young women I spoke to in Sydney just last week, he'd know that the glossy brochures aren't cutting it. Let's close the gap. Let's close the gap by stopping stealing First Nations kids. Let's close the gap by not criminalising First Nations young people. Let's close the gap by not profiling First Nations people as they walk down the street by racist cops across this country, because that's the lived reality. And let's close the gap by giving back land, giving back resources and giving back wealth—by self-determination. Let's close the gap not with brochures but with action.

Steph Hodgins-May (Victoria, Australian Greens) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

The time for this debate has expired.

Question agreed to.