I begin by acknowledging the traditional owners of the land on which we meet, and I pay my respects to elders past, present and emerging.
I also acknowledge those members of the Stolen Generations who have joined us in here. I had the great honour of spending time with them this morning at the National Apology Breakfast.
Your presence humbles us, and elevates us.
The Apology was the very first order of business of the Rudd Labor Government. There are many moments I am proud of as a parliamentarian, but that extraordinary day 16 years ago remains my proudest.
And amid the catharsis it made possible, it set in place the annual report card that is Closing the Gap.
It is important to reflect on the Apology, and the courage and grace of the survivors who made it possible. As Prime Minister Rudd implored us that day:
Let us turn this page together … and write this new chapter in our nation's story together.
Anniversaries matter deeply. But what will shape the future is the actions we take now.
Sixteen years after the Apology, only 11 out of 19 socio-economic outcomes for Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples are improving. Just four are on track to meet their targets.
What should give us pause is that outcomes have worsened for four critical targets – children's early development, rates of children in out-of-home care, rates of adult imprisonment, and tragically suicide.
We can take some heart from the fact that in some areas that are off target, they are not uniformly so.
Early childhood development, adult incarceration rates and out-of-home care aren't on track at a national level, but have shown improvement in some regions and jurisdictions. That's a positive, albeit a slender one.
The Productivity Commission has made it clear that the old ways are not working.
Decades of insisting that Government knows best, has made things worse.
We must find a better way – and we must do it together.
That focus was a fundamental reason our Government sought to fulfil the gracious and generous request from Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people for a Voice enshrined in the Nation's Constitution.
Of course, we respect the referendum result.
The preceding debate brought into sharp focus the disadvantage and inequality endured by Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people.
Support for reconciliation is a core value of this Labor Government. And it is a value shared by Australians.
Australians want to close the gap. Australians believe in the fair go.
This Government remains determined to move reconciliation forward and seek better results for Indigenous Australians.
As we take the time needed to get Makaratta and truth-telling right, the work of treaty goes on at a state and territory level. There will be a diversity of processes, reflecting the diversity of First Nations across the continent.
And we will respond to their progress while focusing on our immediate responsibilities – Closing the Gap, self-determination and tangible outcomes, particularly in jobs, housing, education, health and justice.
There have, of course, been improvements during the course of the modern Australian story. When we paid our respects to the late Dr Lowitja O'Donoghue last week, it was clear how much had changed during her lifetime – thanks in no small part to her.
Her love for this country found its greatest expression in her faith in our ability, and our will, to become an even better nation.
With us in the gallery today is Deb Edwards – Dr O'Donoghue's niece and one of the keepers of her flame.
Australia has overcome much, but the gaps persist, including the life expectancy gap that gapes between us like a chasm. That is inexcusable.
Uluru was an invitation born of grace. But grace is not a bottomless well. And we cannot ask for infinite patience. We all agree that the status quo is unacceptable.
As just one example, this is what Dr Jason King told the ABC last year about the community he works in near Cairns.
We have a rheumatic heart disease rate – a medical condition which has been eliminated from the broader Australian population to a larger extent – that is 100 times the average in this country.
The ABC even had to include an explanation of rheumatic heart disease. That is how completely it has faded – not just from the general community, but from our collective memory. But not from Indigenous Australia.
But we cannot keep doing the same thing and expect a different outcome. Our approach has to change. Making progress depends on listening to people and communities. In the words of Tom Calma:
Bureaucrats and governments can have the best intentions in the world, but if their ideas have not been subject to the 'reality test' of the life experience of the local Indigenous peoples who are intended to benefit from this, then government efforts will fail.
That is why we are listening to and working with communities.
The Government is committed to the ongoing National Agreement on Closing the Gap. We are determined to work with Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people to create new opportunities and achieve better outcomes at a local level.
We must deliver real jobs with real skills, which means real opportunity for First Nations people.
That is why we are moving on from the failed Community Development Program. It created no real opportunities. It built no futures.
Today I announce the creation of our Remote Jobs and Economic Development Program. This is a better approach.
It will fund community organisations to create 3000 jobs in remote areas.
Real jobs with proper wages and decent conditions.
Jobs developed in partnership with Indigenous communities.
Jobs that will build skills that communities want.
Jobs that deliver services that communities want.
Jobs that deliver infrastructure that communities want.
Jobs that create a sense of possibility – for individuals, for families, and for communities.
This new program will focus squarely on economic development that strengthens community and, crucially, lays the foundations for long-term, positive change.
The key ingredient is engagement with community organisations and communities to identify and develop local opportunities and jobs. Those organisations will also identify the right people to do those jobs and will be the employer.
We are also increasing the number of Indigenous Rangers – which has been such a compelling success story – and developing the junior program.
We want every Australian to have access to the dignity of work.
And we want every job to confer dignity.
As part of our focus on housing, my Government has worked with the Northern Territory Government to escalate construction of remote housing in order to address the worst overcrowding rates in the country.
Together we have achieved a 200 per cent increase in the rate of delivery of Commonwealth-funded housing, building 100 homes in 100 days in 2023.
Last year, as part of Closing the Gap we committed to building 157 houses in remote Northern Territory communities during the financial year 2023-24.
Today, I can confirm that these are on schedule to be, not just completed, but be completed months early.
We have also restored funding for Northern Territory Homelands, with housing repairs across the Territory, from Paru on the Tiwi Islands, to Utopia in the Barkly and vital upgrades in sanitation and electrical safety, and water testing and supply.
This is essential, because so much of life's possibility begins with the stability and the security of somewhere to call home.
We must keep going, and delivery has to be the priority. Delivery that means better health outcomes. Delivery that means stronger communities.
Communities that get a say. And just as importantly, are heard.
What so much of it amounts to is a simple truth, and that is what Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander parents want for their children is the same as all Australians want for theirs – the same opportunity to make a good life for themselves.
The next generation is critical to change.
So I am pleased to announce that we are establishing a National Commissioner for Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Children and Young People.
The National Commissioner will be dedicated to protecting and promoting the rights, interests and wellbeing of First Nations children and young people, as well as calling on their strengths, sense of hope, and ideas for change.
The Commissioner will address the unacceptable rates of out-of-home care. What it all comes down to is strengthening families and keeping children safe.
It is what the Coalition of the Peaks and experts have been calling for, guided every step of the way by the evidence. We have listened.
An interim National Commissioner will be appointed this year. They will undertake consultation with First Nations and other stakeholders on the role and functions of a legislated independent and empowered National Commissioner.
Since we were elected, this Government has prioritised resourcing Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander organisations, particularly the community-controlled sector.
To help end family and domestic violence we are providing immediate assistance of $96 million in grants to frontline Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander organisations in supporting First Nations women and children affected by violence.
We will invest in justice reinvestment right across the continent as part of our landmark justice reinvestment programs, the largest commitment to justice reinvestment ever delivered by the Commonwealth.
Justice reinvestment is a long-term, community-led approach to preventing crime, improving community safety and reducing the number of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander adults and children in custody.
We have delivered on our election commitment to establish national real-time reporting of all deaths in custody. Every preventable death in custody is a tragedy, with a shockwave of trauma and grief that rocks families and entire communities.
Real-time reporting will ensure we have better data from every state and territory to identify systemic failures in custodial practices and try to prevent future deaths occurring in similar circumstances.
Under our Healthworker Traineeship Program, 183 students have enrolled and when they are ready, will go work for Aboriginal community-controlled health organisations.
Through elder care support, we have funded 182 full time equivalent positions to work as elder care support workers.
Through our support for suicide prevention efforts, we now have 108 workers to drive culturally appropriate suicide prevention across country.
In the area of early education, we have ensured a base entitlement of 36 hours a fortnight for First Nations children.
Last year, in January to September alone, 14,000 Indigenous students enrolled in fee-free TAFE.
We are improving access to safe drinking water for 1100 people in the communities in Yuendumu and Milinginbi.
We are improving renal services with an anticipated 30 dialysis units in remote areas over four years.
After a decade of neglect we're making a record investment of $250 million in Central Australia, for a better, safer future. We are continuing to talk to the community about how effectively this roll-out can be completed.
I can announce that includes seven new Remote Training Hubs in Central Australia. One of the first ones will be in Yuendumu. And as with every other initiative, we will keep working with the community.
There are no easy solutions and no quick fixes to the challenges facing Indigenous Australians in Alice Springs, but we are working with the community to deliver effective, lasting solutions.
Just some of what we have done includes:
- An increase in funding for police and youth services.
- Expanded family and domestic violence services in remote communities outside Alice Springs.
- Setting up a night patrol.
- Improved health services for children and families.
- New dialysis centres at Ti-Tree and Harts Range.
- Increased funding and improved programs to get kids to school and keep them there.
- Expanded safe short-term accommodation in Alice Springs.
As part of our Government's justice reinvestment program, Lhere Artepe, Desert Knowledge Australia and Anglicare NT are developing a local response to reduce crime and increase community safety.
And we upgraded Wi-Fi in four communities, which among other things gives teenagers opportunities to access study and training opportunities.
Following the success of the Community Wi-Fi trial, we are upgrading Wi-Fi in another 20 communities this year, boosting access to services and chipping away at the tyranny of distance.
This will be done in partnership with NBN Co, with access delivered via the NBN Sky Muster service and in-community Digital Ambassadors to support digital literacy.
Kids should have the same access to the same digital opportunities whether they're in Alice, Brisbane or the Kimberley.
Again, this is what we can do when we listen to people in communities.
While it's crucial to have built this momentum, it's essential to keep building on it.
We are also looking to some of the possibilities in the transition to renewable energy. Taking a leaf out of Canada's book, Energy Minister Chris Bowen is co-developing a First Nations Clean Energy Strategy.
There is already significant First Nations involvement in some major renewable energy investments.
And as Australia moves ever closer to taking its rightful place as a clean energy superpower, the potential is exciting – in job creation and in the right of Indigenous Australians to leverage benefit from their own land.
Mr Speaker
If we want to close the gap, we have to listen to people who live on the other side of it.
Canberra must be willing to share power with communities.
To offer responsibility and ownership and self-determination.
To let local knowledge design programs, to trust locals to deliver them and to listen to locals when they tell us what's working and what isn't.
That's a culture change we have to drive – in this building, in the public service and across governments at all levels.
The price of failure – over successive governments – isn't just counted in dollars, it's measured in lives.
Not every community-driven initiative will be an overnight success, but we know that we cannot just keep doing things the same way. The Productivity Commission has outlined the case for a new approach.
I am grateful for the ongoing work of the Coalition of Peaks, led so ably by Pat Turner, a great Australian, and deputy lead conveners Catherine Liddle and Scott Wilson, for their determination to ensure the success of this endeavour.
The Coalition of Peaks and the state and territory governments are vital partners in our national effort. Greater co-operation is key to meaningful, sustained progress.
My Government is enhanced by the wealth of wisdom and expertise of the Minister for Indigenous Australians, the member for Barton as well as the Assistant Minister for Indigenous Australians and Assistant Minister for Indigenous Health, Senator Malarndirri McCarthy.
I want to also put on record that I am very grateful to the Father of Reconciliation, Pat Dodson. His absence from this place is keenly felt, but I'm glad he's in the Kimberley, where his big heart belongs.
And I know that I can speak on behalf of all Parliamentarians in saying that we all wish him very well with his ongoing health issues that he is dealing with, with the same courage in which he has dealt with his extraordinary journey in life.
His legacy is in the best possible hands with our First Nations Caucus, who will keep building on it and carrying it forward.
What they and others have done is ensure that this Government listens to Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Australians.
That we remain committed to Australians having a shared understanding of our history and a united vision for our future, a future shaped by self-determination.
We are clear-eyed in our dedication to building an Australia where more families know the stability of a roof over their head.
Where communities are safer, happier and healthier – shaped and secured by the people who call them home.
Where more Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander children have the same chance to have a good crack at a fulfilling life.
The simple truth that can brighten the path ahead for all of us is that when Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people advance, the entire nation moves forward.
There is so much that we can do. So much that we must do. We can and we must do better than Governments of all persuasions have done over the last 123 years.
We keep writing the great Australian story. It's a story that goes back 65,000 years.
And those of us who've either come to this nation ourselves, or have come from descendants of people who have come over the last 200 plus years, have the great privilege of sharing this greatest country on earth, with the oldest continuous culture on earth. That must be a source of enormous pride for all Australians.
It is a great Australian story, that all of us, particularly us here, have a chance to write the next chapter – and to do it in the spirit of reconciliation.