Minister for Indigenous Australians
KYAM MAHER, SOUTH AUSTRALIAN MINISTER FOR ABORIGINAL AFFAIRS: Thank you for being here today on Kaurna Yerta, the lands of the Kaurna people. It is a distinct pleasure to host the Joint Council on Closing the Gap, Aboriginal Affairs ministers from all around Australia, as well as the head of Aboriginal Community Controlled Organisations.
I'll hand over to Linda Burney, the Federal Minister for Indigenous Australians. And also with us is Pat Turner, the head of the Coalition of the Peaks.
Linda, thank you for coming to Adelaide again and it is a pleasure to host Joint Council, a pleasure to host Joint Council.
LINDA BURNEY, MINISTER FOR INDIGENOUS AUSTRALIANS: Thank you, Kyam, and thank you all for coming today. This is an extremely, extremely important meeting. Can I firstly welcome back Pat Turner to lead the Council and thank Scott Wilson and Catherine Liddle for the work they've done while Pat's been away.
Everyone, the National Agreement on Closing the Gap was signed in 2019. It's been supported across the Parliament and by state and territory governments across the country. It's a 10 year agreement and we are halfway. We know what we need to do. We have built our partnerships and we are making progress. For example, the target on birthweights is on track. But now we must redouble our efforts and that's what we'll be focusing on today. Redouble our efforts to deliver on the ground for this partnership, to work harder and faster.
Today we are considering our response to the Productivity Commission review which found we all need to do better. It's an important part of strengthening and reinvigorating the partnership. The Commonwealth will speed up progress on the Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander review, the assembly, and the independent mechanism.
And we will continue to deliver on our significant investments like what we're announcing today. $100 million for health infrastructure places that haven't been upgraded for 30 or 40 years. We're committing $100 million today to that partnership. 33 projects it contains, from Bourke to Whyalla to Broome. Addressing remote overcrowding and halving overcrowding in the Northern Territory in a decade with a $4 billion commitment to 2700 houses over the decade. Replacing the failed CDP with real jobs with proper pay and conditions.
What targets are on track? Healthy birthweights, early childhood enrolment, employment, land and water targets. But that leaves a lot of targets that are not on track, and that's what we need to redouble our efforts today.
I'll ask Pat Turner to make some comments. And then Malarndirri will make some comments as well, Malarndirri McCarthy, who is the Assistant Minister for Aboriginal Affairs and Aboriginal Health. We will take questions on Closing the Gap and then if there are any other matters, we'll deal with those after the questions on Closing the Gap. That's OK, that's the way we'll rock'n'roll this morning. Thank you.
PAT TURNER, LEAD CONVENER OF THE COALITION OF PEAKS: Thank you very much, Minister Burney. I'm Pat Turner and I'm the leader of the Coalition of Peaks and also the CEO of the National Aboriginal Community Controlled Health Organisation.
So to begin, I would like to acknowledge that we are on the lands of the Kaurna people and pay my respects to elders, past and present. Today I am looking forward to discussing the Productivity Commission's review of progress made on the National Agreement on Closing the Gap. Joint Council has very important work ahead to continue more programs on the ground for our communities. Our highest priority must be the full implementation of the National Agreement on Closing the Gap by all governments. And with that, they must commit additional resources to overcome the huge backlog across Aboriginal Australia over the last course over the last 200 years of colonisation and the negative impact that's had on our people
All Australians want to see Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people living healthy, long lives. That's what people want to see, and that's what our job is, the Joint Council, to make sure we make a real dent in that over the next the remaining years of the national agreement. Shared decision making between governments and Aboriginal organisation representatives must be at the centre of how governments work with our people and our communities, so it's no longer business as usual and governments saying 'have we got a programme for you', it's got to be designed or co-designed with Aboriginal people and it's got to reflect the communities' priorities not only the government's priorities. So it's important that they take on board what the Community is saying is needed and housing is one of the biggest areas.
We've signed, there's been an intergovernmental agreement recently signed on housing and it's most important that every government quarantine money within that fund to ensure that priority is given to Aboriginal housing and that that is vastly improved because without the stability of housing, we'll continue to have people unable to go to work, children unable to attend school and so on and so forth. People are unable to be bailed because they have no fixed address. All of this goes to the many problems that are experienced in Aboriginal communities today. So we are looking forward to hearing from governments about the ways they can reinvigorate their efforts to get funding to our communities and our organisations to deliver the best possible services to our people.
It is important to note that there has been substantial progress and reform underway because of the National Agreement and in negotiations with us as the Coalition of Peaks. We have established shared decision making arrangements in all states and territories where our community controlled representatives are sitting down with senior government officials to agree what steps are needed to close the gap.
An area of focus for the Coalition of Peaks is making sure Aboriginal people are properly supported by big funding agreements and arrangements like the recently announced housing agreement. There are a number of other intergovernmental agreements and we're especially proud of the way that the skills agreement has reflected the Closing the Gap priorities within it and these are areas where they're negotiated between the state and the Commonwealth and they involve huge buckets of money and they knew that without having money in those agreements quarantined for our people, we wouldn't have made the headway, but we're starting to make the headway and I want to, you know, tell you how excited I am about that and how very proud I am of all the governments for committing to that. This demonstrates what can be achieved when we're working in genuine partnership. So the Coalition of Peaks are looking forward to continuing to strengthen our partnerships with government and by addressing the Productivity Commission's recommendations, we will continue to do that.
Now I know that Senator McCarthy, the Assistant Minister for Indigenous Health is going to talk to you about the 500 traineeships. And I will leave it to the Minister to give you the details on the implementation, but that implementation is being undertaken by my organisation NACCHO, the National Aboriginal Community Controlled Health Organisation and I want to tell you how very proud I am of my staff in NACCHO and all of our Community Controlled Health Services around the country that have been involved in implementing those 500 traineeships and how effectively and efficiently they've been able to progress that and Malarndirri will give you the details. So thank you very much.
SENATOR MALARNDIRRI MCCARTHY, ASSISTANT MINISTER FOR INDIGENOUS AUSTRALIANS: Thanks Pat. I too would just like to acknowledge the Traditional Owners of this land, and it's absolutely a pleasure to be here with Minister Linda Burney, our colleagues from each state and territory jurisdiction in Indigenous Affairs. But also the Closing the Gap and the Council of Peaks. You guys do a tremendous job with all your organisations and I know how much you are passionate about what we need to do at this federal and state and territory level.
As Pat says, we launched here in Adelaide, in March, 500 traineeship positions in health clinicians along with NACCHO. We see that improving the workforce of Indigenous people in the health sector is absolutely critical and I am proud to say that we have seen over 300 people here enrolled in the program, 51 trainees have already completed the program and are actively enhancing the health system. We are incredibly pleased with this. We still have a couple of hundred to go, but in such a short time this is an outstanding effort. And that is because of the work that we do in co-designing and working with First Nations organisations across this country as a federal government and I thank all who are involved with this and we will keep going. Thank you.
MINISTER BURNEY: So questions about Closing the Gap and the Joint Council?
JOURNALIST: On the health clinics, $100 million, how desperately are these needed?
PAT TURNER: Desperately needed. Some of our health services are over 50 years old and have had no investment in upgrading their infrastructure, so it's very important that a health clinic is up to standard and it is a massive help. So we've had previously $275 million invested in infrastructure to upgrade our clinics and we've got this additional 100 million, which we're very pleased to receive and very grateful. Minister, you might like to add something?
MINISTER BURNEY: There isn't very much to add really. The clinics that we're looking at, as Pat said, are very old, 40-50 years old, that had no investment and they're not up to standard and this will help get those clinics up to standard and they are right across the country, in every state and territory which is really good.
JOURNALIST: What are the dangers when you're dealing with outdated services like that?
PAT TURNER: Well, you know, a health clinic should be a place that is absolutely spotless and safe, you know, in terms of the weather and you know, not having roofs leaking and plumbing so old. So, you know, you really have to have a pristine environment to deliver good comprehensive primary healthcare, which is what our services do and look, you know, I'm not saying that that they're so unhealthy that people can't walk into them right now, but they desperately need the upgrade in the infrastructure.
MINISTER BURNEY: Some of the very old ones, or a couple that I've actually been to, leaking roofs, exposed asbestos, uneven floors and really very difficult conditions for people to not only work in, but also come and get better.
JOURNALIST: What's the significance of these sort of clinics being upgraded, I guess, within those communities and with, I guess, in conjunction with the traineeships, what's that significance of people accessing that care where they live and where they are?
PAT TURNER: What was the last part?
JOURNALIST: What's the significance of people being able to access that upgraded care in their own communities rather than travel?
PAT TURNER: It's amazing and I'll hand over to the Assistant Minister first and then I will add to what she has.
ASSISTANT MINISTER MCCARTHY: This announcement is absolutely significant on top of, as what Pat said, the $270 million initially with infrastructure across the country. I'll give you an example, just in the NT alone, we have four of the clinics largely in East Arnhem. There is one in the Pintupi area. The one that I do want to mention though, is the Yarralin clinic. Now you may not have heard of Yarralin, but that community in the west of the NT experienced severe flooding where they had to be evacuated so many times in the wet season, surrounded in all sorts of ways. The only thing they had was the clinic and the store to look after them. So to think that they are now going to receive around $8 million to have a new clinic will mean so much to that community.
PAT TURNER: Yeah, and like I said, our sector is a very old sector, you know, well over 50 years old and we've been delivering comprehensive primary healthcare to our people when others have been unable to and in comprehensive healthcare, it's not only delivering, you know, I'm sick and I need the doctor to see me, or the health worker and the nurses, to help, it's about providing continuity of care, so we have a lot of patients with comorbidities and it's the management of those patients on an ongoing basis that these clinics provide the base for and in remote areas, it's very important that we attract qualified staff and by having the 500 traineeships we're adding to our capacity to improve our delivery of comprehensive primary health care. Thank you.
MINISTER BURNEY: OK. Any other, any more questions re: Closing the Gap?
JOURNALIST: Yeah, I might just ask, you mentioned before that under the agreement there are a lot of targets that are on track, but many that aren't, I guess. Can you touch on the ones that you're still hoping to make progress on?
PAT TURNER: Well, we've got in the justice area, of course, the rate of imprisonment of Aboriginal adults, both men and women. We've seen a striking increase in the raising, you know, in the numbers of women going to jail. And you know when they're married and they've got children that leaves the family in great distress. We need to lower the numbers of our people who are incarcerated, right across the board. Now you know the reform of bail arrangements is really important for the states to do. And I know that South Australia are progressing, that I had an excellent meeting with the South Australian Cabinet on Wednesday or yesterday. And I want to congratulate the Minister for his leadership on Closing the Gap within the South Australian government. They are definitely looking at the issue of reforming the bail requirements because, as I said, why housing is so important is if people don't have an address to be bailed to, they're kept on remand and 90% of the current adults in prison in South Australia are on remand. So you can see that there's a gaping hole that needs to be filled with a much more progressive arrangement to, you know, improve that statistic. So housing is another one. And, you know, housing is very expensive, especially in remote areas. And we all know that.
So you know it's important, I believe, for the state governments to sit down with Aboriginal communities on the design of the houses in remote areas and also ensure that they're investing in climate proof housing because we can't have people living in temperatures of over 40 degrees with no, you know, relief, and likewise, we can't have people in the South freezing in the middle of winter because there's no ventilation or whatever or no heating. So you know the whole range of other of the 17 targets, every jurisdiction in Australia has to lift its game and make sure. I think that there is merit in focusing on the highest priority areas like justice and housing.
But our children have to be looked after in this process so early childhood development is very important. We've had some important initiatives announced by the Commonwealth in relation to early childhood and our peak organisation SNAICC is doing a wonderful job working in partnership with the Commonwealth and states to implement that program and get things rolling out on the ground and likewise our domestic violence area where there's been a huge announcement in that regard and we will be getting resources directly into our communities to assist with domestic violence and keeping women and children safe.
JOURNALIST: Just on that early child development, how can it be, I guess, that so many First Nations kids are considered not developmentally ready for school and what commitments are there to correct that?
PAT TURNER: This is Catherine Liddle, who's the CEO of SNAICC which is the National Voice of Our Children.
CATHERINE LIDDLE: Thank you Aunty Pat. Look, I think it goes to exactly what Aunty Pat and the Minister have been speaking to. You cannot budge those targets unless things like health are budging, like housing is budging. In order to keep children safe then they need to have safe communities. What we know is that the investments into additional child care centres that we've seen under things like the CCCFR expansion, we know the commitments to developing a better workforce and a bigger workforce are extraordinary investments.
We've seen changes to the activity test, which has been identified as the biggest barrier to our families being able to access early education and care over the past decade also starting to budge.
So these commitments are all starting to now move the dial on it, but the truth thing is, if we're going to make a change in the early childhood and early development space, then we also need to be ensuring that every single one of these targets we're talking about is seeing some movement.
JOURNALIST: What's your response to the story out of Queensland today, where police liaison officers have been accused of allowing First Nations to cosplay as criminals, according to members of the community, by inviting them to play in the back of a police wagon at a NAIDOC event - is there anything...
MINISTER BURNEY: I haven't seen that report, so I'm unable to respond except to say broadly that obviously the relationship between Aboriginal people and the police has been fraught in the past, but I see great areas of improvement of people, police participating in Aboriginal programs and a real effort being made.
PAT TURNER: So I just want to say that we have 4 priority reforms that underpin the National Agreement on Closing the Gap and it's absolutely vital that they are all implemented across Australia. The third one of those priority reforms is the need for all government institutions to be culturally respectful and be culturally safe places for Aboriginal people to engage in and work is underway by all governments in that area, and so we should see improvement in terms of better treatment of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people when they come into contact with services on the ground. Thank you very much.
MINISTER BURNEY: Thank you, was there any other issues people have?
JOURNALIST: Do we have time to ask any further questions?
MINISTER BURNEY: Yeah, you have one more.
JOURNALIST: It was an election promise that Labor would implement the Uluru Statement in full, will Labor be supporting the Greens' national truth telling body?
MINISTER BURNEY: The discussions are underway, the legislation that Dorinda Cox from the Greens put forward along with David Shoebridge has been introduced into the Parliament. There has not been a debate yet and that debate will happen when Parliament goes back. But clearly Labor is committed to the issue of truth telling. I am so thrilled that every state and territory has a process underway for treaty and truth telling and whether Labor supports that legislation or not has not been determined yet.
