Indigenous Territorians being left behind, latest ‘Closing the gap’ report shows

INDIGENOUS Territorians are still being left behind the rest of the country according to the latest Closing the Gap report, with only one out of seven targets on track

Indigenous students in the Territory are still being left behind the rest of the country, according to the latest Close the Gap report

• Closing the Gap report makes for sad reading for NT indigenous children

INDIGENOUS Territorians are still being left behind the rest of the country, according to the latest Closing the Gap report, with only one out of seven targets on track.

Prime Minister Scott Morrison delivered the annual report on Wednesday which showed the NT was the only jurisdiction not on track to meet its target for early childhood enrolments in 2025.

In 2018, early childhood education enrolment rates in the NT sat at 76.4 per cent, falling behind the national rate (86.4 per cent).

Education Minister Selena Uibo said the NT Government had invested $35.6 million in an early childhood program to improve these rates in 2018, among other initiatives.

Education Minister Selena Uibo has blamed the Federal Government for the NT only being on track to meet one out of seven of its Closing the Gap targets. Picture: Justin Kennedy

She put the blame back on to the Federal Government for pushing back dates to consider the refresh targets, as four of the seven targets expired in 2018.

The report also shows the Northern Territory continued to have the highest indigenous child mortality rate (305 per 100,000) over the period 2014 to 2018.

Attendance rates for indigenous students declined in the NT between 2017 and 2019.

The situation was even worse in remote parts of the Territory, where secondary and primary school attendance rates were below 60 per cent in 2019.

Miwatj Health CEO Eddie Mulholland said he felt indigenous kids living in remote communities were slipping through the cracks because of the Federal Government’s one size fits all approach.

“Frankly speaking you really need a separate strategy to deal with the remote areas,” he said.

“When you see 60 per cent of kids aren’t going to school, obviously they still aren’t being engaged.

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“All these communities should be resourced to do run more activities because there’s nothing for kids under 15 in most places.”

Northern Territory Labor senator Malarndirri McCarthy slammed the Morrison government on the latest Closing the Gap report for failing to reduce the disparity in health, education and employment outcomes for indigenous Australians.

“It’s been five years when Tony Abbott got rid of $500 million to the Aboriginal Affairs budget in this country, and we have seen year after year, a breaking down even further into poverty,” she said.