The Morrison government has been working to reshape the Closing the Gap agenda in partnership with Indigenous Australians, via more than 50 community-controlled organisations, known as the Coalition of Peaks. By working together, we are committed to accelerating the changes we need to give every Australian the best start in life and continued success into adulthood.
On Thursday, the Morrison government delivered the Commonwealth Implementation Plan that turns our commitments made under the National Agreement on Closing the Gap into practical actions and delivers meaningful outcomes for Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples.
More than $1bn will empower the community-controlled sector, enable departments and agencies across the Australian government to work more closely with Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples, and deliver evidence-based programs that align with the 17 socio-economic targets.
This plan, along with the Implementation Plans from all parties to the National Agreement, was delivered to the Joint Council yesterday and provides a new level of transparency and accountability. It shows that governments are working together and are taking time to listen to Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples about what they want and need, and what works.
Among the measures announced on Thursday is a $378.6m financial and wellbeing package for the Stolen Generations who were forcibly removed from their families from the Northern Territory, the Australian Capital Territory and Jervis Bay Territory.
The Territories Stolen Generations Redress Scheme is very personal for me. My mother and her siblings are all Stolen Generation, not only taken from their parents, but also separated from each other, spread hundreds of kilometres apart in an attempt to strip them of their identity, land, language and culture.
Mum spent her childhood years in Roelands Mission outside of Bunbury. She would share stories like getting up to milk the cows in such an icy paddock that she had to stand in cow pats to keep her feet warm. When picking oranges, children used to stand on each other’s backs to reach the fruit that was too high, not given the tools they needed to do the jobs they were assigned. I often wondered about the experiences they didn’t talk about. The harsher memories that remained locked away and never shared.
The letters I’ve seen from my grandparents in their WA native welfare files showed they never relinquished their parental rights, never gave up on getting their children back. They and my Mum yearned for each other all those years.
No one can undo the past, but we can acknowledge it, speak the truth, and take responsibility for what happened. I hope others feel just a small part of that relief again with this new redress scheme.
Opening records and hearing stories will be painful for all of us, but it is necessary. We need to hear the truth, the brutal realities of the harm done to children and their families, and they all deserve to receive an individual apology.
When we are willing to listen to the truth, it opens up space in our collective life for understanding, healing and forgiveness. We can begin to trust each other and walk together, side-by-side, for a better future.
The scheme will be delivered in conjunction with Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples and key Stolen Generations organisations, making sure trauma-informed and culturally sensitive support services are in place for March 1, 2022 when applications open.
All of us in cabinet share the responsibility to create a better future for Indigenous Australians. With the Territories Stolen Generations Redress Scheme and the other measures announced as part of our Implementation Plan for Closing the Gap, we will work towards Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people getting the same opportunities in schooling, healthcare, and life outcomes as their peers – and ultimately close the gap.
The actions tables that each party has included in their plans will provide the mechanism to scrutinise our achievements. The Productivity Commission will independently review our outcomes, as will the new Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander-led reviews.
We have been clearer than ever on who is responsible for what actions and will make openly available data that shows the effects of these actions. This transparency extends to state and territory governments who will start to deliver their own annual reports and the community-controlled sector and Local Government Association will also highlight what tangible steps they are undertaking to progress this whole-of-nation effort.
Where there is good evidence an approach is working, we will press on. Similarly, if we all see investments are not having the desired result, we will use the partnership approach embedded into the Agreement to listen, learn and adjust to what works.
With the Commonwealth plan released on Thursday, and state and territory plans being launched over the following weeks, I hope there will be more optimism, more freedom to heal and more opportunity for our people to thrive.
Ken Wyatt is the federal Indigenous Australians Minister
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