Historic Indigenous partnership ‘unprecedented’
Governments have reached an agreement with Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander organisations about how to reduce Indigenous disadvantage.
Governments across Australia have reached historic agreement with Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander organisations about how to reduce Indigenous disadvantage, replacing the failed Closing the Gap initiative with 16 new targets and a “radical” commitment to share responsibility and decision-making.
Indigenous Australians Minister Ken Wyatt described Scott Morrison’s decision to enter a real partnership with a coalition of some 50 peak Indigenous organisations instead of simply consulting them as unprecedented.
He believed it would change the way Australians thought about the challenge of reducing Indigenous disadvantage.
“The Prime Minister was quite courageous in saying ‘This won’t be designed by government — we are going to work with the peaks and we will negotiate paragraph by paragraph, we will negotiate the targets and we will negotiate the way it should be implemented by all parties’, which means responsibility, all of us have responsibility for achieving the targets,” Mr Wyatt said.
“It is radical because most strategies and plans done by governments have always been led by governments and the Aboriginal input is often by consultation or committee. We have had 50 peak bodies involved in this process — that is unprecedented and it is a quantum shift from the behaviour of the past.
“I believe the legacy for the Prime Minister is that this approach will see not an increased effort but a substantial effort by everybody now to own the challenge of Closing the Gap, not just the commonwealth.”
At a press conference on Thursday, Mr Morrison said tackling Indigenous disadvantage was “a national aspiration, a national goal, a national task”.
He said previous Closing the Gap targets “didn’t look at the gap through the eyes of Indigenous Australians”.
“We told Indigenous Australians what the gap was that we were going to close. And somehow thought that they should be thankful for that. That was wrong-headed. That wasn’t the way to do it.”
“We needed to understand what the gap was, looking through the lens and the eyes of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people.”
Mr Morrison commended the Mr Wyatt and the Coalition of Peaks chair Pat Turner for their plan, describing it as “evidence-based and led”, “transparent” and “ambitious”.
Mr Wyatt said Scott Morrion had done something “no other Prime Minister has done before.”
“That is to put faith in the Indigenous community to develop targets for us all to achieve. But for all of us to take responsibility for, and for all of us to be accountable for.”
“I am extremely optimistic that we will see closures in areas to a greater extent that what we’ve seen historically in the past.”
Ms Turner described the announcement of national agreement as a “historic occasion” and said it marked a turning point in Australia’s Indigenous affairs.
“For the Coalition of Peaks, the national agreement is not just words. They represent actions that can make a real difference to the lives of our people, our families and our communities.”
“The national agreement may not include everything our people want or need to make lasting changes to our lives, but this is a huge step forward.”
Earlier, Ms Turner, who has helped design the new targets as lead convener of the coalition of Indigenous organisations, said the national agreement made shared decision-making a reality not only for peak Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander organisations “but for all First Nation’s people that want to have a say on how things should be working in their communities”.
“If the Priority Reforms are implemented in full by governments and through shared decision- making with First Nation’s people, we should see changes over time to the lives and experiences of our people,” she said.
The Closing the Gap initiative set goals for reducing Indigenous disadvantage in seven areas but just two of the targets set in 2008 — early childhood education and Year 12 attainment — were achieved.
Ambitions failed in targets for school attendance, child mortality, employment, life expectancy and literacy and numeracy.
A joint council co-chaired by Mr Wyatt and Ms Turner will oversee implementation of 16 new targets in areas including life expectancy, birthweight, early childhood education and development, Year 12 and tertiary qualifications, employment, incarceration rates, household safety and the proportion of children in out-of-home care.
The Australian has reported on numerical targets in a draft of the final agreement, and on subsequent amendments including that a target to reduce violence against women and girls aged 15 and over by 50 per cent by 2031 had been dropped.
Mr Wyatt said some targets did not have figures attached because “we have further work to do … The areas that we don’t have the percentages on require further definition and require a much more accurate definition of what are we going to measure so we do get the outcome and that was agreed to by the 50 peak Aboriginal bodies.”
States, territories and the Australian Local Government Association have 12 months to present implementation plans to the joint council.
THE NEW TARGETS
Health
Existing: Close the gap in life expectancy within a generation, by 2031.
New: By 2031, increase the proportion of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander babies with a healthy birthweight to 91 per cent.
Education/Employment
Existing: By 2025, increase the proportion of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander children enrolled in year before full-time schooling early childhood education to 95 per cent.
New: By 2031, increase the proportion of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander children assessed as developmentally on track in all five domains of the Australian Early Development Census to 55 per cent.
New: By 2031, increase the proportion of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people aged 25-34 years who have completed a tertiary qualification (Certificate III and above) to 70 per cent.
New: By 2031, increase the proportion of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander youth (15-24 years) who are in employment, education or training to 67 per cent.
Amended: By 2031, increase the proportion of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people aged 25-64 who are employed to 62 per cent.
Amended: By 2031, increase the proportion of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people (age 20-24) attaining year 12 or equivalent qualification to 96 per cent.
Housing
New: By 2031, increase the proportion of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people living in appropriately sized (not overcrowded) housing to 88 per cent.
Incarceration
New: By 2031, reduce the rate of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander adults held in incarceration by at least 15 per cent.
New: By 2031, reduce the rate of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander young people (10-17 years) in detention by at least 30 per cent.
Welfare
New: By 2031, reduce the rate of over-representation of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander children in out-of-home care by 45 per cent.
New: A significant and sustained reduction in violence and abuse against Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander women and children towards zero.
New: Significant and sustained reduction in suicide of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people towards zero.
Land
New: By 2030, a 15 per cent increase in both Australia’s landmass and sea areas subject to Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people’s legal rights or interests.
Language
New: By 2031, there is a sustained increase in number and strength of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander languages being spoken.
THE OLD TARGETS
Remains: Close the gap in life expectancy by 2031
Remains: Ensure 95 per cent of Indigenous four year olds enrolled in early childhood education by 2025
Dropped: Halve the gap in child mortality rates by 2018
Dropped: Halve the gap in reading, writing and numeracy by 2018
Dropped: Close the gap in school attendance by 2018
Amended: Halve the gap in Year 12 attainment or equivalent by 2020
Amended: Halve the gap in employment by 2018
To join the conversation, please log in. Don't have an account? Register
Join the conversation, you are commenting as Logout