The anniversary comes a week after a recent major review of the Closing the Gap agreement where the Productivity Commission warned that policies meant to improve life for First Nations people will fail without fundamental government changes. 

The government is scheduled to table their annual report today on the progress of the policies and programs tied to the National Agreement on Closing the Gap. This report will analyse progress from 2023. The government will also present the next Closing the Gap Implementation plan to outline the new actions they’re taking to improve the lives of Indigenous Australians. 

“The entrenched inequality experienced by many Indigenous Australians is completely unacceptable,” said Minister for Indigenous Australians Linda Burney. “And unfortunately, actions so far have not led to the change needed.”

“The first Productivity Commission Review on the National Agreement on Closing the Gap makes it clear that all governments need to do better– states, territories and the Commonwealth,” she said. “We’ll work with the Coalition of Peace and across governments to consider the findings of the report.”

Marking today’s significant anniversary, Burney met with members of the Stolen Generations and their families in Canberra.

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The national program amplifying the voices of the Stolen Generation– The Healing Foundation– has said that as the government’s annual progress report on Closing the Gap policies is handed down today, “we must recognise that Stolen Generations survivors are a ‘gap within the gap’, a statistical indicator of truth not reconciled.”

As Stolen Generations survivors age, urgency grows,” the Foundation said in a statement. 

“We must ensure consistent and adequate compensation is seen by survivors in their lifetime. And with many survivors sadly passing away, there is no time to waste.”

“We invite Australians to stand alongside Stolen Generations survivors as we renew our call for the counting of actions, not anniversaries.”

Labor announces $707m job program for Indigenous Australians

The Albanese Government has also announced it will invest $707 million in a new Remote Jobs program that will create 3,000 jobs over the next three years.  

This new program is meant to replace the widely-criticised Community Development Program (CDP). 

Speaking to these developments, Assistant Minister for Indigenous Australians, Malarndirri McCarthy told the ABC that the CDP is currently the sole employment opportunity for most First Nations people in remote areas, but over the last 5-10 years, it’s had “some really serious problems”.

“When we came to government, we said we needed to look at the CDP program and abolish it because we recognised it didn’t have superannuation, it didn’t have holiday leave– it didn’t have all the entitlements that come with supporting workers.”

“So this is our first step,” she says, adding that the Prime Minister’s announcement today is “significant” as they embark on the future of this Remote Job program. 

The government says the program will start in the second half of this year, and will be “grounded in self determination”, allowing communities to decide what jobs are created, such as in community services and the care sector, hospitality and tourism, horticulture and retail.

The post Government releases annual Closing the Gap report on anniversary of national apology appeared first on Women's Agenda.

The Commission’s scathing report says that the government must give more power to Indigenous communities to achieve real change. 

Closing the Gap was established 15 years ago, but in 2020, all Australian governments signed up to implement a new national agreement with a radical overhaul of the strategy. They committed to do everything possible “to overcome the entrenched inequality faced by too many Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people so that their life outcomes are equal to those of all Australians”. 

The Productivity Commission was asked to consult with Indigenous communities on progress so far. 

The Commission’s report has strongly criticised governments for being unwilling to relinquish control, lacking accountability and providing only tokenistic engagement with Indigenous organisations.

“Most critically, the Agreement requires government decision-makers to accept that they do not know what is best for Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people,” the Closing the Gap review states. 

“Change can be confronting and difficult. But without fundamental change, the Agreement will fail and the gap will remain.”

Closing the gap data shows that the national target of ‘no gap in life expectancy’ is not on track to be met for Indigenous males or females. Neither are the ‘no gap’ targets for areas such as healthy birth weights for Indigenous children, early childhood education enrolment rates, participation in the workforce, suicide rates, rates of incarceration or housing stability. 

There are four priority reforms in the agreement, and the Commission’s report focussed on assessing progress in these areas to identify ways to improve socioeconomic outcomes. The key targets, all of which aren’t being met, include: shared decision-making, building the community-controlled sector, transforming government organisations and sharing access to data. 

“When Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people are given ownership over the decisions that affect their lives, the resources they need, and the opportunity to partner with government, we see better outcomes,” said Catherine Liddle, the Acting Lead Convenor of Coalition of Peaks– a partner to the National Agreement and a group representing more than 80 Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peak organisations.

Pointing out that there’s been no significant funding since 2008, Liddle said more funding was needed to deliver the reforms.

“We are calling for a dedicated Closing the Gap fund, enshrined in legislation, and directed to Aboriginal community-controlled organisations and our organisations to support our self-determination,” she said. 

“Next week the Prime Minister will address Parliament on the anniversary of the Apology to the Stolen Generations, and we hope his words will be matched with action.”

Liddle also said this will be “the first time the Prime Minister has addressed the nation in a significant way” following the national referendum in October, which saw Australia vote “no” to including an Indigenous Voice to Parliament. 

Government response

Federal Minister for Indigenous Australians, Linda Burney, told National Indigenous Times the government agrees “that progress by all partners in implementing the Priority Reforms so far has not led to the extent of change needed”, acknowledging the report “reveals limited progress on the four Priority Reforms”.

In response to the report’s findings, Burney says the government will take some time to work with their Coalition of Peaks and state and territory government colleagues to consider the findings. 

The post Closing the Gap policies will fail without ‘fundamental change’, Productivity Commission warns appeared first on Women's Agenda.

On Monday, Hanson introduced legislation to federal parliament that intends to ban, in her own words, the “indoctrination of children” in the Australian schooling system.

The “indoctrination” Hanson refers to covers several topics, ranging from gender fluidity to climate change.

In a speech to the Senate, Hanson said the authority responsible for developing curriculum for Australian schools needed a “shake-up”. Under her proposal, they “are obliged to be balanced in their presentation of political, historical and scientific teaching material.”

Hanson then made clear what she considers “balance”. She impressed that human-induced climate change was “debatable” and that gender fluidity was an idea “unproven”.

“Every day Australian children are indoctrinated to believe catastrophic human made climate alarmism,” she said. “The IPCC only presents one side of the climate debate, but Australian students need to know the two sides.”

Hanson argued that schools should roll back transgender rights and parents should have to give consent before their child is taught about LGBTIQ+ issues. She also called for books like the Gender Fairy to be banned.

“These left leaning elites see life as one long battle of identity groups for social justice,” she said. “Identity politics causes division and undermines democracy.”

Senator Mehreen Faruqi tweeted that the One Nation bill would unjustly target LGBTIQ+ children and encourage climate denialism into the Senate.

#BREAKING: One Nation just introduced this terrible bill that would target LGBTIQ+ kids and encourage climate denialism into the Senate.

It belongs in the bin, not our Parliament. https://t.co/kqBkItbqMT

— Mehreen Faruqi (@MehreenFaruqi) February 10, 2020

Senator Hanson’s attempt to gag teachers and stuff the curriculum full of right-wing conspiracy theories would be laughable if it weren’t so terrifying.

The curriculum should be based on evidence and expertise not Hanson’s latest bigoted thought bubble.https://t.co/BRJgFnhpy9

— Mehreen Faruqi (@MehreenFaruqi) February 10, 2020

According to a report from The Feed, Hanson’s bill is so broadly worded, that “it could in theory, be used to do the opposite of what Hanson intended” and it assumes the federal government can legislate curriculum content.

On Wednesday, Hanson’s commentary moved on to Indigenous Australians, after the twelfth annual Closing the Gap report was tabled in parliament, identifying the government’s strategy has largely failed. The report revealed only two out of seven targets are on track to be met.

“Closing the gap is complete rubbish… as far as I’m concerned, it’s a joke,” Hanson told the Senate.

“The call for recognition is just a feel-good smoke screen that hides the true problems. The biggest problems facing Aboriginal Australians today is their own lack of commitment and responsibility to helping themselves.”

She went on to suggest that “closing the gap” was simply a marketing term used by politicians so they can feel good about themselves. According to Hanson, it’s only used so politicians can “pretend they’re doing something to lift remote, First Nations people out of their self-perpetuating hell-holes.”

She also attacked Indigenous parents for being responsible for poor school attendance.

“Whose fault is that? Lazy parents. You can’t blame the whites, when it’s your own negligence.”

Greens Senate leader Larissa Waters apologised to anyone who listened to Hanson’s comments. She said a code of conduct was needed to stop hate speech in parliament.

“It’s the racism that we’ve come to expect from her and her party. They don’t reflect the sentiment of this chamber or the vast majority of Australians.”

Also this week, Hanson has confirmed One Nation “remains unshakable in supporting the fossil fuel industry and new coal-fired power stations.”

Hanson submitted a motion for a vote in the Senate that would recognise the “value of new coal-fired power stations”. The notice also included unwavering support for the proposed Collinsville power station project, of which $4 million has already been committed for a feasibility study.

And again One Nation are protecting the Gov – now they’re voting against releasing documents about how the Collinsville power station feasibility study got ordered (we all know it was hush money for rebel Nats) and whether the Dept advised against it. Vale transparency. #auspol

— Larissa Waters (@larissawaters) February 12, 2020

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