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Thank you very much to Dr Kemp, Mr Scott, the Chairman of the Corporation,
to Jimmy Little and the other ambassadors for the strategy, ladies and
gentlemen. And may I also acknowledge the Daruk people, the traditional
owners of this land and pay respect to their very rich culture as part
of the indigenous community of Australia.
Today is a moment to announce and to launch a strategy which is very
much an exercise in practical reconciliation. It is a strategy that addresses
an area of demonstrated and unarguable disadvantage for the indigenous
within the Australian population. The right to a decent education as the
right to a decent health system and opportunities of gainful employment
are those fundamental birthrights that we ought to take for granted for
all Australians. The sad fact however is that within the broader Australian
community, there are many people who leave the school system unable to
properly read or write or to add or subtract. And the handicap that that
represents for them as they go through life is immense. And the burden,
both psychological and also in practical terms, is considerable and it's
something that is with them all the days of their life. I think it is
very important that we see the problem of literacy and numeracy as being
a community problem and a community challenge as well as it having a very
special dimension and being a special difficulty so far as indigenous
Australians are concerned.
Today is a very positive day because you have governments and communities
coming together in a spirit of good will and working together to address
in a very practical way a significant problem. And I want Jimmy, to acknowledge
the warmth and the generosity and the inspirational character of the remarks
that you addressed at the commencement of today's gathering. It was
a simple moving statement of a person's love of his country, his
deep respect for his indigenous culture and his desire to work with everybody
of goodwill within the Australian community to overcome areas of disadvantage.
It is a sad fact that Aboriginal children are only half as likely as
other children within our community to complete secondary school. And
although indigenous retention rates have quadrupled since the 1970s, they
are still only half those of the rest of the community.
But I think it is important whilst acknowledging that continuing disadvantage
and important to see today's announcement in the context of addressing
that disadvantage, it's important also to recall the fact that progress
is being made. Too often in this broader debate, we only hear what has
not been accomplished and the challenges that lie ahead and we hear very
little about some of the progress. Undoubtedly not enough that has been
made under successive governments let me say in a number of important
areas. And let me mention some of them. The proportion of indigenous adults
who've never attended school has fallen from a level of 14% in the
1970s to 3% today. The proportion of indigenous children who complete
secondary schooling has increased fourfold since the 1970s. The proportion
of indigenous people with post secondary school qualifications has doubled
in the last ten years and indigenous higher education enrolments have
tripled over the same period. And specifically in the area of training,
the number of indigenous students in higher education has risen from under
7,000 in 1996, to over 8,000 in 1999. Ten years ago, there were an estimated
15,000 indigenous students involved in vocational education and training.
And by 1998, that number had risen to nearly 45,000 students. In 1994-95,
a bare five or six years ago, there were only 817 indigenous traineeship
commencements. By 1997-98 that number had grown to a record of 5,200.
Now I mention these things not to weave any particular story with statistics,
but rather to make the point that there is hope that if a commitment and
an investment of time and resources is made, progress can be achieved.
And it is very important in the ongoing debate about reconciliation, the
ongoing debate about addressing demonstrated areas of indigenous disadvantage
that we recognise the scale of the challenge ahead of us as well as recognising
that with the implementation of the right programs significant progress
has been made and continues to be made.
And why I very enthusiastically responded to David Kemp's invitation
to come here today and to formally launch this $27 million strategy was
because I saw it very much in the context of what I've just described.
I see it as a practical way of addressing disadvantage and that has been
something the Government has sought, not always successfully but always
with goodwill and good intentions, the Government has sought to do over
the last four years, to put an emphasis on those areas that mean that
the indigenous within the Australian population as a group remain the
most significantly disadvantaged. That is an unarguable fact whatever
the views of the rest of the community may be. And it is our responsibility
and it is particularly my responsibility as the Prime Minister to address
that. And today's program which goes to the heart as David has said,
of disadvantage. He records some of the problems. The lack of attendance.
Part of the program is to encourage a greater effort on the part of parents
to ensure that their children attend school. It acknowledges the significantly
high rate of deafness and hearing impairment of children, and as somebody
who himself in his very young days had a significant hearing impairment
that was first discovered through a routine health check at the government
school that I attended here in Sydney, I am very conscious of the value
of that kind of approach and that kind of program to young indigenous
people who suffer that same disability.
Ladies and gentlemen, I am very happy to launch this strategy. I see
it taking its place along side the commitments that the Government and
State governments around Australia, and let me say that in so many of
these areas it is our desire to work closely with governments of both
political persuasions in order to solve problems which are our common
challenge and our common responsibility. You can't implement a literacy
and numeracy strategy be it for the population generally, or for the indigenous
within our population, you can't implement it effectively unless
you have the cooperation of the State government. And I'm delighted,
I haven't spotted him yet through the gloom that is the function
of television lights, but he's on the list. I'm very pleased
to acknowledge the presence of Dr Ken Boston, the Director General of
Education here in New South Wales, as well as the representatives of many
other educational organisations both government and independent, and also
the leaders of parent groups from schools within the western suburbs of
Sydney.
I would also like to particularly thank Mark Patterson, the Executive
Director of the Australian Chamber of Commerce and Industry because this
is a partnership. Dare I say it it's an expression of the social
coalition where you have the government, you have business, you have the
volunteer sector of our community, and you have individuals working together
trying to uplift people, providing them with the tools so that they can
have a better life. We will never remove disadvantage within the indigenous
of Australia unless we address the depravation they suffer in areas of
education, and health and employment. They are to me fundamental to the
process of reconciliation. That is not to say that reconciliation doesn't
have a spiritual component. Of course it does. It is a multidimensional
concept and different people see it in different ways. But a fundamental
element of it is to address these areas of disadvantage. And I see today's
strategy which represents a firm commitment of resources from the federal
government, as well as a commitment to better direct existing resources
going towards indigenous programs, I see it as a very important element
in the reconciliation process and a very practical gesture towards addressing
the disadvantaged.
I think all of us share to the full the values expressed in Jimmy's
very inspirational introductory speech. He brought together I think feelings
that we all have a desire not to forget the past or to misunderstand
what was involved in the past, but a recognition that if we work together
in goodwill we can build a better and a fairer future. You can't
build a better and a fairer future if people don't have the fundamental
educational tools to share in that future. And attacking deficiencies
in literacy and numeracy either within the population generally and most
particularly within the indigenous population is a very important element.
I thank you very warmly and particularly the corporation for having us
here today. And I've enjoyed the opportunity of hearing something
of your programs, and of meeting those that who being assisted. And I
thank you very sincerely for that and I have very great pleasure in launching
the strategy. I know it will be a success. I thank the ambassadors for
being here today, and in advance for the role that they will play in the
very successful implementation of what is in every sense of the word a
gesture of practical reconciliation amongst all Australians. Thank you.
[Ends]