Danielle, thank you so much, Matilda, Kristie and Mick, thank you so very much for making all of us so welcome here this morning.
There are many gatherings here in Parliament House but there are few gatherings which bring together such an enthusiastic and committed crowd as this annual Closing the Gap statement.
The Closing the Gap statement is important. It should be an annual statement because it forces us to stay committed. It forces us to stay focused and as far as I'm concerned there is no more important cause than ensuring that indigenous people enter fully into their rightful inheritance as first Australians and as first class citizens of this great country.
My grandfather used to say that there were three things that really mattered if you wanted to be happy in your life; your family, your reputation and your health. They're the things you have to have for a happy life.
And we all know that indigenous health outcomes have been an embarrassment for far too long. There is improvement but we have so much more work to do. Mortality rates are down, child and maternal health is improving, heart disease rates are down, trachoma will be eliminated by 2020 and as Mick Gooda noted earlier, indigenous people are leading healthier lives. Smoking rates are down and in remote parts of our country community stores are now stocked with better food.
But good health depends upon so much more than just the best possible health services – important though they are. Good health takes place in a social context and if we are going to ensure that indigenous health approximates that of the Australian community, there is so much that has to be done across a whole range of policy areas; an education, a job, a safe community, decent housing – these are all absolutely essential to better indigenous health outcomes.
I want to assure you that this Government is committed to getting school attendance rates up. We are working with the states and territories to ensure the schools are better, we are improving our own programmes to ensure that youngsters attend school as they must.
We are doing what we can to ensure that indigenous employment programmes are not just training for training’s sake, but have a guaranteed job at the end of them so that indigenous people can see the point in actually doing the training.
We are working to ensure that indigenous communities are as safe as they possibly can be, free of the scourge of alcohol which has done so much damage to so many people in so many communities.
But we also accept that reconciliation must be spiritual as well as practical, if it is to be meaningful. We accept that indigenous people need to feel that they are a part of this great country, every bit as much as members of Parliament, they are a part of this great country.
That's why I'm pleased that shortly we will be receiving the final report of Ken Wyatt's committee on indigenous constitutional recognition.
We're not here today just because we're members of parliament. We're not here today just because party politics or political advantage brings us here. We are here today as human beings, not as politicians. We are here today because our hearts tell us we need to be here because making a difference is something that is important not just for us and our political advantage, it's important for our country, for the honour, the decency and the long-term glory of our country. That's why we're here.
Many people in this room have been on a long journey. I know myself ever since entering this Parliament I have been on a journey of understanding and increasing commitment in this area.
As a new Member of Parliament I would go to Alice Springs. I spent time in the company of Charlie Perkins. As a Minister in the former Howard Government every year I would try to spend serious time in an indigenous community. As the Shadow Minister for Indigenous Affairs and subsequently as Opposition Leader I tried to ensure the commitment was not just rhetorical, was not just notional but was practical and personal and experiential.
Last year, as you might remember, as Prime Minister I spent almost a week in East Arnhem and the government of the country was run from that remote part of Australia.
Surely, after 200 years of neglect it is not too much to ask of our Prime Minister and our government that one week a year should be focused on indigenous issues. I commit to doing it again this year, later in the year, spending a week in a remote, indigenous community to ensure that the concerns of remote Australia, that the concerns of indigenous Australia, for at least one week, are at the absolute forefront of our national thinking.
In about 15 or 20 years, hopefully the gap will be closed, hopefully health outcomes will be much the same for Aboriginal Australians and the rest of us.
I hope that events like this won’t stop even when the gap is closed because it forces us, it forces the Parliament, it forces the Government, to think about indigenous Australia, to think about our indigenous heritage, to think about our shared future together because that is what it will always be – a shared future together. My hope is that all of us, white and black, indigenous and everyone else, will walk together arm in arm into a future that gets brighter and brighter every year.
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