Latest annual data shows little change in Indigenous Closing the Gap targets

ABC NEWS (Australia)

Australia continues to make little headway when it comes to closing the gap between Indigenous and non-Indigenous people.

Transcript

00:00The latest data has been quite disappointing for many because it shows that little has

00:08changed over the last 12 months.

00:11Now out of the 19 targets that the government has signed up to, only four of them are on

00:16track, which is a drop from last year's results.

00:20And the target that's no longer on track is the healthy birth weight of First Nations

00:26babies.

00:27Now, when we look at the targets that are performing well, I'll just take you quickly

00:31through them.

00:32The ones that are on track to be met are preschool program enrolments, employment, as well as

00:37land, mass and sea country subject to legal rights and interests, which is related to

00:42native title rights.

00:44But the ones that are worsening across the country is adult incarceration, adult imprisonment

00:50rather, children in out of home care, suicide and getting children developmentally on track.

00:56Now, that's a bit of a national snapshot for you, but a recent feature of the Productivity

01:02Commission's reporting is now we've got the ability to delve deeper into the states and

01:07territories performance against their closing the gap targets.

01:10And what it is showing is that adult incarceration is soaring across nearly every jurisdiction across

01:17the country, except for Victoria and the ACT.

01:21But connected to that, we can also see that youth detention rates are worsening in jurisdictions

01:27like the Northern Territory and Queensland.

01:31And when we look at the performance of states and territories across the country, the Northern

01:35Territory is actually the worst performing jurisdiction in the country with eight targets going backwards.

01:44And just a reminder, I guess, of how this came about, federal state and federal state, territory

01:51and local government signed up to this agreement alongside Aboriginal community controlled organizations

01:57in 2020 to really improve the lives of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people to make

02:02sure that they have access to live healthy and happy lives as their non-Indigenous counterparts.

02:13But what we're seeing in these latest results from this report is that that's not the case.

02:17There's been a lot of criticism from experts and advocates, because these aren't just statistics,

02:23these are people's lives.

02:25And of course, there's concern for all of the targets that are worsening.

02:29But there's a particular concern or worry about the number of adults in prison, as well as

02:35the youth detention rates of young people.

02:39And when we're talking about the youth detention rates, advocates are really looking at the Northern

02:44Territory and Queensland, particularly around their tough-on-crime approach.

02:49And this week, the Northern Territory government is actually discussing sweeping changes to

02:55the youth justice laws, looking at things like removing detention as a last resort, as well

03:01as bringing back spit hoods.

03:03And that's become a bit of a concern and a worry for people like Productivity Commissioner

03:08Selwyn Button, as well as Catherine Little, who's the CEO of Snake, saying that these actions

03:17are having a devastating impact on the jurisdictions and the country as a whole progress towards

03:25closing the gap.

03:26Let's take a quick listen to what they had to say.

03:28In the case of the Northern Territory, their implementation plan very much focused on business

03:33as usual.

03:34And that's why we're seeing not much traction in relation to progress against the targets,

03:38because when you start to plan as business as usual, that's all you're going to get.

03:41You're not going to get change.

03:42You're not going to get any improvement.

03:44And what we're asking, and certainly what was part of the agreement that was signed

03:48in 2020, was to focus on transformation.

03:50There's three words.

03:52Cruel, ineffective and ignorant.

03:56In the frame of the Closing the Gap Agreement, it is the jurisdiction that shows the least adherence

04:01to its commitment under Closing the Gap.

04:03I hear it all the time, the Northern Territory government stepping up and saying we are committed

04:07to Closing the Gap.

04:09And yet it was the first jurisdiction to move back on one of the first winds of the national

04:14agreement.

04:15And that was raising the age of criminal responsibility.

04:17And the backdrop to all of this, Mel, which is important, is that this week we also received

04:25some new data that revealed that more than 600 Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people

04:32have died in prison or police custody since the 1991 Royal Commission that interrogated

04:39why so many Aboriginal people are dying.

04:42And so that is also happening in the backdrop of this new Closing the Gap report that's been

04:48released overnight.

04:51And the other key message here that we're really hearing from advocates and experts is that

04:56when the government works in partnership with Aboriginal organisations and there's a shared

05:02decision making and investment in prevention programs and solutions, we get better outcomes

05:08and we can see that from the targets that are on track.

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