Indigenous lives are at risk as the Federal Government misses by a long shot its own Closing the Gap targets, with only four of 19 key areas on track for improvement and four others actually getting worse in the past year.
Prime Minister Anthony Albonese says there’s more work that needs to be done to close the gap. just 11 of 19 socio-economic targets met. Of the remaining 8 targets, only four are on track for improvement and the four others have actually gotten worse in the past year.
Dja Dja Wurrung Group CEO, Rodney Carter, sat down with in-house Reporter, Tayla Oates, to discuss how the gap affects the Djaara community.
The Prime Minister says he is determined to close the gap between Indigenous and non-Indigenous Australians. The report was released on the 16th anniversary of Kevin Rudd’s Sorry Speech – when he apologised to the stolen generation.
The government has announced hundreds of millions of dollars for job programs, communications and justice issues in Indigenous communities, in a major response to the latest statistics from the annual Closing The Gap report card.
The damning productivity commission report warned the Closing The Gap agreement was on the brink of failure without major reforms.
The prime minister, Anthony Albanese, says those statistics “should give us pause.”
“We cannot ask for infinite patience. We all agree that the status quo is unacceptable,” the PM said.
The report notes that the only areas that are improving and on track to meet targets are: engaging children in early education, economic participation, and youth detention statistics.
Indicators around life expectancy, children’s health, education, youth employment, housing, and Indigenous people maintaining cultural and economic relationships with land are improving but still not on track to reach goals.
Albanese said some targets which were not on track “have shown improvement in some regions and jurisdictions”, calling it a “slender” positive.
