Page 1302 - Week 05 - Thursday, 31 May 2007
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their own circumstances and less ready to seek the comfort of racism—the comfort that absolves us of the responsibility to seek change.
Yet here in the national capital our indigenous residents still lag on almost every count of health, prosperity and achievement. Their disadvantage may not be as stark or as visible as it is in some parts of the country but it is real and enduring and our collective responsibility. In a year that marks not just the 40th anniversary of the 1967 referendum but also the 15th anniversary of the High Court Mabo decision and the 10th anniversary of the Bringing them home report, we are all forced to ask ourselves what we are doing to fulfil that responsibility.
As a territory, as a community, indigenous and non-indigenous, we have achieved some significant things. But always the gloss is taken off that achievement by a consciousness that so much more needs to be done. Thus, while intensive efforts in our schools have meant that almost every one of our indigenous children in years 3 and 5 achieve results in relation to national literacy benchmarks that are close to or indistinguishable from their classmates, we face real challenges in maintaining those results once the children reach year 7, let alone years 9 and 12.
Strategies in place in the field of education include indigenous home school liaison officers and dedicated Koori preschools. We have individual learning plans for every indigenous child in our government schools. We have the On Track program, which operates out of Narrabundah primary school and Birrigai outdoor school, and a college transition program. About 75 public schools have signed up to the national Dare to Lead program.
In the areas of justice, where indigenous Australians are tragically overrepresented both as victims and as offenders, we offer circle sentencing as an opportunity to divert individuals from the traditional criminal justice system. We have funded the establishment of the ACT Aboriginal Justice Centre, which is controlled by the community itself and which runs preventative programs and support programs and coordinates support to indigenous Canberrans caught up in the criminal justice system. Still we find that consistently almost 30 per cent of children that we as a community need to lock up, to imprison, are Aboriginals or Torres Strait Islanders. The proportion of adults imprisoned is similar, though latterly just less than that for juveniles—and this while indigenous Canberrans represent only just above one per cent of our population.
The Winnunga Nimmityjah Aboriginal health centre, which enjoys significant government support, is one of the stars of this city’s health system, delivering everything from primary health care and dental care to midwifery, antiviolence programs, diabetes clinics and parenting classes. Every time I visit the centre I am heartened and humbled by the activity and passion of the staff and the board, and by the results delivered to our Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander men, women and children by their community.
As Minister for Indigenous Affairs, I believe that we are a small enough jurisdiction to get things right—to ensure that, as far as is humanly possible, no indigenous child falls through the cracks. That is why I have established a task force on indigenous affairs to drive the delivery of improved services and outcomes for Aboriginal and
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