Indigenous Suicide

The Hon. A.L. McLACHLAN (14:59): I seek leave to make a brief explanation before asking the Minister for Aboriginal Affairs and Reconciliation a question regarding Indigenous suicide rates.

Leave granted.

The Hon. A.L. McLACHLAN: On 10 November it was reported in The Australian that the rate of Indigenous suicide has risen to alarming levels, with the latest analysis by researchers indicating that as many as 1 in 12 Indigenous people dies by suicide. In 2012 the Australian Bureau of Statistics data for the period 2001 to 2010 shows that South Australia has the second highest Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander suicide rate of all jurisdictions, with 26.7 deaths by suicide per 100,000, compared with the non-Indigenous rate of 11.2 deaths by suicide per 100,000. My questions to the minister are:

1. Can the minister update the chamber on the situation in South Australia as it stands at the moment?

2. Does the minister believe that the resources the government has committed to address Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander suicide in South Australia should be increased?

3. Is the government contemplating any new policy initiatives to address these alarming statistics?

The Hon. I.K. HUNTER (Minister for Sustainability, Environment and Conservation, Minister for Water and the River Murray, Minister for Aboriginal Affairs and Reconciliation) (15:00): I thank the honourable member for his most important question. Members in this place would be familiar with the term 'Closing the Gap'. Closing the Gap is a long-standing agenda item that acknowledges improvements in opportunities for Aboriginal Australians require intensive sustained effort across all areas of government, as well as the private and not-for-profit sectors and indeed local communities and individuals.

Closing the Gap targets set out in the National Indigenous Reform Agreement, which commits the commonwealth, states and territories to closing the gap in Aboriginal disadvantage related to areas such as life expectancy, child mortality, education and employment. Closing the Gap builds on the foundation of respect and unity provided by the 2008 national apology to Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples.

In regard to the issues raised by the honourable member, can I say that today—and honourable members may have caught up with this—a report was released: the sixth edition of the Productivity Commission Report on Overcoming Indigenous Disadvantage. As I have stated in this place many times, the government is committed to closing the gap in Aboriginal disadvantage but we need to work with Aboriginal South Australians to support better outcomes across all of government programs and policy initiatives across all levels of government.

The national Overcoming Indigenous Disadvantage report was released today, and for those who are not aware, the report measures the wellbeing of Aboriginal Australians across seven strategic areas, including governance, leadership and culture; early childhood development; education and training; healthy lives; economic participation; home environment; and safe and supportive communities. The report is released every two years and has recently undergone a review process to strengthen alignment to the National Indigenous Reform Agreement.

Taking a brief look at the overall information in this report, nationally there are areas of improvement, such as the fact that the gap in life expectancy between Aboriginal people and non-Aboriginal people has narrowed, Aboriginal infant mortality rates have more than halved, and better higher education outcomes for Aboriginal persons have been achieved. There are also areas where, on a national level, there certainly needs to be more focus, such as Aboriginal student outcomes and achievements in basic reading, writing and numeracy, relatively high levels of family and community violence, and relatively high rates of disability and chronic disease.

South Australia is making good progress in relation to a number of these COAG targets. Of the five jurisdictions where state-level data is available, South Australia had the second lowest rate of Aboriginal child deaths after New South Wales; 100 per cent of Aboriginal four year olds in remote communities have access to early childhood education; and retention rates for year 8 to 12 Aboriginal students in government schools has doubled from 33.1 per cent in 2002 to over 75 per cent in 2013.

Between 2008 and 2013, the reading gap for Aboriginal students has improved across all year levels by between 2.4 and 16.8 percentage points, and over the past four years, post school qualification rates for Aboriginal people have improved. The South Australian government is targeting improvements in all areas covered by the report through our efforts to improve Aboriginal wellbeing through South Australia's Strategic Plan and COAG's Overcoming Indigenous Disadvantage targets.

This government is also looking ahead to greater achievements in all of these areas, and some of our examples to this commitment include ongoing support for Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander children to attend preschool for up to four sessions per week from three years of age; the establishment of 38 children's centres for early childhood development and parenting across the state; and culturally inclusive pre- and postnatal birthing services, which has resulted in healthier birth weights and a lesser need for acute hospital or nursery care, whilst improving breastfeeding rates.

More broadly, the government is thinking about our approach to improving outcomes through our considered response to the Forrest review, which may also have a positive impact on several policy areas. I understand the Commissioner for Aboriginal Engagement has handed her findings of the community consultation she undertook to the Premier. On 17 November, senior officers from Department of the Premier and Cabinet, the state Department of the Premier and Cabinet and the Department of State Development met for a preliminary bilateral discussion about the Forrest review, and jurisdictional support for their recommendations.

Our Aboriginal Regional Authority initiative, which brings together strong regional representative structures, will provide a valuable two-way communication mechanism for government and Aboriginal organisations and communities to make decisions on matters of importance to Aboriginal people, decisions that will positively impact on the lives of people that the regional authorities represent.

I would also like to mention our commitment to our draft legislation that will recognise a self-determining governance structure for Aboriginal communities. This legislation will also recognise the unique cultural authority of Aboriginal communities and set out guiding principles for cooperation between government and Aboriginal communities. It will be complemented by community capacity-building initiatives that will support improved governance in Aboriginal organisations.

Providing a legislative avenue for Aboriginal organisations to take greater control of how they are able to make headway into reducing disparity between Aboriginal and non-Aboriginal people in this state is very important, but there are further areas that require attention. I mentioned one of them in a previous answer to a question. The honourable member asked me a few weeks ago about smoking rates, particularly smoking rates for pregnant women.

There are other areas noted in this report that need further attention by governments across all levels, including imprisonment rates, juvenile detention rates most particularly; reported high levels of psychological distress; and increasing incidents of intentional self-harming activities, including suicide ideation and, of course, carrying out suicide. This government is committed to working with other states, the commonwealth and Aboriginal communities to jointly address these issues and continue our work in closing the gap.