National Agreement on Closing the Gap

The Hon. C. BONAROS (15:00): I seek leave to make a brief explanation before asking the Attorney and Minister for Aboriginal Affairs a question about the state's progress towards the National Agreement on Closing the Gap.

Leave granted.

The Hon. C. BONAROS: The latest update of the Productivity Commission's Closing the Gap dashboard adds a new year of data via contributions from states and territories for eight of the 19 Closing the Gap targets, which is then analysed as a means of measuring each jurisdiction's performance against that target. A media release put out last week by the commission shows the nation to be on track for just four of the 19 targets, the same number of targets as those where outcomes are demonstrably worsening.

In this jurisdiction specifically, the data reveals that while there are signs of improvement in most areas, our progress against targets (7) youth engagement, (10) imprisonment and (12) out-of-home care are worsening. When it comes to target (12) specifically—that is, to reduce the rate of over-representation of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander children aged zero to 17 in out-of-home care by 45 per cent by 2031—the commission analysis of the data assesses South Australia's progress in this area as 'worsening' and marks the assessment with a high level of confidence. My questions to the minister and Attorney are:

1. What is the government's response in terms of proactive measures in relation to those current data sets?

2. What specifically are we doing in those specific target areas—namely, youth engagement, imprisonment and out-of-home care—where we are tracking worse than prior, and also specifically with respect to child protection?

The Hon. K.J. MAHER (Minister for Aboriginal Affairs, Attorney-General, Minister for Industrial Relations and Public Sector, Special Minister of State) (15:02): I thank the honourable member for her question. As she has outlined, recently the Productivity Commission dashboard released the progress on meeting the 17 socio-economic targets that the refresh of Closing the Gap have set down.

Australia-wide, the targets are measured as 'improving but not on track'; that is, not improving quickly enough to meet the set down targets to close the gap between Aboriginal and non-Aboriginal statistics in a range of areas. 'Good', 'improving' and 'on track', or 'no change' or 'worsening' or 'no assessment' is how they are measured for Australia-wide figures. When it's broken down into the subnational jurisdictions, the measurements are 'improving', 'no change', 'worsening' or 'no assessment'.

As the honourable member has pointed out, of the 17 targets for South Australia, there are three that are listed as worsening. On the positive side, there are 10 that are listed as improving, a lot of them not improving as quickly enough as I think many of us would like to see them improve, but showing signs of improvement. The three that the honourable member has mentioned that are not improving are youth engagement, adult justice—that is, incarceration rates—and child protection, which is disappointing.

I know certainly for that second one, the adult justice, the incarceration rate, I have already had very in-depth discussions with my new ministerial colleague the Hon. Emily Bourke about the sorts of programs that are currently being run, how effective they are, but what more we can do. There are many advocates and I know that when we have had meetings with the cabinet and representatives of the Joint Council on Closing the Gap, Pat Turner and Scott Wilson from SAACCON in South Australia, that certainly has been one focus of discussions at altering the incarceration rates.

In the children in out-of-home care we are starting to see, I am informed, some small but promising signs of progress towards our target 12. I am advised that South Australia reported that 97.4 per cent of Aboriginal children who exited care in 2021 did not return to care in 12 months. I am informed that was the highest of all reporting jurisdictions, in terms of that figure of not returning to care in 12 months. I am informed that it is more than 10 per cent higher than the national figure of 86.8 per cent, so there are some improvements in those areas.

My colleague the Minister for Child Protection, the Hon. Katrine Hildyard, will be able to give a further and better explanation than I can about investments such as setting up the Aboriginal peak body for children and young people in care that has recently been established—funding things like the Strong Start program.

The honourable member specifically asked about what further we are doing in relation to Aboriginal children in care and youth justice. One of the things that we are doing is the Aboriginal Youth Court. I think the honourable member was at the launch of that Youth Court, maybe 18 months ago, in Adelaide. We are evaluating now its effectiveness. There have been something like a dozen young Aboriginal people as participants in there with very significant intervention, which is regularly monitored with Aboriginal elders and the Youth Court before sentencing. I might get a bit more information about some of those things from my colleague Minister Katrine Hildyard, but also about the Youth Court program, to be able to bring back a more complete answer for the honourable member.