HANSARD
SITTING CALENDAR
SEARCH
LIVE BROADCAST
Hansard Dynamic Subject Index
House of Assembly - Fifty-Fourth Parliament, Second Session (54-2)
2020-06-02 Daily Xml
Contents
Pdf Xml

Indigenous Disadvantage

Ms BEDFORD (Florey) (14:43): My question is to the Premier in his role as Minister for Aboriginal Affairs. What improvement has your government achieved in closing the gap on Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander disadvantage, particularly in relation to their engagement with the criminal justice system and inordinately disproportional incarceration rates and health outcomes, especially concerning the audit requested on the number of dialysis patients living on the APY lands?

The Hon. S.S. MARSHALL (Dunstan—Premier) (14:43): I thank the member for her question, especially as we are at the moment at the end of Reconciliation Week, a Reconciliation Week quite different from any other. I know that we did have a Reconciliation SA breakfast last week, often attended by more than 1,000 people; this time it was on the Zoom format that so many of us are now becoming very accustomed to.

Nevertheless, it was an excellent breakfast with an excellent speaker, Pat Turner, and an excellent theme this year, which was 'In this together'. This theme was actually devised way back, I think, early in the year or late last year before we had even heard of COVID-19, but I can't think of a more apt theme for us in Australia, alas around the world, at the moment tackling the coronavirus, and of course it's a very apt theme for us as we continue down on this journey towards reconciliation.

The member asks a question about what we are doing here in South Australia with regard to Closing the Gap. As she would be aware, the Closing the Gap program is one which was established at the federal level, and they are at the moment doing a refresh. We have established across Australia a group of peaks who are working on the Closing the Gap program, the refresh.

There was a lot of stress within the broader Australian community when it was decided to go for a new version without really having a proper consultation with Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people across Australia, so a peak has been established. We have resourced that peak here in South Australia. Cheryl Axleby is our representative in South Australia. We are hoping that we get a response to the updated Closing the Gap report at the federal level towards the middle of this year. It's a very important task.

Many people, when they look at the Closing the Gap format, and it's reported annually, lament the fact that, quite frankly, not as much progress has been made as was envisaged when the program was originally put in place. When we came to government, we made a couple of changes at the state level. One of the things that we did was for me, as the Premier of South Australia, to take responsibility for Aboriginal Affairs and Reconciliation in South Australia; secondly, we adopted a whole-of-cabinet approach to addressing the longstanding disadvantage that exists. The member mentions health and incarceration rates, but on virtually every metric that we look at there is a deficit that needs to be made up.

That's why we decided to have a whole-of-government approach, with me, the Premier, as the chair of cabinet and every minister being involved. In December 2018, we launched our Aboriginal Affairs Action Plan, which contained I think 38 separate measures. All of them were not aspirational; they were to be delivered within a two-year period. As we are dealing with those and ticking off those items, we are adding new items on. Rather than waiting for the end of that two-year period and then starting again, we are constantly refreshing.

We are held to account by the South Australian Aboriginal Advisory Council, who meet with cabinet. Nobody meets with cabinet except for the South Australian Aboriginal Advisory Council. They hold us to account. They have their own meetings but also jointly with the cabinet. We are making progress. There is still much more to do, especially in areas like health and also in areas like Corrections.

PARLIAMENTARY BUSINESS
MEMBERS
GET INVOLVED
ABOUT PARLIAMENT
VISIT
LEGISLATIVE COUNCIL
HOUSE OF ASSEMBLY
CONTACT