As the threat of the COVID-19 pandemic recedes, Australia must turn its mind to other challenges and high among them will be the task of closing the gap between Indigenous Australians and the broader community.
To its credit, despite the pandemic, the Morrison government last July agreed with Indigenous groups on significant reforms to the 10-year old Closing the Gap program. The number of benchmarks against which progress is measured will be widened to include areas such as high rates of incarceration and land rights.
Aboriginal Australians will have a much stronger role in developing strategies and delivering services to achieve these goals. The states will also be involved.
Understandably, given the potential significance of these changes, the Morrison government decided last month to delay the release of the annual report card on how the targets are being met until July.
Yet Indigenous groups are eager for change and a report for the Close the Gap campaign titled Leadership and Legacy Through Crisis this week has highlighted the ambitious agenda they are putting forward.
Indigenous leader Noel Pearson has used the release of the report to renew calls on the federal government to implement the Uluru Statement from the Heart from 2017 and create a First Nations Voice enshrined in the constitution.
Prime Minister Scott Morrison quickly repeated his opposition to the proposal. Instead Indigenous Affairs Minister Ken Wyatt is holding consultations on creating an “Indigenous voice to government”, an advisory body or bodies, which will operate under ordinary federal legislation and face significant limits on what they can discuss.
The Herald agrees with Mr Pearson that this is inadequate and only a constitutional change can significantly contribute to reconciliation. “Constitutional recognition of Indigenous Australians is not a project of woke identity politics, it is Australia’s longest standing and unresolved project for justice and inclusion,” Mr Pearson said.
The Close the Gap report has also put pressure on the federal government when it releases the new Closing the Gap blueprint and scorecard in July.
The report called for the federal government to allocate adequate funding for the next 10 years to back up the new strategy. It has also called for significant changes to help achieve the new targets for ending Indigenous over-representation in the legal system.
These include raising the criminal age of responsibility from 10 to 14 years and investing more in rehabilitation.
The report also urges the federal government to do more to recognise Indigenous culture and fight systemic racism.
The Victorian government is to be commended for announcing last week a truth-telling commission to bring to the public’s attention the reality of the history of colonisation. The report says this can mitigate ongoing racism and intergenerational trauma. NSW should consider a similar process.
Most strongly, the report urges the federal government to give Indigenous people greater control over their own affairs.
This approach has worked spectacularly over the past year in protecting the Indigenous community from COVID-19. Only 46 cases and no deaths have been reported among Indigenous Australians even though they were seen as highly vulnerable. It shows the power of trusting local groups to craft culturally sensitive strategies for closing the gap themselves.
Note from the Editor
The Herald editor Lisa Davies writes a weekly newsletter exclusively for subscribers. To have it delivered to your inbox, please sign up here.