Latest news with #ClosingTheGap
The Guardian
26-05-2025
- Politics
- The Guardian
Aboriginal people feel Labor isn't listening to them after voice defeat, Uluru statement co-author says
One of the architects of the Indigenous voice to parliament says Aboriginal Australians increasingly feel the government isn't listening to their views on laws and policy design, warning against closed-shop public consultations in the wake of the referendum defeat. Megan Davis, a constitutional scholar and signatory to the Uluru statement from the heart, said the re-elected Albanese government was facing growing displays of discontent and needed a new approach to improve the lives of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people. Davis said Indigenous policy frameworks were failing and engagement with government was subject to growing 'exclusivity'. 'They consult only those who have contracts with them, or are enlisted in the Closing the Gap 'partnership', so to speak,' she told Guardian Australia. 'Good public policy cannot be served by limiting your consultation to a hermetically sealed segment of a community. 'As a consequence, many Aboriginal people are now saying that the no vote has been interpreted as bureaucrats and government no longer needing to listen to community voices on laws and policies.' Sign up for Guardian Australia's breaking news email The comments come at the start of National Reconciliation Week, and on the eighth anniversary of the release of Uluru statement, the 2017 request from Indigenous leaders built around the concepts of voice, treaty and truth. Running until 3 June, Reconciliation Week follows heated debate about Indigenous welcome to country ceremonies during the election campaign. After Labor's 2022 victory, Anthony Albanese committed to implementing the Uluru statement in full but promised a different approach after the October 2023 referendum was soundly defeated by voters. Last year the prime minister said Labor would deliver the first comprehensive economic policy for Indigenous Australians, part of efforts to close the disadvantage gap. He used a speech at the Garma festival to pledge improved avenues for private-sector investment and to lift home ownership in Indigenous communities, as well as helping companies and job creators to directly reach Indigenous people. Speaking from Harvard University, where she is a visiting professor, Davis said Albanese's vision of 'progressive patriotism' and Australian design models was at odds with the agenda of Indigenous reconciliation, which was first conceived overseas. She said Australia's brand of reconciliation was too limited to private actors and private action. 'That of course has its place and like many mob I have served my time on reconciliation action plans, but it doesn't ask anything of the state that is structural,' she said. 'It's the structural [change] – the public structures of the state – that incontrovertibly lead to change.' Sign up to Breaking News Australia Get the most important news as it breaks after newsletter promotion The federal government declined to respond to the comments on Sunday. Despite the voice defeat, Davis said Uluru advocates wanted to meet non-Indigenous Australians, 'and yarn about the things we have in common and the things that we don't and the things we can agree on and the things we disagree on'. 'After all, the word parliament comes from 'parle', the French word for speak,' she said. 'That's what the voice is about and that's what we are doing now is speaking, speaking to yes and no about the referendum and yarning about our shared future.' Albanese's post-election reshuffle included the Northern Territory senator Malarndirri McCarthy as minister for Indigenous Australians and Marion Scrymgour, the MP for Lingiari, as the government's special envoy for remote communities. This month Scrymgour said she would speak to Albanese about progressing the remaining elements of the Uluru statement, to help the country heal and move forward. The Cape York leader Noel Pearson told the Australian newspaper after the election that Albanese had run away from Indigenous policy, likening his moves to a Houdini-like disappearance. Davis said Indigenous people deserved to be consulted on the decisions which affected their lives, 'because we know our communities better than you and the laws and policies will be of a better quality'.
ABC News
09-05-2025
- Health
- ABC News
Tamworth Regional Council signs 'historic' deal with Aboriginal communities to close the gap
Tamworth has become the first Australian town to launch a "historic" partnership between the local council and Aboriginal organisations that will embed Closing the Gap targets into local government processes. The Mara Ngali partnership — meaning "two hands" in the language of the Gomeroi people — was officially signed on Friday by representatives of Tamworth Regional Council and local Aboriginal community-controlled organisations. After a smoking ceremony, the agreements were formally signed at a gathering at the Tamworth Botanic Gardens bush chapel. Daisy Cutmore, the chair of Tamworth Local Aboriginal Land Council, who signed the agreement, said it was an opportunity to support local solutions and create lasting change. "All these pilot programs have turned into nothing, and all it has caused is dysfunction and sorrow within our communities because when stuff has happened in the community, it's been good, but then it's been taken away," she said. "This should ensure that our needs are met and realised in a formalised manner." The agreement means Aboriginal voices will take part in "shared decision-making" with council to help address the 17 Closing the Gap targets, Tamworth Regional Councillor Marc Sutherland said. Cr Sutherland, the first Gomeroi person to be elected to the council, introduced the motion about four years ago. "I'm excited, this has been one of my aspirations of running for local council," he said. "Aboriginal communities have been pushing for partnerships with government for decades. "We haven't always had the best relationship with local government, and so having a formal partnership where we can establish that relationship in a positive way is a massive step forward." First Nations signatories include the local Aboriginal Legal Service, the land council, the Aboriginal Medical Service and several education providers. "It's about being community led, and that we all have a responsibility to the place that we live and the people who live here, and that's been echoed through our culture for thousands of years, and local governments are no different," Cr Sutherland said. Pat Turner, the lead convener of the national Coalition of Peaks, said the partnership was a landmark moment that was led by First Nations people at a local level. "This is a historic first. Never before has a local government made such a formal and genuine commitment to close the gap in partnership with our people," she said in a statement. "This is what self-determination looks like — the Aboriginal community driving change, with governments walking alongside us, and real accountability built in from the ground up." Aunty Catherine Trindall, the chairperson of the Tamworth Aboriginal Medical Service, said the agreement won't be the solution to every challenge, but it will be a "springboard" for meaningful change. "There's a lot of community who are unsure and quite frustrated when you hear the words 'closing the gap,'" she said. "But as the Aboriginal Medical Service treasurer Charles Lynch says, 'It's really about bettering the gap,' and now we have a mechanism with local government to actually hold them account." The National Closing the Gap targets were introduced in 2008 to address the severe disadvantage that First Nations people were experiencing across many areas, including health, housing, education and employment. In 2020, the national agreement was re-signed, but this time with a different approach. The new agreement followed extensive consultation led by the Coalition of Peaks, the national collective of Aboriginal community-controlled organisations (ACCOs), aimed at changing the way governments work with First Nations communities. Under the agreement, each level of government, including local councils, signed up to working with the Coalition of Aboriginal Peak Organisations (CAPOS). However, Cr Sutherland said there are only six CAPOS across the nation that have been established at a local level, with Tamworth being the only one in New South Wales. The lack of CAPOS means there has been no formal mechanisms for local governments to address the Closing the Gap targets in partnership with communities, he said, nor a framework for holding local governments to account. In Tamworth, Aboriginal people make up 13 per cent of the population, compared to 3.8 per cent of the national population. Cr Sutherland said the agreement includes a "shared road map for action" and council will have to report back on how it's implemented. "[The council] have budgets and resourcing plans to be able to deliver on those outcomes, and every quarter they report back," he said. "This is a positive step forward in guaranteeing that councils are working in partnership with our Aboriginal community organisations because we're all fighting for the same thing, we all want better outcomes." The road map includes five priority areas: formal partnerships and shared decision-making, strengthening the community-controlled sector, culturally safe and accountable council services, transparent data sharing, and boosting Aboriginal employment and economic development. For Aunty Catherine, the practical changes she hopes will come from this agreement include truth-telling, employment and business opportunities, as well as agreements around cultural business, like creating a "keeping place" in Tamworth. "Whether or not there's an inappropriate [street sign] that comes from colonisation, that's up to us to determine whether we want it changed or want a reminder that this is what happened, like Burying Creek Ground near the northern tablelands," she said. Gomeroi man Bradley Flanders — also Aunty Catherine's son — said it was a "momentous" agreement. "The Tamworth community has always had a very strong Aboriginal community," he said. "But now it's given us the power to actually put some action behind those conversations and really establish a solid connection between not only Aboriginal but also non-Aboriginal people within our community." Ultimately, Aunty Catherine's vision for this partnership is to set up the next generation to lead healthy lives. "I don't want my grandchildren or my great-grandchildren to be sitting here talking about closing the gap anymore," Aunty Catherine said. "It's about time that we took hold of that, because they're going to be our future elders. We need to make sure that we are in a position to enable them to reach that destination long enough to tell their stories."
