2018-02-12
Closing the Gap progress could only really go up from last year’s annual report, but we still have a really long way to go, Australian Greens Senator Rachel Siewert said today.
“While I welcome the improvement in three out of seven targets to close the gap, that still leaves four important targets not on track. We have a long way to go”, Australian Greens Senator Rachel Siewert said today.
“We are still not on track for life expectancy, employment, reading and numeracy and school attendance. The Government’s approach on these important issues is flawed, with the Government’s punitive CDP measure failing Aboriginal people and communities. The Government’s remote school attendance measure wastes money that could be used to genuinely improve the school experience for Aboriginal children.
Measures such as income management and the cashless welfare card are further examples of measures that waste millions of dollars on punitive top-down approaches.
“It is important the extension to ‘refresh’ the targets ensures proper consultation with Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples. They should also heed the loud call for a Justice Target and the call to address child protection in the targets".