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Prime Minister Kevin Rudd. |
Govts don't know full picture on Indigenous Australia: Rudd
Thursday, 25 June 2009
By Tara Ravens
NORTHERN TERRITORY, July 3, 2009: Prime Minister Kevin Rudd has admitted governments across Australia do not have a clear picture of what's happening on the ground in remote Indigenous communities.
His comments were prompted by a national report which found Indigenous child abuse had become worse since 2001.
The report was released at Thursday's Council of Australian Governments (COAG) meeting in Darwin, during which Mr Rudd pledged $46.4 million over four years to improve data collection.
For the first time in Australian history, the states and territories have also signed up to accountable targets.
"There is simply not enough statistical information to give us a clear indication of what's happening on the ground," Mr Rudd told reporters after the meeting.
The revelation comes 17 months after Mr Rudd apologised to the Stolen Generations and committed to closing the gap in Indigenous disadvantage.
It has been more than two years since the Howard government announced its intervention into remote Northern Territory communities, which has been continued by the Rudd government.
But the 700-page Productivity Commission report has found a worsening incidence of abuse among Indigenous children, who are now six times as likely to be abused as non-Indigenous Australians.
In 2003, Aboriginal children were reckoned to be four times as likely to be abused.
The rate of substantiated notifications for child abuse or neglect has more than doubled since 1999-2000, from 16 per 1,000 children to 35 per 1,000 children.
Overall, the report found there had been no improvement in 80 per cent of the economic and social indicators, such as literacy and numeracy.
Mr Rudd categorically denied the report supported claims the federal government's intervention was not working.
"We're on this bus because we think it's the right way to go. There's always going to be a whole lot of argy bargy around it, but that's life," he said.
"What we see in very early signs in the Cape (York) and in parts of the territory are some positive signals ...
"I regard this as barely half a step in what's going to be a long journey for us all."
However, he conceded that if governments were serious about improving the lives of Aboriginal people they needed accurate data.
"This report on Indigenous disadvantage is a devastating report," Mr Rudd said.
"We have to redouble and treble our efforts to make an impact ... It is unacceptable and it requires decisive action."
The state and territory governments have now agreed to report twice a year on the progress of their Indigenous programs.
The first of these reports will be received by COAG later this year and will include information on Indigenous schooling, health and housing.
Queensland Premier Anna Bligh said the agreement would make more transparent "what's working and what's not" while NT Chief Minister Paul Henderson said it marked a milestone.
"This is the first time in the history of the commonwealth that the Northern Territory, the commonwealth of Australia and all of states have signed up to accountable targets to close that gap on Indigenous disadvantage," he said. - AAP
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