Last week, Australian Prime Minister Tony Abbott gave his first Closing the Gap report and parliamentary address. The report noted the six Closing the Gap targets which relate to: life expectancy, child mortality, education and employment of Australia’s Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people. Governments have agreed to work in partnership to close the gap since meeting in 2008 and setting up the framework. The Closing the Gap framework and the six targets set by the Council of Australian Governments (COAG) is a national approach to close the gap between Indigenous and non-Indigenous people.
“I think it’s great that we have bipartisan support from both sides of parliament, in both the state and the federal government, to close the gap,” notes Andrew Jackomos, Victoria’s Commissioner for Aboriginal Children.
“And I think it’s great that we’ve taken it away from a party specific approach, because if we are going to make a difference it has to be generational differences, we are not going to achieve sustainable goals overnight, governments will come and go and we need to be consistent in that.”
In the 2013 report, it warned that “there has been no progress on the employment target and, while indigenous life expectancy has improved, the pace of change is far too slow to close the gap by 2031”.
This is one issue Mr Jackomos also agreed needs some serious consideration, but he adds in order to address this issue, the framework needs to address education, as this is the foundation to gaining future employment and breaking habits of the community. He says according to the report, “employment is slipping backwards” and the way to address this is through early years education.
A proposal to Warren Mundine, chief advisor to the PM on indigenous affairs – to the federal government, and to all states and territories – which will see the diversion of young Aboriginal people from youth justice centres and custody into jobs and training opportunities, is a step in the right direction, says Mr Jackomos.
“I just think that’s a fantastic proposal that the Victorian government and the attorney general and the premier should grasp. And I am encouraged by what appears to be a positive response by the WA government of that initiative.
“Too many of our young children are leaving child protection without the right education and employment opportunities, and are ending up in youth justice, and if we can break the cycle, then one, it socially benefits our community and the broader community, but also, it costs less,” Mr Jackomos says.
“It costs less to put a young kid in a training program or employment than it does to house them in youth detention. It saves the broader community money in the long run. And once you’ve experienced youth justice you are more likely to come back to the adult system, and once you are in the adult system, Kooris are more likely to come back, as you go back to the same environment where there are no jobs and these dysfunctional communities, so anywhere we can break the cycle I strongly encourage the Premier and the Attorney General to consider these options in cabinet.”
With education, he says Australia’s Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander children may be faced with barriers, preventing them from getting an all-round education. Some of these barriers include the curriculum and ensuring it’s right but also culturally sensitive; access issues such as transport; poverty, with some families not having enough money to send their children to school; culturally appropriate staff and teachers; and culturally appropriate buildings.
As part of his job, but also his own personal mission, Mr Jackomos is most concerned about the community’s most vulnerable – the children. He says these are the most disadvantaged from the beginning and tend to get stuck in the vicious cycle and find it hard to break it.
“I am particularly concerned about vulnerable Aboriginal children – children in out of home care, in residential care,” he starts.
“Unfortunately, we see in growing numbers of our children in out of home care, and sadly they are behind the eight ball when it comes to education
outcomes, health outcomes, and we need to ensure, in any new government policy on Aboriginal education, we need to ensure we don’t forget the most vulnerable in our community.”
When asked if there were any other findings or areas of concern from the Closing the Gap report, Mr Jackomos said:
“We need to work a lot more in reducing smoking, particularly with young mums and young mums to be. We have a number of children born under birth weight.”
“We need to address the level of family violence in our community, and not just in the Koori community, but a lot of other communities where it is a hidden secret,” he says.
“A lot of our children in out of home care are coming to us as a result of family violence, which has been driven by alcohol and drug abuse. And while ice is prevalent we also have a huge problem with alcohol which is the primary driver and unfortunately I don’t see the government investing as much as it should – working with the Koori community – to address the effects of alcohol and drugs in family violence on our families and on our children and we can’t walk away from that. We need to tackle it.”