Effort to help Aborigines 'too slow'

Australian Prime Minister Kevin Rudd. Photo / Greg Bowker

CANBERRA - Prime Minister Kevin Rudd had little good news to tell the nation yesterday when he delivered his second annual report on his Government's efforts to close the gap in living standards between Aborigines and mainstream Australia.

Despite some incremental gains, Rudd's "closing the gap" statement to Parliament showed little had changed for a population that remains trapped in Third World poverty in one of the world's richest nations.

The beginnings of progress had been made, Rudd said, but remained too slow.

Rudd's report echoes the findings of a productivity commission study of indigenous disadvantage last year, and the conclusions of a "shadow report" released yesterday by Tom Calma, chairman of the Closing the Gap steering committee and a former Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander social justice commissioner.

While the Government had taken some positive steps to address indigenous health, it had no comprehensive plan to close the gap in health inequality by 2030 despite the commitment it made two years ago, Calma said.

Rudd was also attacked by Opposition Leader Tony Abbott, who said the Government's good intentions were not enough.

"What we saw today was much evidence of additional process, much evidence of new programmes and expanded programmes, but not very much evidence of changed outcomes for indigenous people," he said.

Rudd's ambition to lift Aboriginal living standards to national norms was one of the key commitments of his campaign for the 2007 election, and among his earliest policies in Government, backed by his apology to indigenous Australia in an emotional ceremony that reversed former Prime Minister John Howard's refusal to say sorry for two centuries of injustice.

He continued Howard's controversial intervention in the Northern Territory's indigenous communities and has begun several programmes in areas such as health and housing in a bid to reduce disadvantage.

Last year's productivity commission report said while indigenous Australia had shared to some degree in the economic prosperity of the past decade, there had been no improvement in 80 per cent of the economic and social indicators covered by its inquiry, and in areas such as imprisonment rates and child abuse the situation had deteriorated.

Rudd's statement yesterday covered life expectancy rates, infant mortality, employment, access to early childhood education, literacy and numeracy.

He said indigenous children under 5 were still twice as likely to die as other children, only 60 per cent were enrolled in early education, and despite gains in years three, five and seven, the gap in literacy standards for year nine indigenous children had widened.

"Indigenous children are more than twice as likely to die before the age of 5 than non-indigenous kids," Rudd said.

"This is a shameful statistic."

However, infant mortality rates had declined in the Northern Territory and all states except Victoria and Tasmania, and pre-school enrolments had risen by almost one-third between 2005 and 2008. The number of indigenous students completing Year 12 had increased from 30.7 per cent eight years ago to more than 46 per cent.

Employment had risen, with 53.8 per cent of working-age Aborigines in jobs compared with 48 per cent in 2002.

Rudd also announced spending of A$9 million ($11.4 million) for new services for mothers and babies, and 17 new sports academies to promote fitness and health.

But the Closing the Gap steering committee's report said much more needed to be done, including new indigenous health programmes requiring funding rising to A$500 million a year.