NATALIE HUTCHINS, VICTORIAN MINISTER FOR TREATY AND FIRST PEOPLES:
Natalie Hutchins, I'm the Minister for First Nations and Treaty here in Victoria, and I wanted to welcome everyone that's here for the Joint Council meeting to Close the Gap and to acknowledge our Traditional Owners of the land Naarm, which are the Traditional Owners of both land and the river around us, surrounding us, the Wurundjeri, and pay my respects to them, their elders past, present, and welcome, all of the fantastic Aboriginal people that are here representing their communities from around Australia, I know that the national agreement that we'll be signing around Closing the Gap today is all about building a fantastic pathway for better justice and fairness for all First Nations people across Australia. So can I introduce Linda Burney, to say a few comments.
LINDA BURNEY, MINISTER FOR INDIGENOUS AUSTRALIANS: Thanks, Minister. Good morning, everyone and thank you so much for coming this morning.
Today's Joint Council meeting is very important. It's very important for many reasons, but particularly that this is the first time Joint Council has met since the referendum outcome on the 14th of October in Australia. And clearly, we'll be discussing that. But it's also really important in terms of a show of great unity, great strength, and great determination to make a difference, a practical difference for First Peoples in this country.
The one thing that we learnt out of the referendum, or one of the things that we learnt out of the referendum, is that everyone agrees that the experience, the life opportunities for Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people in this country are unacceptable. There is agreement across this country about that.
Closing the Gap is about making a practical difference on the ground, to things like overcrowding, to things like employment, to things like education, to things like justice, to things that are to do with life outcomes, particularly early childhood education, and of course, life expectancy. It deals with health issues, it deals with justice issues, it deals with incarceration, and a whole range of other things that are important to the Indigenous community. But we are all determined to make a practical difference in terms of closing the gap.
Just today, we announced that there would be the doubling of Indigenous rangers from 1,900 to over 3,800 across the country over the next 10 years. That makes a difference to employment, it makes a difference to the economy, and it makes a difference to the cultural maintenance and management of Country in Australia. This is just one example of the way in which we can close the gap and make a difference. I'm going to invite Scott Wilson, who is the co-convener of Closing the Gap, the Closing the Gap Coalition of Peaks to make a few comments as well. Thank you Scott.
SCOTT WILSON, DEPUTY LEAD CONVENOR COALITION OF PEAKS: Thank you, Minister Burney. Yeah, look it is our first meeting since the referendum. I suppose one of the things that, you know, is really pleasing for me, even though unfortunately we didn't win the referendum, was that the overwhelming majority of Aboriginal people, over 75% across the country, did actually vote Yes. So that should actually tell you something that regardless of what people were saying, Aboriginal people did want the Voice to Parliament. Unfortunately, the rest of Australia didn't come with us, although 6 million plus people did and that was that was pretty pleasing to hear.
Clearly, this is our first meeting since that referendum, as Joint Council, and we look forward to you know, progressing the national agreement that was signed and does go until 2032 and thereabouts, to sort of try and lift up hopes and aspirations but also partnerships across the country with all of our colleagues here from all of the states and territories as well as the Commonwealth.
We thank the Minister for her announcement just recently about the increase in the rangers because it is about employment. It is about sort of, as she said, early childhood development, we look forward to hearing from the progress the states and territories and the Commonwealth have made since the referendum, and also will continue to make, in today's meeting. We also look forward to sort of, you know, coming up with new and better ways to actually close that gap, because that's one of the important things that we can't lose sight of. You know, people, Aboriginal people shouldn't be dying at ages of 47 and things like that. They shouldn't be suffering from disproportionate health problems that non-Indigenous Australians have. So we look forward, as I've said, to the meeting today and progressing the Closing the Gap agenda as we go into the new year, thank you.
LINDA BURNEY: Thank you. Is there anyone else that would like to? Thank you, everyone. Any questions?
JOURNALIST: The Productivity Commission draft report says more needs to be done to ensure more Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander children have access to early childhood education. So what do you think is the main barrier for this at the moment?
LINDA BURNEY: Say that last bit again?
JOURNALIST: What do you think is the main barrier at the moment?
LINDA BURNEY: Clearly, the Productivity Commission's interim report on early childhood education provision in Australia is important to help us shape the way forward. But I do make the point that we've opened something like 55 new childcare centres in Australia since coming to government. We've made an incredible financial commitment to early childhood education, which is a multi-billion dollar commitment and making enormous difference to many people in terms of their childcare fees. But for young families with two or three young children, this is an incredibly important issue.
The Minister for Education, Jason Clare, and the Minister for Early Childhood Education, Anne Aly, will be obviously making comments but the Government sees this as a very important step in our childcare journey. And of course, it's important to remind ourselves that people comment, people can engage, and the final report will be brought down mid-year next year, and clearly it's important for the government and we will be taking it very seriously.