PATRICIA KARVELAS, HOST: Today, the government will release the first Closing the Gap update since Australians voted down a proposal to enshrine an indigenous voice to Parliament in the Constitution. It follows last week's damning Productivity Commission report on closing the gap, which warned the initiative would fail without fundamental change. Two key targets on employment for Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islanders were last year not on track, and today the government has announced it will invest $707 million for new remote jobs program to help turn that part around. And, of course, today is 16 years since Kevin Rudd delivered the apology to the Stolen Generations. It was really a pivotal moment in the Parliament and for, Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islanders who had been taken from their families, and denied the most basic of justice, the right to be raised in your own family, in your own culture. That apology was delivered. And part of the apology at the time was this promise for closing the gap, statements to be delivered by the national parliament to essentially deliver a report card into how the nation was tracking to bring indigenous and non-Indigenous Australians on track on a level playing field. Now, since that 16 years ago, there have been well, mixed reports would be an understatement or a very mild way of putting it. The progress has been incredibly slow, and since then there have been many proposals about how to try and turn that around. One of those proposals for the Productivity Commission last week, which landed in the government's lap, was this idea of power sharing and actually having a situation where indigenous people control the outcomes in their own lives. But today, the government will deliver that report and will also deliver some of their ideas, including this idea on jobs. Malarndirri McCarthy is the Assistant Minister for Indigenous Australians and she's our guest this morning. Senator, welcome.
MALARNDIRRI MCCARTHY: Good morning. Patricia. How are you going? Good morning to your listeners.
KARVELAS: Glad to have you. There are around 40,000 people in the community development program, the CDP, which the government has said failed. This accounts for 3000 jobs. What about the rest? Talk me through this.
MCCARTHY: Sure. Well, just for your listeners to be aware of, the community development program has had many iterations. Even if we go back as far as the community development employment program in the 90s. And one of the things we do know in terms of remote and regional areas is it is the sole, sort of employment opportunity for First Nations people in particular in those areas. But over the last 5 to 10 years, it has had some real serious problems. And when we came to government, we said we needed to look at, the CDP program, which it currently is, and abolish it because we recognize it didn't have superannuation, it didn't have holiday leave, it didn't have all the entitlements that come with supporting workers. So, this is our first step. It's a significant announcement that the Prime Minister is going to make today, embarking on, you know, the future of this remote jobs program and that we have to give some confidence to, First Nations people across the states who are on the CDP currently that we have a plan.
KARVELAS: One of the things the government's saying is that these are real jobs. What does that mean?
MCCARTHY: Well, if we look at the previous iteration of the Community Development Employment program, I was actually on that program, when I was quite young out in my community of Borroloola. And it actually worked, Patricia. What it meant was that particular organizations could apply to have certain amounts of funding to then go and employ people to work in the areas that mattered to them, whether it was Ranger programs, whether it was working in the aged care. A lot of the organizations have these responsibilities, whether it was working the childcare. So, the organizations themselves, under that previous CDEP program could then, employ people. And I was employed to set up community radio, which I did in my community. So, what we were able to see was that it actually worked when there was empowerment of local organizations to determine the jobs that they wanted to see happen. And we want to get back to that.
KARVELAS: The Coalition of Peaks, which represent Aboriginal organizations, is calling on the government for dedicated and legislated Closing the Gap Fund. Is the government considering that?
MCCARTHY: Well, the government will consider many things. Certainly, with regards to the Productivity Commission report that came down last week, Patricia. Clearly, we have the next couple of months to have that conversation with the Joint Council, which the federal and state and territory governments are part of with the coalition of peaks. So, this is going to be quite critical to have a look at that component, plus many others in our response.
KARVELAS: Do you think the ideas behind the Productivity Commission's report for essentially power sharing are at odds with the result from the referendum?
MCCARTHY: Well, it certainly didn't surprise me to see the Productivity Commission's report Patricia. In some respects, just again, a further affirmation, if you like, that thinking of power sharing of enabling First Nations people to have a voice in the decisions on policies that impact them was the right thing to do. But sadly, we didn't get across the line on that.
KARVELAS: But can you still do power sharing without the yes vote?
MCCARTHY: We have to. We have to look at other opportunities. But I just want to remind your listeners that it came at the request of First Nations people. They had the solution, and they gave that to us. But the country didn't agree with it. What we have to do now is look at other ways. I'm doing that through my own portfolio areas as Assistant Minister in indigenous health, for example, where I want to work with the Aboriginal community health sector. We have over 140 Aboriginal medical services around the country and through NACCHO as well, the national body that oversees all that. We are working, constructively with them. But that's just one example, and we want to see it emulated in a lot of other areas as well.
KARVELAS: So, you're saying that Aboriginal people need to be in control of the ideas, and you know, partnerships, a real partnership or real power with the Government
MCCARTHY: First Nations people need to be at the table always, whether it's to do with health, whether it's to do with education, with the Ranger program, with science and technology. First Nations people must be at the table. And that's what we're trying to ensure.
KARVELAS: Thank you so much for joining us.