COAG and Indigenous Affairs policy
Prime Minister Turnbull chaired his fist meeting of COAG on 11 December 2015 in Sydney. Set out below is an edited extract of the press conference transcript held after the meeting which sets out only the comments relating to Indigenous affairs:
COAG Press Conference with Premiers and Chief Ministers Sydney
Prime Minister:
Welcome, everybody. I want to thank the leaders of the states and
territories and of course the President of the Local Government Association for
a very good discussion. It was a very good and cooperative, congenial
discussion today over many issues and we've reached agreement on some very
important priorities…..
I'm sure Adam will speak about this also but we've agreed on a new
strategic framework that puts Indigenous economic participation at the heart of
the national agenda and that is absolutely critical.
We recognise - as in the Chief Minister's words - this is not just a social
issue, this is an economic issue and we need to prioritise our economic
advancement, economic participation by Indigenous Australians.
Chief Minister Giles:
Prime Minister – congratulations on your first COAG. I think it was a very
important meeting from the Territory perspective.
We have also had the opportunity of reaffirming COAG's position with
yourself as new Prime Minister on statehood for the Northern Territory, working
towards 1 July 2018, that's a very important message to Territorians. We've had
the opportunity of talking a little bit about the federation reform and I think
that will continue a lot more into 2016.
But, particularly, today was a day where you and COAG have made your mark
on Indigenous affairs, particularly around indicating the need for the
development of a strategic framework for Indigenous economic participation.
That is something new in Australian conversation. We often hear about social
outcomes, Closing the Gap targets. We don't put enough focus on business and
employment opportunities that drive social and cultural change so the decision
by COAG today to come back at the next meeting in 2016 with a framework that
can acknowledge national principles and priorities but work bilaterally with
States and Territories, what we can do to advance economic opportunities for
Indigenous Australians I think is first rate in terms of a new initiative for
Australia.
We've been doing it in the Northern Territory for the past couple of years,
seeing major changes both in the public and private sector and to be able to
acknowledge that and seek to advance those collective desires through a
strategic framework across the nation and other jurisdictions is really
important and it shouldn't go unheralded with your leadership today and all the
colleagues around the table. So, thank you very much for that and I look
forward to 2016.
In a media statement released after the COAG meeting
titled Health funding, statehood
and Indigenous economic development key COAG issues for NT, Chief Minister Giles noted inter
alia:
The health funding challenge, statehood, domestic
violence prevention and increasing opportunities for Indigenous economic
development were key issues for the Northern Territory at today’s Council of
Australian Governments (COAG) meeting.
The Chief Minister updated Leaders on progress
towards statehood with a joint report from the Northern Territory and
Commonwealth Governments to be provided at the next meeting of COAG in 2016.
“Statehood is about equality and ensuring
Territorians are not treated as second class citizens so I’m pleased all
Leaders continue to support the Northern Territory’s resolve to become
Australia’s seventh state by 1 July 2018,” he said.
Mr Giles welcomed the Leaders’ agreement to a new
approach that put Indigenous economic participation at the heart of the
national agenda.
The Chief Minister said the Territory Government
had implemented a range of innovative policies to significantly grow Indigenous
business development and job opportunities across the Territory, especially in
remote communities.
“We’ve set a number of ambitious employment targets
and policies including doubling public sector Indigenous employment from 1800
to 3600 employees by 2020, and initiating Aboriginal employment requirements
for all Government infrastructure contracts above $500,000,” he said.
“In addition, we’ve introduced a new remote
contracting policy aimed at ensuring 70 per cent of small contracts for
construction repairs and maintenance in remote Aboriginal communities go to
local Aboriginal businesses by 2017.
“These policies set a clear direction and encourage
Aboriginal and non-Aboriginal businesses to work together in a spirit of
partnership across remote areas to build wealth creation for remote Aboriginal
communities.
“The innovation in the Territory’s approach is that
culture and economy are not treated as mutually exclusive, but as the essential
ingredients in delivering improved social outcomes in areas of education,
health and justice.
“The Northern Territory Government looks forward to
working with the other States and Territories, the Commonwealth Government and
Indigenous leaders to develop targeted actions to boost Indigenous economic
participation right throughout the country.”
Indigenous economic development
Leaders agreed to the development of
a new strategic framework that puts Indigenous economic participation at the
heart of the national agenda, recognising that economic participation
underpinned by cultural participation leads to improved social outcomes. The
framework will drive genuine cooperation, including with Indigenous leaders, to
ensure we learn from and share what works. It will also support an increased
focus on place-based solutions. This will support increased economic
independence and reduced reliance on welfare, and help achieve Closing the Gap
targets.
Early childhood and school education
are both critical in opening future economic opportunities for Indigenous
children. COAG agreed to prioritise and accelerate efforts in this area, and
set a new early childhood education Closing the Gap target of 95 per cent
enrolment for all Indigenous four year olds by 2025, extending beyond the
expired 2013 target for remote communities.
COAG welcomed Northern Territory
Chief Minister Giles’s proposal for more targeted national and bilateral action
to boost Indigenous [economic] participation. Leaders will discuss a range of
actions at their next meeting, featuring innovative approaches to procurement
that promote entrepreneurialism and real jobs.
COAG considered the report of the
investigation into Indigenous land administration and use that it commissioned
in October last year. To better enable Indigenous land owners and native title
holders to use rights in land for economic development, jurisdictions will
implement the recommendations of this report subject to their unique
circumstances and resource constraints.
All jurisdictions reaffirmed their
shared commitment to the recognition of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander
peoples in the Commonwealth Constitution, and noted the Commonwealth’s
announcement of a Referendum Council to lead a significant national
consultation process on recognition. COAG noted the importance of state and
territory governments being engaged in this national consultation process, and
Premiers and Chief Ministers agreed to participate.
Key points arising from the above record include the brevity and selectivity of the Prime Minister’s comments, the absence of commentary from any of the major states and the ACT to the Indigenous issues apparently discussed, and the lack of any real detail as to what will be included in the proposed strategic framework for Indigenous economic participation.
Indeed, it is what was not mentioned in the First Ministers’ Press Conference and the Chief Ministers Media Statement which is of most significance.
The announcement in the communique of a revised ten year target for early childhood education participation target is essentially an admission of defeat by First Ministers. The Commonwealth has made school attendance in remote Australia a flagship program, and the target for early childhood participation in remote areas was originally devised in acknowledgment that early childhood programs offered one of the most decisive policy levers for improving educational outcomes in remote regions, and played a key role in driving good health outcomes as well.
The Productivity Commission report National Indigenous Reform Agreement Performance Assessment 2013-14 released to Governments in November 2015 and publicly on 2 December 2015 assesses progress on the Close the Gap targets. The early childhood target, originally aimed for 95 percent enrolment in pre-schools for four years olds in remote communities by 2013. The Commission reported that the target had not been met falling short by ten percentage points, albeit after substantial gains in enrolments over the five years of the target.
The Commission noted that it is attendance, not enrolment which matters, yet COAG in refreshing the target, and pushing it out to 2025 has retained a focus based on enrolment. Table 4.1 in the Commission’s report indicates that the NT has a substantial discrepancy between enrolments and attendance of almost 20 percentage points; a discrepancy which is not present in other jurisdictions. By extending the timeframe to ten years, shifting the goalposts away from remote enrolments to national enrolments, and ignoring the Productivity Commission’s observation that it is attendance which matters, COAG has essentially taken the pressure off the worst performing early childhood jurisdiction in the nation, and concomitantly reduced the likelihood that the least engaged Indigenous pre-schoolers in the country receive priority attention from policymakers.
In relation to the COAG initiated Land Administration review, initiated at the instigation of the Northern Territory at a previous COAG, First Ministers were entirely silent at their press conference. There appears to have been little if any discussion of the substantive recommendations of the finalised report. Yet the Commonwealth is currently actively supporting the Human Rights Commission to progress policy development in what appears to be a parallel process, albeit with little clarity as to the actual proposals being advanced. As recently as Monday last week, the Attorney General and three human rights commissioners met with Indigenous leaders to press ahead with the land rights reform agenda begun earlier this year in Broome. The Social Justice Commissioner, Mick Gooda, in his recently released Social Justice Report called for greater coordination of the various land reform initiatives by the Commonwealth Government.
The COAG discussion was a real opportunity to provide greater clarity on this front. It is difficult to resist the interpretation that the Commonwealth is loathe to see any Indigenous issues raised before the next federal election, given the likelihood that any firm action would open up divisions within the Government between the left and the right.
To cut to the chase, the actual outcome agreed by First Ministers amounts to a classic cop out. They announced:
To better enable Indigenous
land owners and native title holders to use rights in land for economic
development, jurisdictions will implement the recommendations of this report
subject to their unique circumstances and resource constraints.
The announcement is drafted to sound positive and to suggest support for Indigenous economic development, but involves absolutely no commitment, no timeframes for action, and provides no information on the part of the states, the territories nor the Commonwealth as to actual intentions.
It is worth noting that many of the report’s recommendations relate to the Native Title Act which could be unilaterally advanced by the Commonwealth given that it is Commonwealth legislation.
While Chief Minister Giles initiated the review, it was implemented by the Commonwealth under the direction of the Minister for Indigenous Affairs, Nigel Scullion, who is himself a member of the CLP in the Northern Territory. At the time the review was initiated, Scullion was involved in a tense standoff with the NT Land Councils over proposed amendments to the NT Land Rights Act, and it seems slightly odd that Giles proposed the review to COAG given that the NT land Rights Act is Commonwealth legislation. Giles total silence on the discussion and outcomes at COAG of the review he initiated is even odder.
In the year since, Minister Scullion has backed away from his attempt to drive a fundamental overhaul of the NT Land Councils, and is now working hard to build more productive relationships with the Land Councils. Moreover, given that the NT faces an election next year, the disjunction between the high rhetoric of reform and the non-commitment to actual policy change in relation to Indigenous land rights reform seems to be designed more for electoral than policy purposes.
The announcement of a joint report from the NT and Commonwealth Governments relating to NT Statehood by 2018 are clearly in this same election-related category, though in this case the NT Government is keen to talk up the prospects of statehood in the lead up to the next NT election. Given the history of attempts to move to a state of the Northern Territory, it is clear that achieving statehood will be extremely difficult, and any substantive policy change has the potential to become a polarizing issue for Indigenous Territorians who have been wedded to implicit Commonwealth oversight of Indigenous affairs in the NT since self-government. Talk is cheap, action will be more expensive.
The silence of First Ministers on Indigenous policy issues generally is symptomatic of a more fundamental concern, namely the comparative disengagement of the states in the Indigenous affairs policy domain. The key policy responsibilities which drive outcomes in health, education, and housing for Indigenous citizens are primarily state responsibilities, yet we see very little acknowledgment of this in the public dialogue on Indigenous affairs and virtually no pressure applied to the states and territories for the slow progress on the Close the Gap targets.
The Abbott Government, by centralising all policy and program responsibilities within PM&C (Health excepted) effectively removed the responsibilities of mainstream agencies to focus on their Indigenous stakeholders and as a consequence relieved pressure on the states and territories to deliver outcomes through their own mainstream agencies. This is retrograde policy and needs to change. Poor institutional arrangements contribute to poor policy outcomes.
In a month where the Productivity Commission determined that the Close the Gap targets established by COAG over the past decade are largely not being met, the rhetorical focus by COAG on Indigenous economic development to the exclusion of underlying social indicators as well as to the acknowledgement of the importance of cultural and environmental aspirations of Indigenous citizens, appears at best insufficient and at worst an attempt to distract attention from the lack of progress on COAG’s past decisions and initiatives.
The total silence of COAG on the Productivity Commission’s call for a renewed focus on policy and program evaluation in Indigenous affairs merely serves to reinforce that Indigenous policy development has fallen into the doldrums, and currently lacks any clear policy leadership. Ideology and rhetoric flourish to the exclusion of solid policy innovation.
While COAG and the Productivity Commission have formal coordination and monitoring roles in ensuring the states and territories are up to the mark in addressing Indigenous disadvantage, the stark political reality is that it is the Commonwealth which must keep the pressure on the federation to keep moving forward in this area.
In circumstances where the laggard jurisdiction in so many areas is the NT, it is apparent that for a Prime Minister to appoint a Territorian as Minister for Indigenous Affairs has the potential to create a conflict of interest in political and policy terms. The Indigenous policy outcomes of the recent COAG meeting – particularly the silence on the early childhood target and the land administration review - provide tangible demonstration that these concerns are more than hypothetical.
Prime Ministers are known to ask trusted experts and advisers “what are the two or three things I should do in the Indigenous policy area?” My unequivocal answer to that hypothetical question would be as follows: to replace ideology and rhetoric with substance, place a focus on policy over politics in decision-making, listen to local and regional voices, accept the inevitability of diversity amongst Indigenous interests, and put as much focus on policy implementation as on policy development, and thereby provide real, substantive and innovative leadership to the nation as a whole. The Prime Minister’s first COAG meeting falls short of this benchmark.
15 December 2015
