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Closing the Gap between Indigenous and Non-Indigenous Australians

Closing The Gap in The Northern Territory

The Budget provides funding of $807.4 million to continue the measures initiated under the Northern Territory Emergency Response (NTER). The Australian Government is moving the NTER to a sustainable development phase to ensure measures will be effective in the long term. This includes stronger engagement and partnership with Indigenous communities.

Significant inroads have been made. Outcomes in the Northern Territory as of 1 May 2009 include:

The critical priority for the Australian Government in continuing this initiative has been the safety of vulnerable women and children.

In shaping the way forward in the Northern Territory, we have been guided by the independent review of the NTER completed in October 2008. The Review found that the wide range of activities being undertaken in the Northern Territory were positive and should, in the majority of cases, continue. In announcing the Australian Government’s initial response to the Review, the Government accepted the Review Board’s three overarching recommendations, that:

Measures such as compulsory income management and alcohol and pornography controls are being redesigned in consultation with Indigenous communities to ensure they are either clearly a special measure under the Racial Discrimination Act 1975 or are non-discriminatory. Legislation lifting the Racial Discrimination Act 1975 suspension in the current NTER Acts will be introduced in the Spring 2009 sittings of Parliament.

Many Indigenous women and pensioners have reported that they have greater control over their finances, and are more able to provide for children as a result of income management.

As promised, the Australian Government introduced legislation into Parliament on 18 March 2009 to ensure people subject to income management have access to the full range of appeal rights, including through the Social Security Appeals Tribunal and the Administrative Appeals Tribunal.

The Australian Government has also asked the Northern Territory Valuer-General to determine a reasonable rent for all existing five-year leases that were compulsorily acquired by the previous Government.  This process is nearing completion and payment will then commence.

Closing the Gap in the Northern Territory: Budget Initiatives

Engagement and Resetting the Relationship: $34.6 million over three years to engage and involve Indigenous people at the community and local level in policy development and service delivery.

Fifteen community members will be employed as full-time Indigenous Engagement Officers (IEOs) in positions initially established under the 2008-09 Budget, while COAG funding will provide additional IEO positions in the Northern Territory as part of its Remote Service Delivery Strategy.

A Community Transition Program for each community with an IEO will help equip these communities into a sustainable development phase. A range of communication activities and products will support better engagement at the face-to-face level.

Remote policing and substance abuse: $156.6 million will be provided over three years for additional police officers and to transform five temporary police stations into permanent structures, and support the continuing operation of ten temporary police stations. This is a major investment reflecting the priority placed on community safety.

Law and order: $80.2 million over three years to consolidate the operation of 81 night patrol services, enhance the Northern Territory Aboriginal Interpreter Service and expanded law and justice services.

Community safety – youth diversion: $28.4 million over three years for youth projects, services and infrastructure to promote positive behaviours among young people.

Extension of income management and financial management support services: $105.9 million to continue comprehensive and compulsory income management, which has demonstrated benefits for women and children. This comprises:

The Australian Government is also working to redesign income management in consultation with Indigenous communities so that it is consistent with the Racial Discrimination Act 1975.

Community stores: $18.3 million over three years to continue and strengthen the community stores licensing regime to provide communities with a varied range of fresh, healthy food at competitive prices.

Supporting families: $46.3 million over three years to support children and parents comprising:

This additional support builds on the Australian Government’s agenda for early childhood education and child care aimed at providing all Australian families, including Indigenous Australians, with access to high quality, affordable early childhood education and child care. Early childhood programs improve the whole-of-life outcomes for young children and assist the transition to education.

Enhancing education: $56.9 million over three years to continue the Australian Government’s commitment to remote schools and address the poor education outcomes of Indigenous students in these communities. This includes $45.7 million to assist children to gain critical foundation skills through intensive on-site tuition and professional development of a high-performing workforce with an emphasis on developing a local Indigenous education workforce; and $11.2 million in 2009-10 to build up to 22 additional teacher houses, recognising that housing shortfalls have been impacting on teacher recruitment and retention.

School Nutrition Program: $37.5 million over three years will fund the continuation of the School Nutrition Program.

Language, literacy and numeracy: $3.0 million over three years for additional training places for job seekers wanting to improve basic skills.

Improving child and family health: $131.1 million over three years to continue the Government’s commitment to expanded primary health care and health-related services. The continued regional reform of remote Indigenous primary health care services will ensure these services provide comprehensive and coordinated care. The continued operation of the Remote Area Health Corps will deliver more doctors, nurses and other health professionals. Follow-up services for dental and ear, nose and throat conditions identified through the NTER child health checks will be completed, the current Mobile Outreach Service dealing with child-abuse-related trauma will be expanded, and alcohol and other drug treatment and rehabilitation services will be continued.

The child health checks identified a large unmet need for primary health care services, with more than 88 per cent of children having one or more health conditions identified and more than 69 per cent of children being referred for follow-up care.

Coordination and Field Operations: $105.2 million over three years to support effective implementation by addressing a broad range of local priorities such as:

The funding will also support ongoing strong administration on the ground through continuation of Government Business Managers, and ongoing monitoring and evaluation to ensure the strategies are relevant and effective in meeting community needs and Closing the Gap targets. It will also enable the provision of infrastructure for managers, Indigenous Engagement Officers and visiting government employees.

Ombudsman support: $3.3 million over four years to continue the Commonwealth Ombudsman’s independent oversight of the NTER and government service-delivery in the Northern Territory. The Ombudsman will continue handling complaints, identifying systemic issues and working with Australian Government agencies to improve public administration.

The continuation of these initiatives in the Northern Territory will benefit around 45,000 people in the 73 prescribed communities, including around 16,000 children under the age of 16 years.

The Australian Government is also investing $1.7 billion in remote Indigenous housing in the Northern Territory over the next 10 years through the National Partnership Agreement on Remote Indigenous Housing. Since the end of 2007, some 80 houses have been completed in remote communities with funding from Indigenous housing programs and a further 20 houses are expected to be completed by June 2009.  

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