In 2003, when heads of Australian governments commissioned ‘a regular report against key indicators of Indigenous disadvantage’, they made a commitment to be held accountable for improving outcomes for Indigenous Australians. In April this year, the Council of Australian Governments reaffirmed its commitment to ‘closing the outcomes gap between Indigenous people and other Australians over a generation’. Against these objectives, Overcoming Indigenous Disadvantage: Key Indicators is like a report card, showing how much progress has been made, and how much further we need to go.
The Report focuses on the disadvantage experienced by many Indigenous people, arising from historical, social and economic causes. However, most Indigenous Australians live constructive and rewarding lives, contributing to their families and wider communities. This Report aims to help governments address the disadvantage that limits the opportunities and choices of some Indigenous people.
This third Report in the series reveals that many Indigenous people have shared in Australia’s recent economic prosperity, recording improved employment outcomes and higher incomes. There have also been welcome improvements in some educational and health outcomes for Indigenous children. Yet, even where improvements have occurred, Indigenous people continue to do worse than other Australians. And many indicators have shown little or no movement. Indeed, in some areas, particularly criminal justice, outcomes for Indigenous people have been deteriorating.
Such results should challenge all Australians to do whatever is necessary to remedy the causes of Indigenous disadvantage. Australia is not the only country confronting this challenge, and overseas experience shows that concerted action can make a difference. For example, taking what is perhaps the most important single indicator of disadvantage, the difference in life expectancy between Indigenous people and other citizens has been reduced to around seven years in North America and New Zealand. In Australia, the gap is almost two and a half times as great.
This Report contains further improvements in its scope and content. Nevertheless, and despite COAG’s endorsement of the indicator framework, data in some critical areas remain poor. For example, we still do not have meaningful comparative data on school attendance, or on learning outcomes for Indigenous children according to the degree of regional remoteness. Hospitalisation data for Indigenous people in NSW and Victoria, the two largest states, are considered to be of insufficient quality to be published. Nevertheless, some laudable efforts at data improvement are underway. These are strongly supported, but more is needed.
On behalf of the Steering Committee, my heartfelt thanks to all those who have contributed to this report, either by providing data or through their advice and feedback on earlier reports and proposals for change. I record our particular appreciation for the contribution over the past five years of Dan Black, who recently retired as Director of the ABS’s National Centre for Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Statistics. Special thanks are also due to all those in the Working Group overseeing the development of the Report, including in particular its Convenor, Robert Fitzgerald, who also played a key role in consultations. Finally, thank you to all those who organised and participated in the consultations, which have contributed greatly to the advances evident in this latest Report.
Gary Banks
Chairman
May 2007