Roundup: Australia fails to remedy systematic indigenous handicaps: report

0 Comment(s)Print E-mail Xinhua, February 14, 2019
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CANBERRA, Feb. 14 (Xinhua) -- Australian Prime Minister Scott Morrison has released the 11th annual Closing the Gap report on reducing the disadvantages faced by the nation's indigenous people.

First launched in 2008, Closing the Gap aims to address the disadvantages faced by the indigenous population in regards to child mortality, early childhood education, school attendance, life expectancy, employment, reading and numeracy and school completion.

According to the latest report, only the targets relating to early childhood education and finishing school are on track to be achieved.

It revealed that while the indigenous child mortality rate has declined since 2008, the gap has not narrowed because the non-indigenous rate has declined faster.

The school attendance rate for indigenous children did not improve between 2014 and 2018 and remains 83 percent, significantly lower than the 93 percent for non-indigenous students.

The gap in life expectancy between indigenous and non-indigenous Australians reduced slightly between 2010-12 and 2015-17, the report found.

There was no new data relating to targets to halve the gap in reading and numeracy or to halve the gap in employment since the 2018 reports so both targets remained not on track.

Morrison said the report "shows we need to change the way we work."

"I believe that the progress needed can only be accelerated through a deeper partnership with the states and territories and with Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Australians. Top-down does not work, only partnerships do," he wrote.

"As we move into this next phase, Closing the Gap will be embraced as a whole of government agenda with all governments sharing accountability for progress and extending this shared accountability to include Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people."

Earlier on Thursday, Morrison told News Corp Australia that the targets set in 2008 had been "doomed to fail."

"This has been an acute disappointment for a lot of people for a long time," he said.

"As prime minister, I'm not going to make a long list of pledges to add to a long list of disappointments."

In order to address the education gaps, Morrison announced that teachers who worked in remote indigenous communities for four years would have their student debts waived by the government.

"I am not overclaiming or overpromising on this. We've got to fix the process, we've got to acknowledge the progress we're making," he told the parliament.

"As prime minister, I intend to have a more specific focus: to seek to make an impact in just one area that I believe can achieve generational change. And that's education. I want to get kids into school and to stay in school for longer."

Nigel Scullion, minister for indigenous affairs, said the new education measures, which also include 200 million Australian dollars (141.7 million U.S. dollars) to give indigenous students additional support through secondary school, would build on existing policies. Enditem

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