You can’t ‘close the gap’ by cutting services

Tony Abbott says that he is on “a personal mission” to help Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people overcome disadvantage. Addressing parliament on 12 February, coinciding with the annual “Closing the Gap” report, which evaluates the progress being made in Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people’s health and life expectancy, Abbott said that, for him, “Aboriginal policy has become personal rather than just political”.

He went onto to claim that his government had taken a non-paternalistic approach by visiting remote Aboriginal communities seven days a year. This “demonstrates”, he said, “that this government is serious about Aboriginal policy” and is “on track to achieve some of the Closing the Gap targets”.

However, a closer look at “Closing the Gap” reveals that Abbott’s Indigenous policy has been an unmitigated disaster for Aboriginal and Torres Strait communities. While there had been some small gains, particularly in the areas of child mortality and year 12 matriculations, the rest of Abbott’s Indigenous policy – a hodge podge of paternalism, cutbacks and harsh new measures – has in fact extended the gap between Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people and non-Indigenous Australians.

In every other key area, including health, life expectancy, education, imprisonment rates and employment, there has been little or no progress or things have gotten worse.

According to the report, the relative gain in Indigenous life expectancy has been so small, that it fell within the margin of error and “could in fact be non-existent”. Aboriginal men and women continue to die 10 years younger than their non-Indigenous counterparts.

In Indigenous health there has been little improvement. The report revealed there has been no shift in the rate of suicide and self-harm among Aboriginal men and women. Instead, the “data suggests the situation is getting worse”, with 100 Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander deaths by suicide per year between 2001 and 2010.

In 2012, the number of deaths increased, with 117 suicides reported. There also has been a 48 percent increase in hospitalisations for intentional self-harm over a decade. Indigenous mental health also has continued to worsen.

In education and employment there has also been little improvement. Abbott was forced to concede there has been little success in halving the gap in reading, writing and numeracy and that things have gotten worse in the area of Indigenous employment.

No wonder. According to ACTU president Ged Kearney, the government’s strategy to boost Indigenous employment focussed on “Work for the Dole” programs, which have been completely ineffective. “Work for the Dole is not a pathway to on-going jobs”, said Kearney.

The day before Abbott’s speech, she noted that employment initiatives needed to involve real consultation and self-determination, with Aboriginal communities being “involved in the development and implementation phases rather than the paternalistic, one-sized fits all approach of the Abbott government.”

In an interview with New Matilda’s Amy McQuire, Indigenous policy expert professor Jon Altman similarly attacked the Abbott government, saying: “We’re using the wrong approach [to Indigenous policy]. We’ve got a government that has a bad attitude, a behaviourist, paternalistic government. It’s arrogant and it’s failing.”

The lack of commitment on the part of the Abbott government to closing the gap between Indigenous and non-Indigenous communities was clearly revealed in its 2014 budget, which cut $534 million from Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander programs.

This included $160 million from Indigenous health programs, $9.5 million over 5 years to Indigenous language programs and no funding commitment to 38 Indigenous childhood development centres – which will close without funding.