Following the review of the National Agreement on Closing the Gap, the Greens support the Review\u2019s calls for urgent fundamental changes in the way government departments engage with the priority reforms.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The Greens also reiterated their expectation that the government will advance Truth and Treaty through a Makarrata Commission in this term of government.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Senator Dorinda Cox, Greens First Nations portfolio holder said:<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cThis review is excruciating reading but it is also a brave and necessary act of Truth Telling.<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cWhat this review confirms is we are closing no gaps. It says government departments scorn accountability. It says actions by the government, and I\u2019m quoting here, \u201cexacerbate rather than remedy disadvantage and discrimination\u201d.<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cI am appalled by the reported lack of accountability from government departments. The complacency. The business as usual, government-knows-best approach to First Nations communities.<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cThis is the definition of institutional racism. This is the arrogance of white bureaucrats, systems and managers reinforcing the disempowerment of our people.<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cThese attitudes keep First Nations people out of schools, out of hospitals, out of workplaces.<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cThese attitudes empower state violence against our people and ensure we do not get justice.<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cMany First Nations people trusted the Albanese government last year when they said they wanted to put us in charge of our own solutions.<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cThat trust cannot be broken. It\u2019s time for the government to put their money where their mouth is, and that means handing both money and decision-making power over to Aboriginal Controlled Community Organisations.<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cThis is everyone\u2019s business. It\u2019s not just up to people with the Blak portfolios to solve these problems – we need every Minister and every Head of Department to understand it is their job to Close the Gap. And we need them to know there will be consequences if they don\u2019t.<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cBusiness-as-usual has failed, and it\u2019s clear from these results that the government does not know what\u2019s best for our people.<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cNow is the time for Truth and Treaty.<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cThe referendum campaign clearly demonstrated the need to have an honest and informed discussion about our shared history so we can speak the truth, heal and move forward together through Treaty and the affirmation of First Nations Sovereignty \u2013 which has never been ceded.<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cWe have an opportunity to do things differently in this country by starting that process now.”<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Following the review of the National Agreement on Closing the Gap, the Greens support the Review\u2019s calls for urgent fundamental changes in the way government departments engage with the priority reforms. The Greens also reiterated their expectation that the government will advance Truth and Treaty through a Makarrata Commission in this term of government. Senator … Continue reading “SCATHING CLOSING THE GAP REVIEW SHOWS IT\u2019S TIME TO GET SERIOUS ABOUT HANDING MONEY AND DECISIONS OVER TO FIRST NATIONS PEOPLE”<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-25116","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-aussie"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.16news.com.au\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/25116","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.16news.com.au\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.16news.com.au\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.16news.com.au\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.16news.com.au\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=25116"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"http:\/\/www.16news.com.au\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/25116\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":25117,"href":"http:\/\/www.16news.com.au\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/25116\/revisions\/25117"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.16news.com.au\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=25116"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.16news.com.au\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=25116"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.16news.com.au\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=25116"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}