From Schwartz Media. I'm Daniel James. This is seven am Everest. To close the gap between Indigenous Australians and the rest of the community are not on track. They're actually widening. More original children are being taken from their families, who are ending up in prison, and suicide rates remain devastatingly high.
Prominister Anthony Albernizi says closing the gap was about acknowledging what's working and what isn't and has placed eight hundred and forty million dollars in new money to remote communities in the Northern Territory. But Independent Senator Lydia Thorpe believes the widening gap is by design and close the Gap targets should be scrapped altogether today, Senator Thorpe, and while she believes the closing the Gap strategy is a distraction
and what real change would look like. It's Thursday, February thirteen, Senator Thoughpe.
Thank you for joining us, my pleasure, Thanks for having me, Senator Thought, Thank you, Acting Deputy President. Today's Closing the Gap announcement tops off a year of betrayal. Once again, Labor is refusing to address the urgent issues facing first peoples and confront their own role in harming our communities. They're refusing to address the suicide epidemic, child removals and incarceration rates, particularly of children.
In Parliament this week, you said the closing the gap numbers reveal a year of betrayal.
What did you mean by that, Well, it's many years of betrayal.
I think the fact that Howard came up with the whole idea says it in itself. The same Prime Minister who sent the army into communities based on a lie came up with distraction, another distraction for our people, another opportunity for politicians to have morning teas on a day where they say that they're doing something, where they say that they're going to do better, and nothing ever changes. It's the same old retric and it's very disappointing when
we see rates of child removal still escalating. Twenty four thousand of our children have been taken away from their families and there's no end in sight because the number continues to rise. The suicidal rates are been touched personally by suicides in my own family of young men in particular, there's a sense of hopelessness amongst our people, and each year we hear that, you know, nothing's getting better and
we're going to do better, and we're hearing you. However, it's just all talk and Noah.
Only five of the nineteen Closing the Gap targets are on track. In your species said, targets are going backwards intentionally. What did you mean by.
That, Well, there's a real assault on First peoples in this country and they're always has been, you know, for over two hundred years. There's been many strategies and policies that oppress our people, that deny our rights as First peoples in this country, and their genocidal acts. They continue to perpetrate the same state violence. They're putting money into prisons,
putting money into police. We see the Closing the Gap money that goes to communities, particularly in the Northern Territory, where two.
Hundred millions for the cops.
You know, the minister makes these deadly announcements on supporting communities in the Northern Territory. However she didn't articulate that part of that money was two hundred million for the cops. Well, we know what money for cops means. It means more of our children locked up more of our people locked up, and that money should be going to self determined solutions within our communities.
And you know they're being ignored.
When it comes to things like youth justice. The federal government would say that it's responsibility for the states and territories. But what more could the federal government be doing to intervene in that area.
Well, they can do lots. They can actually act.
They have the power to pull the states and territories into line, like they have in say the health sector and other areas where they hold states and territories to account.
They have the power to do this. They just choose not to do it.
They're always handballing off to the state and territories to not own the issue themselves, which they created. Mind you, governments created this problem.
It's not us. We are not the problem. As Arnie Rosalie.
Kernel Monks bless Her always said, we are not the problem. It's these governments that are creating the gap and not listening to our old people. So the federal government can take stronger action. They have the constitutional power to set standards on the states and territories, as I said, like the health area and the disability area, and the education sector, and we also need a human rights Act.
We don't even have a human rights act in this country.
I mean even you know, King Colonizer's country has a human Rights Act. We don't have one here. I also have a private senator's bill, and that is on including the United Nations Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples into the Human Rights Committee as an instrument that look at all the legislation coming through and look for any human rights abuses.
You said that you're putting a bill to the Senate. What would you like to see written in legislation and parliament right now? Tell us about your bill.
Well, this bill is to ensure that the United Nations Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples, something that this country is signed up to but ignores. It is an instrument that the Human Rights Committee, who looks at most legislation in this place, is taken into account when it comes to.
Passing legislation.
So we want our rights enshrined in to the Human Rights Committee to scrutinize the legislation and not have our.
Rights impeded upon. Now.
I tried, through another private Senator's bill last year to have the United Nations Declaration on the rights of Indigenous peoples enshrined in the law of this country. However, Dodson and McCarthy and Janas Stewart of the Labor Party and their colleagues voted it down.
Coming up after the break, Why the senator thinks we should scrap closing the gap all together?
There is no ethos more fundamentally Australian than the fair goat, and closing the gap is the fairest of all. We want First Nations people to have ownership of their futures and a stake in the economy. There is the foundation on which everything else can be built Lidia.
This week, the government announced eight hundred and forty million dollars to reach close the gap target to the nt Prome Minister Anthony Albertezi, Citi's government would invest in a range of new measures to help close the gap in remote communities. It's including delivering cheaper groceries, upskilling of local staff in remote areas, scholarships were indigenous psychologist students. What do you make of those particular measures?
Well, they should be happening anyway.
I mean, really, it's taken you are closing the gap speech to get a few crumbs on the table for our people.
Yes they're nice to.
Have, but they are crumbs on the table when it comes to people's lives. Children are being abused in these places of detention. They are being locked up at the rate of of how many kids can we lock up as quickly as we possibly can. So we need real action. We need to stop the incarceration. We need to stop the removals of our children. We need to end this war against our people and stop putting crumbs on the table.
We want real action.
In the Productivity Commission's assessment of Closing the Gap, it found the government has a persistent government knows best way of thinking, recommending more control to local community organizations and power sharing and the Minister for Indigenous Australian's Mellandari McCarthy is talking about working in partnership with communities and community controlled organizations. From your perspective, does that show the government grasp the approach you believe that we need.
No talking to peak bodies is one thing, but rolling this leaves up and getting down to every community.
Every community's needs.
Are different and it's about ensuring that those communities are listened to. And I have concerns about peak bodies. Peak bodies don't represent me. Peak bodies are bound by government because they won't even challenge the government on incarceration, on child removal, on this ongoing genocide. So you know, we need to go beyond the peak bodies, which is easy for government to just go to one.
Body that says that they are representative.
But I can tell you now out there amongst our people, they are not happy with peak bodies speaking for us because it's not working and it's not delivering in places where we absolutely need it.
So if the government doesn't deal with peak bodies, then he does the government deal with and listen to.
So the way I grew up back in the seventies and eighties, we didn't have peak bodies. I mean we had the National averagell and Ireland, a health organization which seated NATCHO, but that had a different philosophy and more self determining philosophy. In fact, that's where pay the Rent came from, and it was about being independent from governments. It was about building the capacity of Aboriginal health services on the ground in communities and not having peak bodies
deciding for those local communities. Peak bodies competing for funds against those smaller communities that are poor. So we need to break down the hierarchy. It's not how we operate as communities. We need to go out to Lake Tires, we need to go to Framlingham, We need to go to these communities that are really struggling and don't get a.
Real say at that peak body level.
The peak body level is becoming the you know, the difference between the haves and have not. If you're not in the room, so to speak, or at the table, then you don't get to say. And we need to decolonize rather than go into this corporatized model which is part of an assimilation model.
The closing the Gap framework has been in place since two thousand and eight, which is a long time, and we're not on track. Do you see a future where we're able to get to a place where our life outcomes are equal to the rest of the country.
I think that we need to get rid of the closing the gap targets.
I think they're just a distraction.
And as I said, you know, they're an opportunity for politicians to have a morning tea. They mean nothing to the people on the ground suffering from inhumane conditions in this country. We need to scrap closing the gap. We need to scrap native title. Native title is another distraction. It's another division that goes on amongst our people. And it's who puts these things in place. It's old white prime ministers men who says this is what's best for you.
We're going to how it says, let's come up with this closing the gap thing so that we can pretend that we're doing something. So we need to get rid of those racist regimes that continue to oppress us. And we need to build the capacity of our own people on our own land to self determine their own destiny. We need a human rights bill, and we need the United Nations Declaration and the rights of Indigenous peoples actioned in this country.
Never a dull moment with you, Senator, Thank you so much for your time.
My pleasure, thanks for having me.
Also in the news today, Football Australia says they will continue to provide support for Sam Kerr moving forward after the footballer was found not guilty of racially aggravated assault in the UK. However, the body stops short of restoring Kerr's position as Matilda's captain. Meanwhile, Kerr's former teammate and co captain Kate Gill has spoken out against the trial, calling it quote a waste of police and public resources, and Clive Palmers United Australia Party will not be on
any ballots in the upcoming election. The mining magnate has lost his high court bid to reregister his party in time for the vote. Senator Ralph Babbittt, the only UAP candidate to win at the last election, is still midway through his six year term and not standing for re election, but any new UAP candidates will not be identified with the party on ballots come election day. That's all for now. Seven a m. Will be back tomorrow. Thanks for listening.