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Australia failing to improve indigenous lives: Government report

Wednesday, 15 February 2017 6:45 AM [ Last Update: Wednesday, 15 February 2017 6:45 AM ]

Australian Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull (Photo by AP)

A government report says Australia is missing almost every target for improving the lives of its indigenous population, including reducing the infant mortality rate and raising life expectancy.

The ninth annual “Closing the Gap” report released on Tuesday found that the Canberra government was only able to meet one of the seven key targets aimed at boosting health, education and employment in aboriginal communities to the level of the non-indigenous population.

The report was compiled by Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull and submitted to the parliament.

The document focused on Aborigines and Torres Strait Islanders, the first inhabitants of Australia that make up around three percent of Australia’s 23-million-strong population. They are among the country’s most disadvantaged.

Aboriginal Australians have long been subjected to genocide, forced permanent removal, dispossession, racial discrimination and the destruction of their land.

According to the new report, apart from lifting high school completion rates, all other targets, including child mortality, life expectancy, education and employment, were not on track.

The report said the government is behind the schedule in meeting the target to close the 10-year gap in life expectancy between the indigenous and their fellow citizens as they have significantly shorter life expectancy, according to figures from a report in 2013.

Aboriginal protesters hold signs as they demonstrate outside the Victorian State Parliament on Australia Day in Melbourne, Australia, January 26, 2017. (Photo by Reuters)

Another missed target is to halve the child mortality rate, which was at 165 per 100,000 from 2011-2015 for indigenous children under four years old, more than double that of the rest of the population.

The Closing the Gap showed that education levels are falling behind targets. It also put unemployment for indigenous people of working age at more than 20 percent, 3.6 times the non-indigenous unemployment rate.

Addressing the lawmaker, the premier acknowledged the failure, saying, “Even with successive Commonwealth and state governments investing more resources, and even with tens of thousands of dedicated Australians seeking to contribute and engage, we are still not making enough progress.”

Turnbull also pledged to invest an additional 38 million dollars in funds to improve the research and evaluation of government policies being rolled out to improve the living standards of Australian aboriginals.

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