This article first appeared in The Weekend Australian, 13 February 2010

Rudd's Closing the Gap mission can only get harder from here

Wesley Aird

The PM's indigenous report card deserves high marks for honesty, but progress is slow

WE are two years into a program that has so far delivered only modest improvements in indigenous disadvantage and on Thursday Prime Minister Kevin Rudd tells us 'we are seeing the beginnings of change'.

To me, that sounds a lot like an admission progress has been slower than expected. Rather than being disappointed by this, I found the honesty refreshing.

The Prime Minister's Closing the Gap report card highlighted tragic examples of life experiences in many of our rural and remote indigenous communities that simply should not exist in modern Australia. It may have been tempting to gloss over the tragedies with promises of millions of dollars and ready-made solutions. Of course the PM took the opportunity to announce a couple of funding programs, and that was predictable.

More importantly, it seemed Rudd was acknowledging the complexity of the problem (and yes, that only limited progress has been made so far) and he was also making an honest commitment to deliver solutions.

Courageous is the word Sir Humphrey Appleby would have used to describe this (or indeed any) PM's endeavour to take a difficult portfolio into a couple of million lounge rooms. With his historic apology in 2008, Rudd made indigenous affairs personal for a lot of ordinary Australians regardless of their cultural background. His subsequent commitment to an annual report card on progress is not something we are used to from politicians who, at the risk of stereotyping, usually shun accountability.

The parliamentary apology two years ago was a wonderful gesture and great symbolism and, as a result, in 2010 the PM has a very large audience watching what his government does in indigenous affairs.

For closing the indigenous life expectancy gap, all governments through the Council of Australian Governments have set the target as 'within a generation'. For the average family this would be 30 years, but I hope we don't have to wait that long for success. Most other Closing the Gap targets are within 10 years. I would like to think that the long timeframe is not to avoid political accountability, but a recognition of the complexity and size of the task.

At the same time as we close the gap on indigenous disadvantage, we should also be working on closing the gap between our expectations and what governments can deliver. One of the perennial problems of indigenous affairs is that so many Australians unreasonably project all their hopes and aspirations on the federal government. State and territory agencies deliver the lion's share of the front-line services in indigenous affairs. The PM may have the will, but the states and territories will always demand their way.

It is a balancing act and sometimes progress is slow when we are dealing with complex social and individual behaviours. However, we cannot accept any Closing the Gap targets being drawn out.

An obvious omission from this year's report was comfort that as a nation we are on track to reach all six targets in the Closing the Gap campaign by the deadlines.

This is possibly the last year Rudd can describe the Closing the Gap campaign in broad or aspirational terms. From here on it will be harder, not easier. And thanks to Rudd's apology, there will be millions of keen observers keeping an eye on progress.

Wesley Aird is a member of the Gold Coast Native Title Group and a board member of the Bennelong Society.