Close the Gap Turns 5 + Constitutional Recognition process underway

2011 Campaigns Close the Gap

The five-year Anniversary of the launch of the Close the Gap campaign was marked by a speech to the National Press Club by the co-Chairs of the campaign, the previous and current Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Social Justice Commissioners, Dr Tom Calma and Mick Gooda.

ANTaR wrote to the Prime Minister after the annual Closing the Gap address to Parliament in February, encouraging her to visit some Aboriginal communities and see first-hand both the challenges facing communities and the capacity of Aboriginal community-controlled services to play a role in developing solutions.

We have welcomed the announcement made in Mick Gooda's speech to the Press Club that the Prime Minister has accepted an invitation from the Close the Gap campaign Steering Committee to an Indigenous
health tour to highlight the health needs of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples and showcase effective programs. National Close the Gap day is celebrated on 24 March each year.

Current appeal: People power crucial to Close the Gap

In their recent address to the National Press Club, Dr Tom Calma and Mick Gooda outlined the critical importance of people power to achieving Indigenous health equality.

ANTaR, as a founding member of the Close the Gap campaign coalition, has worked tirelessly from the beginning to obliterate the 10 - 17 year life expectancy gap between Indigenous and non-Indigenous Australians within one generation.

On 9 February 2011, Ministers Snowdon and Roxon met with leaders of the Close the Gap campaign and agreed to develop a national action plan to close the Indigenous life expectancy gap by 2030.

At this critical stage, we cannot afford to stop lobbying to ensure that this plan is drafted in collaboration with Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples and strengthens the Aboriginal community-controlled health sector.

For more information about the difference Aboriginal health services make to the lives of individuals, families and communities, click here to read about Sunrise Health Service in the Northern Territory and their program to reduce disabling ear infections among children.

We have to maintain pressure on decision makers to increase support to Aboriginal community-controlled health services like Sunrise and work in genuine partnership with Aboriginal and Torres Strait islander communities.

That is why we're asking for your help. Please support ANTaR's advocacy by donating to our current appeal or by calling (02) 9564 0594.

Constitutional Recognition

The government-appointed Expert Panel on Constitutional Recognition of Indigenous Australians had its first meeting in February and met again in March. The former National Director of ANTaR, Gary Highland, has been appointed as the Executive Officer to the Panel. The Panel has issued two communiqués, which can be .

Constitutional recognition is one of our two priority campaigns in 2011. It provides a unique opportunity to address our founding document's silence on the unique history, status and rights of Australia's First Peoples. We also plan to use the campaign to inform the community of other areas of unfinished
reconciliation business.

Information materials and discussion papers will be released shortly by the Expert Panel, to be followed by a range of public consultation forums and events.

With your support, ANTaR hopes to play a key role in engaging and informing the public about this issue. We will also be looking to all our members and supporters around the country to help get the message out at local grassroots level, so please give some thought to any way you might be able to assist in your community.

To keep up to date with campaign developments, go to the constitutional recognition page on the ANTaR website and follow us on Facebook and Twitter.

Reducing Indigenous Incarceration

ANTaR has been connecting with a range of campaign partners to ensure that our efforts to lobby governments to reduce the imprisonment of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples have maximum effect.

As always, as well as highlighting the problems, we will also be shining a spotlight on success stories: including the effective work already being done by Aboriginal community services to reduce offending and recidivism, often within tight resource constraints.

Next month, it will be 20 years since the final report of the Royal Commission into Aboriginal Deaths in Custody was released. Governments have failed to implement many of these recommendations and ANTaR will be using the 20-year mark to highlight these failures and make recommendations for change.

Some of ANTaR's affiliates at state level have already been doing some valuable work in this area, for example, ANTaR Queensland's Project 10% and ANTaR
NSW's Juvenile Justice Campaign, and we are looking forward to building on that work in developing our national campaign.

Policy and Advocacy

ANTaR provided a short submission to the House of Representatives Committee inquiry into Indigenous economic development in Queensland, which includes an examination of the Wild Rivers issue.

Wild Rivers is a contentious issue, with differing views amongst various Aboriginal people and groups. ANTaR has not taken a specific position for or against Wild Rivers laws, instead taking the opportunity to highlight the need to effectively and consistently apply the principle of free, prior and informed
consent and to amend national native title laws to strengthen Indigenous rights.

Read the full submission here.

News

A new documentary marking the historic Freedom Rides was launched on 13th March at the Museum of Sydney, in partnership with ANTaR NSW. The DVD of the documentary<a/>, along with a CD and booklet of information, is available from ANTaR for $25 plus postage.

The From Little Things Big Things Grow exhibition pays tribute to some of the many Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people involved in the fight for Indigenous rights between 1920 and 1970. It is at the Museum of Sydney until 8 May. It then opens in Perth in July, before heading to Brisbane in October.