Closing the Gap must remain a daily priority
Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Social Justice Commissioner Tom Calma has used national Close the Gap Day today to urge the federal government to make closing the gap in life expectancy between Indigenous and non-Indigenous Australians a daily priority.
"Just over a month ago we witnessed the historic signing of a Statement of Intent between the Australian government, Indigenous and non-Indigenous health experts and the reconciliation movement to work together to Close the Gap between Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples and non-Indigenous Australians by the year 2030," Commissioner Calma said.
“We must do everything in our power to build on this momentum and to put flesh on the bones of the rhetoric and sentiment of the National Apology to the Stolen Generations in February.
"While the Prime Minister's commitment to report on progress in closing the gap on the first day of federal Parliament each year is welcomed, I implore all governments around Australia to continue consulting, planning and implementing the steps along the way towards ensuring that benchmarks and targets for achieving these fundamental human rights for Indigenous Australians become a reality."
Commissioner Calma said the ‘Close the Gap’ campaign, launched in April last year, involved more than 40 organisations pushing for government commitments to fixing the tragedy of Indigenous health.
"The Close the Gap coalition has put the crisis in Indigenous health under the national spotlight and I call today on all Australians to look beyond 2020 and realise that together we can work to ensure that an Indigenous baby born in 2030 has the same life expectation, the same access to quality health services and the same life outcomes as non-Indigenous Australians,” Mr Calma said.
Showing posts with label HREOC announcements. Show all posts
Showing posts with label HREOC announcements. Show all posts
22 March 2008
12 March 2008
HREOC endorses moves by government to address alienation of Muslim people in Australia
Australian Race Discrimination Commissioner, Tom Calma, today welcomed proposed federal government initiatives which aim to take a more socially-inclusive approach to help address the complex issues faced by many Muslim Australians.
Commissioner Calma said a revival of the Council for Multicultural Australia, as well as a new-look Muslim advisory body that would feature leaders and role models from a cross-section of ethnic backgrounds and focus on everyday Muslim Australians, would be a positive step.
"The level of social alienation faced by many Australian Muslim people, particularly young Muslims, has to be turned around," said Commissioner Calma. "Racist, religious or cultural hatred directed towards any member of the community is a breach of human rights and is absolutely unacceptable,"
Commissioner Calma referred to the concerns covered in a 4 Corners television program this week which focused on the need to promote social inclusion, multiculturalism and zero tolerance to racism in order to avoid the continuing alienation of young Muslims.
"Ongoing fear and misinformation in the wider community remains a major threat to social harmony," said Mr Calma. "Social inclusion measures are likely to be much more successful at protecting the community from violence than many of the tough security initiatives advocated under the 'war on terror'.
"Failure to take action to improve social inclusion and combat racism will only fuel frustration within Muslim communities and continue to reinforce discriminatory perceptions of threats to national security among non-Muslim communities."
Mr Calma noted that the Human Rights and Equal Opportunity Commission (HREOC) has been working for several years to form strong partnerships between Muslim communities, NGOs, universities and government agencies in an effort to build awareness and engagement with Muslim communities.
"We require whole-of-government and whole-of-community approaches to building community capacity, cross-community and cross-cultural respect and social inclusion," said Mr Calma.
"The HREOC approach, mixing 'coal-face' community partnership projects, with human rights education resources, research, and communications is an important model that complements this targeted approach to working with communities."
"For these initiatives to work, we require a major rethink on security and social inclusion, which this government appears to be working hard to achieve," said Mr Calma.
Commissioner Calma said a revival of the Council for Multicultural Australia, as well as a new-look Muslim advisory body that would feature leaders and role models from a cross-section of ethnic backgrounds and focus on everyday Muslim Australians, would be a positive step.
"The level of social alienation faced by many Australian Muslim people, particularly young Muslims, has to be turned around," said Commissioner Calma. "Racist, religious or cultural hatred directed towards any member of the community is a breach of human rights and is absolutely unacceptable,"
Commissioner Calma referred to the concerns covered in a 4 Corners television program this week which focused on the need to promote social inclusion, multiculturalism and zero tolerance to racism in order to avoid the continuing alienation of young Muslims.
"Ongoing fear and misinformation in the wider community remains a major threat to social harmony," said Mr Calma. "Social inclusion measures are likely to be much more successful at protecting the community from violence than many of the tough security initiatives advocated under the 'war on terror'.
"Failure to take action to improve social inclusion and combat racism will only fuel frustration within Muslim communities and continue to reinforce discriminatory perceptions of threats to national security among non-Muslim communities."
Mr Calma noted that the Human Rights and Equal Opportunity Commission (HREOC) has been working for several years to form strong partnerships between Muslim communities, NGOs, universities and government agencies in an effort to build awareness and engagement with Muslim communities.
"We require whole-of-government and whole-of-community approaches to building community capacity, cross-community and cross-cultural respect and social inclusion," said Mr Calma.
"The HREOC approach, mixing 'coal-face' community partnership projects, with human rights education resources, research, and communications is an important model that complements this targeted approach to working with communities."
"For these initiatives to work, we require a major rethink on security and social inclusion, which this government appears to be working hard to achieve," said Mr Calma.
20 February 2008
Urgent reform to Indigenous policy and service delivery needed
Australia has reached a ‘crossroads’ in Indigenous policy and service delivery, according to Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Social Justice Commissioner Tom Calma, who said today that modifying the existing system must be an urgent priority for reform.
Delivering his ‘Reform’ speech at the Australians for Native Title and Reconciliation (ANTaR) Queensland’s Annual General Meeting, Mr Calma said the new federal government had been left with a system limited in its capacity to meet commitments to Indigenous affairs and reconciliation.
“At some point, as a nation we stopped believing that equality of opportunity for Indigenous peoples was a realistic goal. And so we stopped trying to achieve it,” Commissioner Calma said.
He added that the commitment of the previous government to make a real difference could not be questioned, but they had made the mistake of not learning from their past, and not appreciating the importance of undertaking action in partnership with Indigenous communities.
“The new Australian Government should harness the urgent desire of the previous government to reform Indigenous affairs. Reform is necessary to ensure standards of accountability are upheld and that a clear, consistent vision is applied with a guaranteed capacity to deliver,” he said.
“There are some essential elements to this reform. First and foremost, Indigenous peoples must fully participate in policy making processes.
“Secondly, it is not good enough to rely on ‘record levels of expenditure’ as the measure of progress. We should instead be setting ambitious targets that have bipartisan support and form the basis of inter-governmental cooperation.”
Mr Calma said the recently announced Joint Commission on Indigenous Policy provided the vehicle for this to occur. He added that this could be enhanced with support from state and territory governments, business leaders, academics, community workers and others, to ensure that its work is evidence-based and informed.
“Once goals and targets have been set, government processes must be reformed and re-engineered to ensure that they are capable of meeting these challenges,” Mr Calma said.
“It is also essential for Indigenous policy making to be based on a commitment to human rights and human dignity. This requires a focus on gender equality, the rights of children and a focus on the best interests of the child, as well as providing recognition and protection for cultural diversity.
“The first step on this road to reform is mutual respect and partnerships,” he said.
Delivering his ‘Reform’ speech at the Australians for Native Title and Reconciliation (ANTaR) Queensland’s Annual General Meeting, Mr Calma said the new federal government had been left with a system limited in its capacity to meet commitments to Indigenous affairs and reconciliation.
“At some point, as a nation we stopped believing that equality of opportunity for Indigenous peoples was a realistic goal. And so we stopped trying to achieve it,” Commissioner Calma said.
He added that the commitment of the previous government to make a real difference could not be questioned, but they had made the mistake of not learning from their past, and not appreciating the importance of undertaking action in partnership with Indigenous communities.
“The new Australian Government should harness the urgent desire of the previous government to reform Indigenous affairs. Reform is necessary to ensure standards of accountability are upheld and that a clear, consistent vision is applied with a guaranteed capacity to deliver,” he said.
“There are some essential elements to this reform. First and foremost, Indigenous peoples must fully participate in policy making processes.
“Secondly, it is not good enough to rely on ‘record levels of expenditure’ as the measure of progress. We should instead be setting ambitious targets that have bipartisan support and form the basis of inter-governmental cooperation.”
Mr Calma said the recently announced Joint Commission on Indigenous Policy provided the vehicle for this to occur. He added that this could be enhanced with support from state and territory governments, business leaders, academics, community workers and others, to ensure that its work is evidence-based and informed.
“Once goals and targets have been set, government processes must be reformed and re-engineered to ensure that they are capable of meeting these challenges,” Mr Calma said.
“It is also essential for Indigenous policy making to be based on a commitment to human rights and human dignity. This requires a focus on gender equality, the rights of children and a focus on the best interests of the child, as well as providing recognition and protection for cultural diversity.
“The first step on this road to reform is mutual respect and partnerships,” he said.
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