Closing the Gap Annual Data Compilation Report & Children’s Day 2024 – SNAICC in the News

Catherine Liddle, chief executive of SNAICC, the leading body for Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander children and families, called on governments to be “bold” and fulfil the commitments they have made under the national Closing the Gap agreement.
“We know that when we are seeing levels of improvement – they are targets that have been around for a very long time because systemic shifts take a long period of time to happen,” she said.
“But we also know that underneath what you see in those targets, there has been massive progress that might not necessarily be visible, but they also take a long time to negotiate.”

Referring to the national rates of child removal, Ms Liddle said: “The cost of this lack of action is directly felt by our children, who continue to be removed from their families at unprecedented rates, who continue to be vastly over-represented in the youth justice system.”
“If we keep going on this trajectory, we are never going reverse the trajectory of our children entering out-of-home care and continuing on a path to youth detention and adult incarceration,” she said.
“To be absolutely clear, these are not the failings of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people or culture. These are fairly and squarely the failures of the systems that impact us the most being built without us, to work against us.”

Ms Liddle said there were numerous examples of where community control was Closing the Gap.
“There are some fantastic community-controlled childcare and kindergarten programs, for example, that are ensuring our children are growing up not just healthy and educated, but strong in culture too. We know that when Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people are connected to their culture the Closing the Gap measures are better met. “Yet at this moment in time, the biggest investments into early education and care in Australia are not in the Aboriginal community-controlled sector, they’re actually in the mainstream.
“That is a failure by governments to invest in the right set of criteria into the right type of service delivery, and to move at the speed that it needs to move at.”

Coalition of Peaks co-convenor Catherine Liddle said: “There are still far too many non-Indigenous-operated service providers being funded to deliver to our people, and they are doing so without consideration for what we really need, without the knowledge of how interconnected so many aspects of our lives and culture are, and without the understanding of how our communities and people think and feel.”

Catherine Liddle, chief executive of the peak body for Indigenous children and families, SNAICC, said the federal government needed to do better because “screaming from the rooftop for ages” wasn’t working. “(I am) somewhere between disappointed and frustrated and I always find that a very uncomfortable place to be, because I’m a person that likes to see light,” she told ABC TV in response to the commission’s report.
“You see those data sets that again reinforce what we heard even at the beginning of the year, and that is governments are not moving fast enough on this, it’s frustrating.”
A fresh approach wasn’t needed because the evidence shows the areas where there is success give communities control of decision-making processes, the Arrernte and Luritja woman from Central Australia said.
“It’s not about finding a new pathway, certainly that’s not what the Productivity Commission is saying,” she said. “It’s saying, share the decision-making – this is common sense, governments talking to the people about the issues that impact them, and the solutions to solve that.”

CEO of the national peak body for Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Children Catherine Liddle also says governments need to focus on the priority reforms.
“We know what works, the evidence is there that involving us as partners in decisions about our lives and our children makes the difference,” she says.
“What’s missing is the will of governments to fully enact the Priority Reforms under the Closing the Gap Agreement that will drive change.”
“There’s no way we cannot be frustrated and disappointed at the pace and the sluggish movement to date,” she says.
“When we’re talking about the impacts on children we’re really talking about a really targeted amount of time.”

Selwyn Button: Think about how do you sit at the table and work with community who have solutions to then design programs and services that best fit their needs so you can see some improvements in outcomes.
Krishani Dhanji: The National Peak Body for Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Children, Catherine Liddle, agrees.
Catherine Liddle: Where we’ve been able to transfer service delivery, the statistics look different. The gap is closing.
Krishani Dhanji: She says the data around children in out-of-home care is particularly concerning and is frustrated at the lack of action.
Catherine Liddle: We need to be moving at a completely different rate. All governments need to be uncomfortable with this while we change because as it is, unless we start changing the way we work, we will never close those gaps.

Indigenous organisations have long-argued that Indigenous-led responses – through ACCOs – are the best way to help Close the Gap. Ms Liddle pointed to areas where the targets were being met and argued this showed that “when we control our services, we get better outcomes for our people”.
“When systemic issues are dealt with, we have success and great outcomes for our people,” she said. “We know that when Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people are connected to their culture the Closing the Gap measures are better met.”
The Arrernte/Luritja woman called for funding to be directed to Indigenous-led service providers, arguing there were “still far too many non-Indigenous operated service providers being funded” which didn’t understand how communities “think and feel”.
“The biggest investments into early education and care in Australia are not in the Aboriginal community-controlled sector, they’re actually in the mainstream,” she said.
“That is a failure by governments to invest in the right set of criteria into the right type of service delivery, and to move at the speed that it needs to move at.”

Catherine Liddle, chief executive of the peak body for Indigenous children and families, said the federal government needed to do better because “screaming from the rooftop for ages” wasn’t working.
“[I’m] somewhere between disappointed and frustrated and I always find that a very uncomfortable place to be, because I’m a person that likes to see light,” Liddle told ABC TV.
“You see those datasets that again reinforce what we heard even at the beginning of the year, and that is governments are not moving fast enough on this, it’s frustrating.”

Coalition of Peaks co-convener Catherine Liddle said the targets that were being met were ones where community control was in place.
“It’s clear that when we control our services we get better outcomes for our people,” she said.

Catherine Liddle, the chief executive of the Secretariat of National Aboriginal and Islander Child Care (SNAICC) and co-convenor of the Coalition of Peaks, echoed these sentiments, telling ABC TV the government needed to better as “screaming from the rooftop for ages” by Indigenous organisations isn’t working.
“You see those datasets that again reinforce what we heard even at the beginning of the year, and that is governments are not moving fast enough on this, it’s frustrating,” Ms Liddle said.
She said a fresh approach wasn’t needed, highlighting the success of ACCOs, who instead needed more support to help Indigenous communities.
“It’s not about finding a new pathway – certainly that’s not what the productivity commission is saying. It’s saying: share the decision-making – this is common-sense, governments talking to the people about the issues that impact them, and the solutions to solve that,” Ms Liddle said.

“The data is there, the stories are there, it’s clear that when we control our services we get better outcomes for our people,” Coalition of Peaks co-convenor Catherine Liddle said. “The saying ‘nothing about us without us’ absolutely applies to getting the best results for all Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people, from birth right through to our Elders and how they are cared for.
“There are still far too many non-Indigenous operated service providers being funded to deliver to our people, and they are doing so without consideration for what we really need, without the knowledge of how interconnected so many aspects of our lives and culture are, and without the understanding of how our communities and people think and feel.”
​Ms Liddle said there were numerous examples of where community control was Closing the Gap.

The Coalition of Peaks, representing Indigenous organisations, said the new commission data showed while many targets were not being met, “the ones that are succeeding are those where community control is in place”.
Coalition of Peaks co-convenor Catherine Liddle said: “There are still far too many non-Indigenous operated service providers being funded to deliver to our people, and they are doing so without consideration for what we really need, without the knowledge of how interconnected so many aspects of our lives and culture are, and without the understanding of how our communities and people think and feel”.

Senator Malarndirri McCarthy has been announced as the new Minister for Indigenous Australians, replacing the retiring Linda Burney.
The Saltwater woman from the Yanyuwa Garrawa people was previously the Assistant Minister for Indigenous Australians, as well as the Assistant Minister for Indigenous Health.
Announcing the appointment, Prime Minister Anthony Albanese said of all the speculation from journalists around the cabinet reshuffle, the appointment of Ms McCarthy was one “you all got right”.
“Malarndirri McCarthy was the obvious person to move into that portfolio, building on the legacy of Linda Burney, while bringing her own lived experience and advocacy to the Cabinet table,” the Prime Minister said.

In the halls of Parliament House, she’s known as “Senator Malarndirri McCarthy”. But out in the remote Northern Territory from where she hails, she’s often referred to simply as “Mal” or “Barb” or “yapa”  – a familiar greeting after decades of public life in the NT.
The former television journalist and NT government minister was on Sunday appointed Indigenous Australians minister by Anthony Albanese, taking over from outgoing minister Linda Burney.
“She has blazed such a trail. And we all share the responsibility to keep blazing it,” Senator McCarthy said in a speech following Ms Burney’s resignation.