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Speaker 1: Already and this is the daily This is the Daily

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Speaker 1: ohs oh, now it makes sense. Good morning and welcome

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Speaker 1: to the Daily Ods. It is Thursday, the fifteenth of February.

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Speaker 1: I'm Billy, I'm Lucy, Lucy. Before we move on, I

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Speaker 1: feel like anytime I tell anyone about your job at

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Speaker 1: the Daily Odds, they are so intrigued. Can you just

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Speaker 1: tell us what you do here?

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Speaker 2: Yeah? I'm the fact checker.

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Speaker 1: I check the facts. That's what I do all day.

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Speaker 1: And what does that involve? How do you check the facts?

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Speaker 2: Mostly? I bother the journalists. I ask them questions that

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Speaker 2: they would think would be obvious.

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Speaker 1: You're a big advocate for the primary sources.

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Speaker 2: Absolutely. I'm always calling people and looking up PDFs and

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Speaker 2: figuring out what the truth is. A full time fact checker,

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Speaker 2: I think it's a rarity at a news organization, especially

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Speaker 2: one of our size. Yes, definitely one of our size.

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Speaker 1: Now now, on today's episode, we have heard two updates

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Speaker 1: on the Closing the Gap scheme this month, first that

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Speaker 1: governments are at serious risk of not meeting their goals,

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Speaker 1: and then from the federal government this week we learned

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Speaker 1: that progress is not just stalling, but actually going backwards

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Speaker 1: in some areas. Lucy, you're here to explain the failures

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Speaker 1: and successes of the closing the gap scheme. But first,

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Speaker 1: what's making headlines?

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Speaker 2: More than two million calls to cent a link when

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Speaker 2: unanswered over a six month period last year. Services Australia

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Speaker 2: data for July to December shows seven million callers received

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Speaker 2: congestion messages and had to wait an average of more

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Speaker 2: than thirty minutes to speak to a staff member. Federal

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Speaker 2: senators analyze the data from Services Australia during hearings this week,

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Speaker 2: finding nearly a third of callers hung up after long

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Speaker 2: wait times.

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Speaker 1: The Competition Watchdog has won a case against car manufacturer

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Speaker 1: Mazda after it received reports of recurring issues with new

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Speaker 1: car peres. The Federal court ordered Mazda to pay eleven

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Speaker 1: point five million dollars in a fine, as well as

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Speaker 1: eighty two thousand dollars to some customers in compensation. Their

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Speaker 1: AGREBRAC accused Mazda of deceptive conduct after it denied dozens

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Speaker 1: of customers refunds or replacements on vehicle faults, which they're

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Speaker 1: entitled to under the Australian consumer law.

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Speaker 2: Two opposing parties in Pakistan have made a deal to

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Speaker 2: share power after an election last week resulted in a

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Speaker 2: hung parliament, meaning neither party won enough seats to form government.

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Speaker 2: Independent candidates backed by former Prime Minister Imran Khan, who's

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Speaker 2: currently in jail, won the most seats but can't form

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Speaker 2: government on their own. Another former prime minister, Noa's Sharif

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Speaker 2: has agreed to lead a coalition with former Foreign Affairs

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Speaker 2: Minister Bilawal Bhutu Zadari. Sharif's Pakistan Muslim League is politically conservative,

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Speaker 2: while Zadari's People's Party is described as center left. Despite

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Speaker 2: their differences, the parties have enough seats to form government

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Speaker 2: and have announced their work to gather.

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Speaker 1: And Today's good news. Breakthrough satellite mapping technology has helped

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Speaker 1: researchers from the University of Queensland find unknown coral reefs.

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Speaker 1: The newly mapped three hundred and fifty thousand square kilometers

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Speaker 1: of reefs means there are more coral ecosystems in the

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Speaker 1: world's oceans than scientists previously thought. The Global Reef Mapping Project,

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Speaker 1: which is focused on conservation efforts, also found new areas

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Speaker 1: of coral reefs up to thirty meters deep.

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Speaker 2: Billy. It was the sixteenth anniversary of the National Apology

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Speaker 2: to Indigenous People this week. I have a very clear

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Speaker 2: memory of that day in two thousand and eight when

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Speaker 2: my teacher rolled the TV into our year six classroom

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Speaker 2: so that we could watch the speech. And that same

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Speaker 2: year the first iteration of the Closing the Gap targets

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Speaker 2: were set, and we've heard some very interesting updates about

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Speaker 2: those targets this month.

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Speaker 1: Before we look at what the updates have been, can

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Speaker 1: you first just explain to ours what are the Closing

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Speaker 1: the Gap targets.

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Speaker 2: Well, they're an acknowledgment that there's a significant difference in

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Speaker 2: the overall quality of life of First Nations people and

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Speaker 2: not Indigenous Australians. So life expectancy, representation in the prison system,

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Speaker 2: health school completion in all of these areas and more

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Speaker 2: statistics tell us that broadly First Nations people are worse

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Speaker 2: off than other people in this country. These targets were

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Speaker 2: first set in two thousand and eight, as I said,

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Speaker 2: and they were renewed in twenty twenty. More importantly, probably

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Speaker 2: the targets are commitments made by all levels of government,

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Speaker 2: federal all the way down to local to improve First

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Speaker 2: Nations people's lives. Many of these targets actually have deadlines,

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Speaker 2: so governments need to show that they've met these goals

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Speaker 2: by twenty twenty five or twenty thirty one, depending on

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Speaker 2: the target. We've learned quite a bit about how governments

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Speaker 2: are progressing towards those targets this month.

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Speaker 1: And so what exactly have we learned? How are they progressing?

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Speaker 2: They're not progressing well, is the thing. So earlier this

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Speaker 2: month we heard from the Productivity Commission. So that's a

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Speaker 2: federal government body that gives independent advice and can evaluate

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Speaker 2: how different government services are performing. I feel like we

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Speaker 2: hear about the Productivity Commission all the time, all the time.

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Speaker 2: They've got their fingers in a lot of different pies.

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Speaker 2: So they shared what's been achieved since those targets were

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Speaker 2: renewed in twenty twenty, and their report was pretty scathing.

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Speaker 2: It called current Efforts week and said that although there

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Speaker 2: were some pockets of good practice, measures have been slow, uncoordinated,

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Speaker 2: and piecemeal, so all over the place.

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Speaker 1: Like you said, that's pretty scathing. Did it call out

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Speaker 1: any specific failures.

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Speaker 2: One of the more damning comments I think was that

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Speaker 2: lawmakers have quote failed to fully grasp what they'll actually

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Speaker 2: need to do to live up to those commitments they made.

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Speaker 2: So that's one specific The Productivity Commission doesn't think those governments,

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Speaker 2: So that's all levels of government are showing they understand

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Speaker 2: what they've actually agreeed to. And another big point that

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Speaker 2: was called out was that governments haven't actually consulted enough

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Speaker 2: with First Nations communities to design measures together to close

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Speaker 2: the gap. It's said that First Nations community organizations actually

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Speaker 2: deliver better outcomes than governments in many areas, and that

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Speaker 2: part of the report really reminded me of this saying,

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Speaker 2: which I think comes from disability activism. Nothing about us

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Speaker 2: without us. Basically, people need to be involved in policies

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Speaker 2: that will affect them.

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Speaker 1: And did the Productivity Commission have any recommendations about what

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Speaker 1: the government can do to fix that?

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Speaker 2: So the report recommended our fundamental rethink of systems used

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Speaker 2: to address disadvantage and it's said agreeing to those targets

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Speaker 2: requires government decision makers to accept that they do not

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Speaker 2: know what is best for Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people.

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Speaker 2: It said that without large scale changes, governments risked quote

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Speaker 2: another broken promise to First Nations people, and it said,

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Speaker 2: the agment can and should be a blueprint for real

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Speaker 2: WALK reform, but governments need to move beyond business as

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Speaker 2: usual and address entrenched attitudes, assumptions, and ways of working

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Speaker 2: that stop progress. So all of that came out last

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Speaker 2: week and really foreshadowed what happened this week when we

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Speaker 2: got a federal update on how the targets are progressing.

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Speaker 1: So we know that broadly the targets are not progressing

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Speaker 1: well before we look at what the update this week was,

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Speaker 1: can you first just explain what actually are the targets

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Speaker 1: that we're looking at here, how many of them are there?

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Speaker 1: So they cover all areas of quality of life. They

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Speaker 1: include things like increasing the number of people speaking Aboriginal

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Speaker 1: and Torres Strait Islanders languages, making sure small children are

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Speaker 1: thriving before school and when they go into school, reducing

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Speaker 1: the number of kids and out of home care, ensuring

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Speaker 1: people aren't living in poor quality overcrowded houses, and even

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Speaker 1: increasing native title rights to land and sea country. And

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Speaker 1: then in terms of numbers, there's these four Priority reforms

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Speaker 1: which cover more of the enacting programs, and then there

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Speaker 1: are seventeen targets and a couple of subtargets, so kind

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Speaker 1: of nineteen broad targets and so we're flagged that there

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Speaker 1: was another update this week. What was that?

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Speaker 2: So PM Anthony Albanizi made a speech in Parliament this

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Speaker 2: week kind of touching on what that update was.

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Speaker 3: Sixteen years after the apology, only eleven out of nineteen

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Speaker 3: socioeconomic outcomes for average on Tyres Strait Islander people's are improving.

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Speaker 3: Just four are on track to meet their targets. What

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Speaker 3: should give us pause is that outcomes have worsened for

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Speaker 3: four critical targets.

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Speaker 2: And that worsening that he mentioned, that's got the government

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Speaker 2: very worried.

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Speaker 1: We just heard him mention four targets that are getting worse.

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Speaker 1: What are those?

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Speaker 2: So they're critical targets as he said, So those targets

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Speaker 2: are one first nation's children hitting developmental mind in their

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Speaker 2: first year of school, to making sure adults aren't overrepresented

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Speaker 2: in the justice system, three keeping kids out of home

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Speaker 2: care and for reducing the suicide rate. So the stats

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Speaker 2: show us that all of these things are getting worse,

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Speaker 2: not better. The government said it's determined to fix this.

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Speaker 2: But considering what we've just heard about the Productivity Commission's report,

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Speaker 2: it does sound like a lot of work needs to

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Speaker 2: be done.

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Speaker 1: Are there any targets that are on track?

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Speaker 2: Yeah, they're silver linings. So some of those targets that

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Speaker 2: are on track are actually related to those that are

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Speaker 2: getting worse, so we could possibly see better outcomes in

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Speaker 2: the future. So like, for example, the target for the

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Speaker 2: majority of First Nations children to be in culturally appropriate

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Speaker 2: early childhood education is on track to be met, so

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Speaker 2: we could see better outcomes in terms of that target

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Speaker 2: of kids meeting markers in their first year of school.

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Speaker 2: You know, if preschool attendance is getting better, then KINDI

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Speaker 2: is probably going to.

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Speaker 1: Start to look better.

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Speaker 2: And there's also been improvement in the overrepresentation of children

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Speaker 2: in the criminal justice system. First Nations children are still

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Speaker 2: very much overrepresented, but those numbers are getting lower, and

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Speaker 2: that relates to the overrepresentation of adults in the system

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Speaker 2: because research shows us that incarceration as a child is

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Speaker 2: a key driver of incarceration as an adult, So fewer

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Speaker 2: kids being incarcerated could possibly lead to fewer adults being incarcerated.

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Speaker 2: We can see the whole trajectory of this possibly getting better.

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Speaker 2: And then the other targets that are on track are

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Speaker 2: increasing access to land and the employment rate for adults.

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Speaker 2: One thing to note, not all of this data is new,

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Speaker 2: so we'll probably hear more from the Productivity Commission and

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Speaker 2: from the government throughout the year as more of those

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Speaker 2: stats start to come through, more data gets updated, and

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Speaker 2: we'll keep you across all of that on TDA.

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Speaker 1: Lucy, Thank you so much for joining us. It is

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Speaker 1: always a treat when we get to pull you away

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Speaker 1: out of primary sources and deep into every document ever

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Speaker 1: to be on the mic. Thank you so much.

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Speaker 2: What would it be here?

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Speaker 1: And before you go, we are currently during a podcast

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Speaker 1: survey so that we can understand better what it is

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Speaker 1: that you like about this podcast and maybe some of

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Speaker 1: the things that you don't like or that you think

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Speaker 1: we could do better. So you can fill out that

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Speaker 1: survey in the show notes. See it is the first

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Speaker 1: thing you'll see there. Thank you so much for listening,

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Speaker 1: and we will be back tomorrow.

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Speaker 2: My name is Lily Maddon and I'm a proud Dunda

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Speaker 2: Bungelung Caalcuttin woman from Gadigol Country. The Daily oz acknowledges

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Speaker 2: that this podcast is recorded on the lands of the

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Speaker 2: Gadighl people and pays respect to all Aboriginal and Torres

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Speaker 2: Strait Island and nations. We pay our respects to the

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Speaker 2: first peoples of these countries, both past and present,