Mr ALBANESE (Grayndler—Prime Minister) (12:01): I ask leave of the House to make a ministerial statement relating to the 18th anniversary of the national apology to Australia's Indigenous peoples and the closing the gap annual report and implementation. Leave granted. Mr ALBANESE: I present a copy of the Commonwealth closing the gap annual report 2025 and commonwealth implementation plan 2026, the Coalition of Peaks annual report 2024-25, the Coalition of Peaks Closing the gap implementation plan 2026 and a copy of my ministerial statement. I begin by acknowledging the traditional owners of the land on which we meet, and I pay my respect to their elders past, present and emerging. I acknowledge our outstanding Minister for Indigenous Australians, Senator Malarndirri McCarthy. Together with First Nations members and senators from across our parliament, we all join in welcoming members of the stolen generations and the Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander leaders here in the chamber today. You enhance this place with your presence. It was my great honour to be in one of the Senate courtyards earlier today, hearing firsthand the experience, the wisdom, the knowledge, the dignity of stolen generations. I thank you for that. I know that since the alleged terrorist attack in Perth, many of you have been providing comfort to people grappling with shock and fear—people imagining how much worse things could have been. I want to reaffirm what I said here last week on behalf of the Australian government but also on behalf of the people of Australia. We see you. We stand with you. The danger of that attack was real—and so were the racism and hatred behind it, motivated by a white supremacist ideology. Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people have the right to gather and express their views without fear of violence. More than that, you have the right to a full and equal place in our nation and our future—unburdened by discrimination or disadvantaged, empowered by opportunity and security. That is the test—and the purpose—of closing the gap. As Prime Minister, I have the honour of presenting the Australian of the Year Awards, and the 2026 Australia's Local Hero is Frank Mitchell, a Whadjuk-Yued Noongar man from Western Australia. In his acceptance speech, Frank reflected on a low point in his life, isolated in a small community, under pressure as a single dad and grieving the deaths of two close mates, when his uncle offered him a lifeline, a mature age electrical apprenticeship. Frank said this: I now understand that work and education are not just about income or career progression, they are determinants of health and wellbeing. Completing my electrical apprenticeship gave me pride, hope and stability, gave me the foundation to provide for my family and grow into a leader within my community. Today Frank is a proud partner in four companies in the construction industry. They have created 30 electrical apprenticeships for Indigenous Australians and a further 40 upskilling roles, and they have awarded $11 million in work to other Aboriginal subcontractors. Frank modestly says he is just one success story among many, yet his story tells us much about the work of closing the gap. First, it reminds us that everything is connected—your health and education, your home and your job—and it shapes who you are as a parent, your place in the community, the goals you set and the choices you have. Second, Frank's story proves that one lifeline, one moment when someone recognises your potential and backs it and backs you, can change everything about your life. Sometimes when we talk about closing the gap, we can be guilty of focusing on that first idea at the expense of the second. The challenges facing us are significant, complex and connected, with causes that reach back generations, but that does not render us powerless; it makes each of us and the act of change powerful. It means progress towards one target will drive improvement in others. Since July 2022, more than 850 new homes have been built in remote communities. This reduces overcrowding, a target where we are seeing improvement, but we understand that a secure roof over your head is also a stable foundation for family, school, study and work. Building more homes creates local jobs and apprenticeships in construction. It drives better health outcomes. It makes communities safer. In health, we are upgrading over 100 services from maternal health to mental health, from remote Australia to our cities. Many of these clinics had not seen a dollar of new investment for decades. Today I announce that we will provide a further $144 million to upgrade dozens more services. And, as an important part of the historic hospital funding agreement that we secured through the National Cabinet just this month, we will deliver a joint $450 million boost to Indigenous health. Health is an area where the Coalition of Peaks has worked for years to drive a change in government's approach. Now all levels of government will work together to see this funding deliver a change in outcomes. This time last year, I outlined our plan to reduce the cost of 30 essential items in 76 community stores so household staples like flour, cereal, pasta and even nappies and toothpaste are tied to city prices. Importantly, investing in supply chains as well so these items are actually on the shelves in those remote communities. We have already expanded the success of that program to 113 stores across the Northern Territory, Queensland, South Australia and Western Australia. Today I announce we will guarantee the reduced price of these 30 essentials is available in all 225 remote stores right around Australia. We will also fund upgrades for storage in 75 stores to keep stock fresh when the wet season makes transport difficult or simply impossible. We all know what it means to be able to put healthy food on the table—the difference that it makes for mums expecting a baby, for a child's health and growth and even for their ability to concentrate at school. And that same multiplier effect is true for water as well. As of today, 40 clean water projects are either underway or complete, delivering for around 34,000 people in 110 communities. For most Australians, drinkable water sounds like the most basic thing. But the truth is it is everything. It keeps communities together and connected to their land. It keeps schools open. It means health clinics can perform dialysis on country. Closing the Gap is a national test, a generational task, a moral imperative. But it is one we measure in these tangible outcomes. And that is why we listen to communities, why we invest in co-design, trust in the Coalition of Peaks, led with such passion by the remarkable Pat Turner AM, represented here today by Catherine Liddle and Scott Wilson, and partner with Aboriginal community controlled organisations. We built on that on Tuesday this week, just two days ago, when Minister McCarthy and Minister Tanya Plibersek launched Our Ways—Strong Ways—Our Voices, the first standalone plan to end violence against Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander women and children. We are now five years away from most of the target deadlines. We're clear about where there is more to do. We must also guard against talk of failure, because talk of failure dismisses the aspirations and achievements of Indigenous Australians. It ignores the leaders and communities who are changing lives. Failure is a word for those who have stopped trying or given up listening. I make this clear today: I am not contemplating failure. Our government is not contemplating failure. We are determined to succeed. The Closing the Gap targets are a measure of our national progress, and there is real progress. Four targets are on track, and, based on progress to date, later this year we expect confirmation that the target of 95 per cent of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander children being enrolled in preschool will have been achieved. A further six targets are improving, and that number is of course based on the national average. Different states and territories are performing better on different outcomes, even in some of the more challenging areas. New South Wales, the Northern Territory and the ACT are improving when it comes to children in out-of-home care, while Western Australia, Victoria and South Australia have made significant progress in reducing youth detention. However, there are four areas where progress has stalled or is going backwards—where we simply need to do better. The most urgent of those is suicide. Suicide shatters families and it tears apart communities. So often, amidst the grief, loved ones return to the heartbreaking question: how did it come to this? Compared to non-Indigenous Australians, Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people are 2½ times more likely to die by suicide. As a matter of priority, our government will deliver $13.9 million to boost the national support line 13YARN, a crisis counselling service designed, led and delivered by Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people. Twenty-four hours a day, seven days a week, they offer a—to quote their theme—'no shame, no judgement, safe place to yarn'. We understand the suicide rate among Indigenous Australians includes a number of deaths in custody. Thirty-five years after that historic royal commission, the hard truth is that no government from either side of politics has done enough. The primary responsibility for law enforcement and detention rests with state and territory governments, and they have every right to put the safety of their communities first. No-one is making excuses for crime, but we cannot ignore its causes. That is why our government is investing in prevention not just punishment, particularly for young people. We know that justice reinvestment works. When communities are empowered to take responsibility, to provide structure and support and to put young people back on the right track, the individual rates of reoffending drop and the crime rate falls too. Communities are safer. Families are safer. No-one should grow up imagining that prison is a rite of passage. As a society, our definition of justice must be measured by more than the capacity of our jails. Our government's approach to closing the gap begins with the building blocks of a good life and is driven by economic empowerment, breaking down barriers to wealth creation, nourishing aspiration and rewarding hard work, and the self-determination that flows from financial security and from having a stake in the economy. This is less about what government can do with Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people. It is about the success Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people are achieving for themselves, because we do not need to create a new culture of innovation or aspiration among Indigenous Australians. That culture is over 65,000 years old. In energy and construction, tourism and fashion, hospitality and technology, Indigenous businesses are winning awards and creating jobs. Indeed, they are between 40 and 100 times more likely to employ Indigenous Australians. We are boosting the financing capacity of Indigenous Business Australia, backing more entrepreneurs to get their great ideas off the ground. In that spirit, we are working to ensure communities can unlock the wealth of their land. We are on track to achieve the two Closing the Gap targets for Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples' access to their lands and waters, and we want land to be a basis for prosperity and economic sovereignty, not a barrier to it. That is why we're investing $75 million to reform prescribed bodies corporate and native title organisations and empower them as economic decision-makers, dealing direct with government investment vehicles, like the Northern Australia Infrastructure Fund, and private capital, particularly in the resources and clean energy sector, securing new projects and creating new jobs. Our government values the security and opportunity that a good job provides, and we respect the dignity of work. That is why we promised to abolish the failed CDP, and we have. Our Remote Jobs and Economic Development program has already supported over 1,500 new jobs. Today, I announce that, by 2027, we will double that number and, by 2030, we will double it again—6,000 new jobs paying real wages and bringing new pride and purpose to people's lives. That goes together with the 900 new jobs created through expanding Indigenous Rangers, a program that draws on the wisdom of a thousand generations to preserve our environment for the future. As a Labor government, we know that economic empowerment begins with education: early childhood, fully funding every government school and expanding horizons through university and TAFE. The last four years prove that when those opportunities are in reach Indigenous Australians will grab them with both hands. In 2022, we promised to train 500 First Nations health workers. More than 580 have enrolled so far, and 162 have already graduated. In the last three years, over 40,000 Indigenous students have benefited from free TAFE. Now we are taking that success on the road. New mobile TAFE utes and trailers will deliver training on country so locals have the skills and qualifications to build new homes, connect new energy, secure clean water and deliver the health care that communities need. Tomorrow morning in the Great Hall, we will gather to commemorate the 18th anniversary of the National Apology to the Stolen Generations. I was sitting behind Prime Minister Rudd that day as the Leader of the House. I remember looking up to the gallery seeing the tears and quiet pride on the faces of those who had fought so bravely and so long to hear those words—the survivors who honoured us with their grace by accepting the apology in the spirit it was offered. The apology was an honest reckoning with our history, a call to action for our future and a profound act of patriotism true to the best of our values. By global standards, our 125 years of Federation makes us an old democracy. In the full sweep of Australian history it is in the blink of an eye. Today we celebrate that truth as a source of national pride and we are all enriched by it, because every time we open our minds to the wisdom and strength of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people, every time we break down barriers of racism or disadvantage, every time we broaden the circle of Australian opportunity and deepen the meaning of the fair go we are all stronger for it. Our nation is better and more united for it. That is the determination and the optimism we bring to this partnership, and together we will succeed.