Page 708 - Week 03 - Tuesday, 5 April 2022
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The impact statement also identifies areas of concern, including increased waiting times for some categories of medical treatment and a slightly higher proportion of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander patients who do not wait in our emergency departments but leave without being treated. Reductions in vocational education and training enrolment and completion in 2020 are also of concern. We will continue to analyse this data to better understand what has occurred and discuss with the elected body what response might be most appropriate.
This first ACT annual impact statement focuses on measuring and reporting impact using quantitative data. While it is important to measure and report in this way, we know that data alone does not tell the full story. Data alone does not reflect the considerable commitment that agreement partners have demonstrated and the achievements that have been made by working together on shared priorities.
As some examples of these important actions, informed by our commitments in the national and ACT agreements, the government is working with the Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander community to: transition the Ngunnawal Bush Healing Farm to a residential model and community-controlled management; progress the development of an Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander alcohol and other drug residential rehabilitation service, in partnership with Winnunga Nimmityjah Aboriginal Health and Community Services; establish an Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander specific standalone suicide prevention, postvention and aftercare service in the ACT; grow the Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander health workforce and Canberra Health Services to work with the community to develop “Together, Forward”—its plan to provide better access to health care for Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples in the Canberra region; support to transition Boomanulla Oval and Yarramundi Cultural Centre to sustainable community control; finalise the governance arrangements for our $20 million Healing and Reconciliation Fund; and partner with Gugan Gulwan Youth Aboriginal Corporation to deliver a new, purpose-built facility at its current site.
I also draw the Assembly’s attention to the partnerships and achievements across government highlighted by the Head of Service, Kathy Leigh, in her foreword to the impact statement. As members may recall, previous annual reports on the agreement have been focused on the actions underway across the ACT government in each focus area, including case studies. This aligns with a strengths-based approach that recognises the importance of acting in partnership with the community.
For future reports, we will work to pull together the data and outcomes reporting that are the focus of this impact statement—and which so much work has gone into since the closing the gap targets and indicators were finalised—with the critically important narrative about how we are working with community to close the gap and achieve equitable outcomes for First Nations people in the ACT. In the meantime I encourage members to have a look at the Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander reporting section in each directorate’s annual report. This work is directly related to, and over time will influence, the outcomes data that is the focus of the report I am tabling today.
For example, the work being undertaken in the health portfolio to co-design culturally appropriate Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander suicide prevention, intervention,
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