This year just passed, 2011, will go down as one of progress for Queensland’s Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people. From a Queensland Government perspective, the two big-ticket items have been the new Indigenous justice strategy, Just Futures 2012–15, and the Learning, Earning, Active Places Strategy.
LEAP addresses Indigenous disadvantage in urban areas; the justice strategy offers practical ways of overcoming the over-representation of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people in the state’s criminal justice system.
Both strategies have offered fundamental shifts in government–community interaction. They are both based on the assumption of a whole-of community response to ending Indigenous disadvantage. The “working in silo” approach has gone; instead both strategies show that all parts of communities must work together on combined and mutually agreed solutions. The focus is on the end goal.
I firmly believe this approach is the only way that we can effectively close the gap in Indigenous disadvantage, and I am very proud that both strategies have come to fruition while I am Queensland’s Minister for Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Partnerships.
Of course, there has been more to the year than two strategies.
There were two Ministerial Indigenous Roundtables — in Cherbourg in May, and Wujal Wujal in November. These roundtables bring together Government Ministers, the Mayors of all Aboriginal Shire Councils and the Northern Peninsula Area Regional Council, and local Members of Parliament. They are an invaluable opportunity for informing the Government decision-making process. For instance, at Cherbourg’s and Wujal Wujal’s roundtables we focused on employment and skills opportunities, disaster management planning for discrete Indigenous communities, justice and community safety planning. I look forward to continuing them in 2012.
In the wider community, 2011 produced progress on many fronts. The Federal Court of Australia delivered a healthy number of native title determinations around Queensland; NAIDOC Week continued to grow in prominence, and communities everywhere put in massive efforts to recover from the cyclone and flood disasters that struck at the beginning of the year.
I’m proud of the progress we have made together during my first tenure as a Minister but I know there’s a lot more to be done. I look forward to continuing this progress in 2012.
In the meantime, I wish you all the best for the festive season. Stay safe!
Curtis Pitt, MP
Minister for Disability Services, Mental Health and Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Partnerships
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