The Minister for Indigenous Australians has again signalled the federal government could use funding levers to apply greater pressure on states and territories to improve their performance under the Closing the Gap agreement.
Her comments follow calls from Independent Senator Lidia Thorpe for financial penalties to be built into the agreement, arguing jurisdictions continue to introduce policies that undermine its commitments.
Speaking on the day the annual Closing the Gap report is due to be released — with only four targets on track and six improving — Malarndirri McCarthy told ABC Radio the Commonwealth has financial mechanisms it can use.
"We have levers that we can pull," she said on Thursday morning, "and I know that through the Northern Territory Remote Aboriginal Investment...that is certainly an agreement between the Commonwealth and the Northern Territory where I have pushed for those levers to be looked at."
Four targets will be confirmed as off track ahead of the 2031 deadline on Thursday when the report is tabled.
Asked about the Northern Territory, which has introduced policies that have sharply increased incarceration — a trend the current CLP Government has promoted as proof its 'tough on crime' approach is working — Senator McCarthy admitted to having "many, many moments of frustration".
"There is no doubt about that," she said. "Not just with the Northern Territory, there are other jurisdictions that we continually need to work with, but I have to say I have reached out continuously with the Indigenous Affairs Ministers of each jurisdiction, and we do work reasonably well to try and work on these areas."
On the NT Government — which has strengthened bail laws, lowered the age of criminal responsibility and introduced spit hoods in youth detention — she said she had "reached out directly" to Chief Minister Lia Finocchiaro.
"I have raised directly the concerns around the incarceration rates, but also the deaths in custody that we've had in the last 12 months, in the Northern Territory in particular," she said on Thursday.
"So, these are ongoing conversations that I have. I do push for that change, but it requires a whole-of-government approach, in particular from each state and territory jurisdiction."
Senator McCarthy, who will not address Parliament on the report this week due to Senate Estimates, acknowledged last October that stronger accountability is required, noting there is currently "no penalty in the agreement".
"I'm trying to look at federal funding arrangements with each state and territory over whatever the agreement might be as to how we can input into that so that there is some kind of penalty as to why you're not achieving targets," she said at the time.
Indigenous incarceration has continued to rise nationwide under both Liberal- and Labor-led governments. Data released on Thursday by the NSW Bureau of Crime Statistics and Research shows a record 4,452 Aboriginal adults are in the state's prisons, representing 33.9 per cent of the total adult prison population — the highest proportion on record.
A report last week also found First Nations people are disproportionately held on remand under increasingly restrictive bail laws, many of which contradict a central recommendation of the Aboriginal Deaths in Custody Royal Commission: detention as a last resort.
In a statement on Wednesday evening, Senator Thorpe renewed her call for enforceable penalties and incentives under the 2020 agreement.
"Closing the Gap is a failure," she said. "Without enforceable accountability, it has become little more than a reporting exercise, documenting state violence while our children are stolen and our people are caged and killed in custody at rising rates."
The Prime Minister is expected to urge Parliament to avoid framing the effort as a failure.
Because talk of failure dismisses the aspirations and achievements of Indigenous Australians, it ignores the leaders and communities who are changing lives," he will say.
"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."
Asked about the targets on ABC TV, Senator McCarthy conceded progress has been difficult.
"It's tough, there is no doubt about it, and often times it is quite frustrating, but I keep going," she said.
"It is important to me that we have a breakthrough. We have to have all cabinets around every single parliament in this country, determined to work on this National Agreement that they signed up to, and I will continue to push to make them accountable, as well as ourselves at the Commonwealth level."
