Australia politics live: Labor schedules debate on Joyce’s net zero bill; Gareth Ward defamation case against 2SM to proceed

Keogh says veteran and family hubs are being established as promised

The first question from the crossbench comes from former Nationals MP turned independent Andrew Gee, who says parts of his community want to set up wellbeing hubs for veterans and their families. He asks the minister if he’ll come and visit Bathurst and Orange who want to establish them.

Matt Keogh says he’d be happy to visit the two towns in Gee’s electorate, and that the hubs are being established as promised at the 2022 election.

We went to the 2022 election, we made a commitment to rolling out 10 veterans and families hubs across the country, we made sure that we selected locations based on the highest concentrations of veterans and families around the country … [they are] the priority area[s] to focus on rolling out those hubs and it means that we are now in the process of having opened and are rolling out some 17 veterans’ and families hubs.

Ley continues targeting power bills in question time

Sussan Ley steps up again for the second question, this time to Chris Bowen, asking what the average monthly household power bill is today compared with when Labor took office three years ago.

Bowen is speeding through some numbers,

The Queensland bill is $139 and the average [bill on] election day was $347.28. In South Australia the average today is $125 and average on election day was $312.30.

But before he gets too far, Ley stands up and says despite the “rapid-fire delivery”, he’s actually giving wholesale power prices rather than answering her question. Milton Dick says the point of order isn’t an opportunity to add new stuff to the question.

Bowen starts again with some new numbers – which honestly can barely be heard because everyone is shouting in the chamber. After everyone settles (because Dick tells them to), Bowen continues:

We on this side of the house agree that Australians have looked and will continue to look to the government to do more to assist on household energy bills. The work is far from done, we delivered three rounds of energy bill relief but we recognise that around the world, including in Australia, our prices hit higher than anyone would like. But that is why we have taken such action.

The Nationals to ‘settle’ on net zero position ‘in coming months’

The Nationals leader, David Littleproud, says his party will come to a settled position on net zero “in the next couple of months”, and strongly backed the ability of his members to bring forth private members’ bills on topics like this.

Of course this comes in the context of Barnaby Joyce putting up a bill to scrap the net zero target. Littleproud, asked about his party’s efforts in the first fortnight of parliament, said it was healthy for democracy for bills to be debated.

“This place is about democracy … I think it’s a great thing that we have members of parliament, in the Senate and in the House of Reps, who come and bring forward private members’ bills that are important to their districts or important to this country,” Littleproud told a press conference.

We should never try and subvert that process.

Littleproud said the Nationals wouldn’t be “kicking it down the road too long”, adding that their answer on net zero would come in coming months.

I’m pretty comfortable with that process, but we’ll be sure to nail our position.

Boarding call for furry friends

In news outside politics, Virgin Airlines says it should be ready to allow our furry friends on domestic flights by the end of 2025.

Last week, the food ministers’ meeting (today I also learned there’s a dedicated meeting for federal, state and territory food ministers) allowed small cats and dogs to be permitted on flights in controlled conditions.

Virgin’s CEO, David Emerson, reportedly a summit in Cairns today that it’s been a “longer process than we thought” to get pets on board, but it will soon finally happen:

We’re looking forward to launching before the end of the year.

Coalition’s efforts to investigate decision to allow US beef imports shot down

Labor and the Greens have shot down the Coalition’s attempt to investigate the decision to allow more beef imports from the US.

The Coalition has been calling for an independent review into the decision, and senator Matt Canavan put forward the motion to have the processes and advice provided by the department looked at by a committee.

The decision to lift restrictions came after the Trump administration had publicly criticised the import blocks, but the government said Australia’s biosecurity won’t be weakened, and the decision was separate from discussions on trade tariffs.

ABC ‘deeply concerned’ about health and safety of freelance journalists in Gaza

The ABC is calling on Israel to allow international journalists to report independently from Gaza and is “deeply concerned” about the health and safety of freelance journalists it works with on the ground.

ABC news director, Justin Stevens, wrote in a statement that the ABC is the “only Australian media organisation with a permanent presence in the region and we have repeatedly tried to get reporters back into Gaza”.

The ABC relies on a “network of freelanced journalists and individuals on the ground”, and Stevens said the organisation is “seeing the effects of food shortages on journalists we work with”.

We rely on a network of freelance journalists and individuals on the ground to tell the story of what they are witnessing. We are deeply concerned about their health and safety.

According to the Committee to Protect Journalists, at least 186 journalists and media workers, mostly Palestinian, have been killed while gathering evidence of the war inside Gaza since 7 October. That number includes journalists who have done work for the ABC.

We’re now seeing the effects of food shortages on journalists we work with.

ABC Middle East correspondent, Matthew Doran, wrote about the deteriorating situation for journalists last week, describing one colleague he has worked with in Gaza who has lost 34kg and said he “does not have the strength to hold a camera any more”.

Education department ‘ready to act swiftly’ against childcare centres not meeting standards

Going back briefly to Jason Clare’s press conference earlier, the education minister said his department will “act swiftly” against underperforming childcare centres when the new legislation passes parliament.

The bill to crackdown on childcare providers with poor safety standards could pass the parliament today. Clare told us earlier this week that, once the bill passes, the department will start looking at taking action against those not meeting standards. He wouldn’t say which centres were on his priority list for taking action, but flagged he’d soon have more to say. He said today:

The intention here is not for centres to close but for centres to raise their standards to meet the quality and safety standards that we expect them to have. But it’s not an idle threat …

I think parents will want to know if their centres are not up to scratch. And that’s why, as part of this legislation, we’re saying that, if my department imposes a condition on a centre and says, “You’ve got this time to get up to scratch,” they have to tell the parents at that centre what’s happening as well so they’ve got the information they need to make the decisions they need to make, to make sure their children are getting the best-quality care and education they can.

Clare said he wouldn’t go into the priority list today, but that he’d told the department “to be ready to act swiftly.”

“I’ll have more to say next week,” the minister said.

Ninety six homeless Queenslanders banned from emergency accommodation under crackdown

Ninety six homeless Queenslanders have been banned from emergency accommodation for six months within the first two months of a new crackdown.

Mark Cridland, director general for Queensland’s Department of Housing and Public, revealed just under 4,000 people were currently living in a hotel or motel paid for by the department under its ‘immediate housing response’ scheme.

Of the 96 people evicted under a new policy implemented in May, 59% had been evicted as a result of bad behaviour or a breach of hotel rules, he said.

He added no people had yet been banned from both social housing and emergency accommodation, under the government’s new three-strike policy.

Four “first and final notices were issued for dangerous and severe behaviors” have been issued since the policy came into effect in July, according to housing and public works minister, Sam O’Connor.

How office buildings, factories and shopping centres can cause legionnaires’ outbreaks

Following from the news of a legionnaires’ disease outbreak that has seen one man die and six others hospitalised, Guardian Australia’s Matilda Boseley is here to explain what the infection is and how legionella bacteria spreads:

Education ministers to meet in August to discuss ‘key questions’ relating to childcare centre CCTV

The issue of CCTV will be discussed at the next meeting of state, territory and federal education ministers.

Clare says there are key questions on how that data will be used or stored, which will be addressed at that meeting in August.

The last thing you want to do here is create a honey pot for bad people. So where does the [CCTV] data get stored? How does it get used? I’m on the record saying that I think it has real value in potentially deterring bad people from doing bad things. I think it also has real value for police in being able to use that in their investigations. That’s after – after the fact, though. If it can deter, that’s good.

Asked about the Hecs legislation, and the push from the Greens to go further to wipe Hecs debt completely, Clare says it’s not just a one-off cut, and the reforms change the structure of how the debt is paid back for all students.

The legislation increases the salary threshold for those paying student debts back, meaning graduates on lower salaries won’t have to begin paying their debt back until later, or will pay back less until they earn more.

Instead of paying back around about $1,900 once they hit $70,000, it’s about $450 … When you’re on $70,000 and might be renting, that money matters, that money counts. That helps you to pay for rent, pay for food, pay for public transport.

This was a recommendation of the Accord. It was a recommendation of a bloke named Bruce Chapman who for those who don’t know was the architect of Hecs back in the ‘80s. And he says that this is perhaps the most important change to the Hecs system in 35 years.

‘There is a mountain of work to do’ to fix childcare: Clare

Clare says again that this legislation is only the start of reforms that governments – federal, state and territory – need to do to fix the system.

The impact of the legislation, Clare says, should be to raise the standards of centres, not to force them shut, at a time when the government is also trying to boost the number of children accessing early childhood education.

Clare says there’s already a list of providers prepared, that the government could take action against – but he won’t yet reveal who’s on it.

I won’t expand on that today. I will have more to say on that when the department publishes that list. First, the bill needs to pass the parliament, then it needs to receive royal assent. But I have directed my department to be ready to act swiftly. I’ll have more to say next week.

Hecs cut ‘promised and delivered’ says education minister

The education minister, Jason Clare, is speaking to the media, after the passing of the government’s Hecs bill through the Senate.

We promised it and we’ve delivered.

Young Australians don’t always see something for them on the ballot paper, but they did this year.

Clare says the debt relief will be backdated to 1 June this year, before indexation was applied.

He also says he’s hopeful the childcare legislation will be passed in the Senate before question time today.

Here’s a video of Lidia Thorpe moving the motion earlier this morning:

Thorpe urges PM to use Garma festival speech to commit to deaths in custody royal commission recommendations

Independent senator Lidia Thorpe has called on Anthony Albanese to use his speech at the Garma festival to implement the recommendations of the deaths in custody royal commission.

Albanese will travel to the Northern Territory this weekend for the important Indigenous cultural and community festival. He will make a speech at the event, which is often where federal leaders commit to new policy and stances in Indigenous affairs.

Speaking after her motion on deaths in custody was passed by the Senate, Thorpe told a press conference that she hoped Albanese would use Garma to commit to taking more federal action on hanging points and other concerns in prisons.

No one’s had oversight of those recommendations for two decades, since the demise of Atsic. They’ve been sitting there for two decades. No one gave a damn that deaths in custody was still happening, so oversight and action on implementing the remainder of those recommendations, removing hanging points would be great.

We know that there’s been hanging points that have been used 20 times. The prisons know. The cops know. The governments know, yet they allow people to continue to take their lives in known hanging points. A recommendation from the royal commission is to remove them, to provide mental health services, to allow communities to self determine their own solutions.

So it’d be great if the prime minister took it seriously and not just rock up [to Garma] to see culture on display.

Lidia Thorpe introducing her motion into the Senate this morning

Thorpe’s motion expressed sympathies to the families of the 17 First Nations people who have died in custody this year, including 24-year-old Walpiri man Kumanjayi White, and to the families of the 602 Indigenous deaths in custody since the release of the 1991 royal commission into Aboriginal deaths in custody.

The motion was supported by Labor and the Greens.

RBA deputy governor says consumer price figures ‘very welcome’

The Reserve Bank’s deputy governor, Andrew Hauser, says yesterday’s consumer price figures were “very welcome”, in a further signal that the central bank has gained some comfort with the trajectory of inflation and that it will cut rates next month.

Inflation dropped to 2.1% in the year to June, while the RBA’s preferred underlying measure fell to 2.7% – which Hauser said was in line with the bank’s forecasts.

Still, Hauser also flagged that the central bank was in no rush.

Our strategy for some time is to set interest rates to bring inflation back sustainably – that’s an important word – to the midpoint of the 2-3% target range, and to do that through a policy that is gradual, considered, measured.

Financial markets are pricing in a rate cut on 12 August and another by the November board meeting.

Jim Chalmers on morning TV refused to comment on likelihood of a rate cut next month.

I try not to make predictions about decisions that the independent Reserve Bank will take about interest rates, but I’m really pleased that inflation has come down so substantially.

It’s a powerful demonstration of the progress that Australians have made together in the fight against inflation.

Labor votes against Greens amendment to early childhood bill

The Senate has now moved to the early childhood bill the government has said it wants to be passed this week (ie today).

The Greens are trying to move an amendment to the bill that would note “the need for broader reform” to make early childhood education universal, and calls on the government to establish an independent national Early Childhood Education and Care Commission.

Labor votes against it with a handful of Liberal senators.

They’ll now continue debating – the minister, Jess Walsh, is currently answering questions on the bill in the chamber – before they vote on the bill.

Lidia Thorpe’s condolence motion passes in Senate

Lidia Thorpe’s condolence motion extending its sympathies to the families of the 17 First Nations people who have died in custody this year, including 24-year-old Walpiri man Kumanjayi White, who died in May after being restrained by officers at an Alice Springs supermarket, has passed in the Senate.

Tears as Marion Scrymgour says deaths in custody ‘catastrophic for my communities’

The Labor member for Lingiari, in the Northern Territory, Marion Scrymgour, is tearing up in the chamber, as she also speaks on Aboriginal deaths in custody.

She says two of the First Nations people who have died in custody this year have been from the area that she represents.

This issue weighs heavily on me. As an Aboriginal person from the Northern Territory, these deaths have been catastrophic for my communities. As a mother, as a grandmother, these deaths have weighed heavily on my communities.

I hear their calls for justice, Speaker.

After Kumanjayi Walker’s tragic passing in Alice Springs during Naidoc, I called for the investigation with minister McCarthy to look into his death and to have suitably qualified and authorised professionals from outside the Northern Territory police. We didn’t take that decision lightly, we did it because of the systemic racism and the issues between our Northern Territory police and Aboriginal people.

Murray Watt says rate of Indigenous deaths in custody ‘unacceptable’

Both houses are speaking on Indigenous deaths in custody this morning.

After Thorpe, Murray Watt says it is “simply unacceptable that 602 First Nations people have died in custody since the 1991 royal commission”.

In the House, Amanda Rishworth is speaking on behalf of Malarndirri McCarthy:

The royal commission was clear that the best way to reduce Indigenous deaths in custody is to reduce the high incarceration rate of First Nations people, including through social and economic responses.

This is what the commonwealth government is focusing on.

McCarthy told RN Breakfast this morning that justice and preventing mass incarceration of adults and young First Nations people is a key focus of the government.

Wiggles share post featuring Wags the Dog dressed in black after Anika Wells’ ‘black skivvies’ remark

The Wiggles have another cheeky nod to the communications minister, Anika Wells, referring to the bosses at Wiggles HQ as wearing “black skivvies” in a post promoting the children’s group’s latest tour.

Wells said yesterday she was lobbied against including YouTube in the under 16s social media ban not by individual Wiggles, but “it was the black skivvies, it was Wiggles Inc, it was Wiggles management”.

Wiggles HQ already fired back saying they don’t wear black skivvies, but in the promo video posted on Thursday it features Wags the Dog in Wiggles HQ dressed in black. The group said it was “Big Wiggles” news.

Guardian Australia reported yesterday a planned Google event in Parliament House was cancelled last night after the ban was announced. Google said it was “out of respect for the grieving families” at Parliament House who were there representing their children who had lost their lives as a result of issues such as bullying on social media.

Queensland government ‘buried’ pill-testing report

The operators of Queensland’s former pill-testing scheme have claimed the state government has “buried” a report into the now-cancelled program.

The Loop Australia submitted an RTI request for the documents but was denied on the basis that they may be considered by cabinet.

The state government closed both testing sites in April this year, a year after it opened.

About 700 people used the service during that time, according to the Loop Australia.

The Loop’s chief executive, Cameron Francis, said there would be “increases in overdose deaths in the community” as a result of the decision.

This service saved lives, reduced harm and linked people into vital health supports.

Pill-testing provides a doorway into the health system. We connect with people who have previously been reluctant to engage with the health system.

Greens say Australia should recognise Palestinian state

The Greens say Australia should join with the other nations in moving to recognise a Palestinian state, including France, as well as the UK and Canada, both who have conditions to that recognition.

Sarah Hanson-Young told Sky News this morning Australia should follow our allies but wouldn’t say whether that should be at the United Nations General Assembly in September.

I think it is a matter of time, but we’re also running out of time because people are dying, and I wouldn’t want to see this just get caught up in some kind of diplomatic, bureaucratic process … It’s time to end the illegal occupation of Gaza, to have to get aid into Gaza so that people can eat and have clean water, and we also need to recognise the state of Palestine.

The sooner Australia can lift our diplomatic voices and join with other countries in sending a very strong message … Whatever Australia can do, we should be doing.

The Greens have also been calling for more sanctions on Israel.

The deputy Nationals leader, Kevin Hogan, sitting on the Sky News panel with Hanson-Young, says there shouldn’t be a timeline for recognising Palestine.

I certainly understand the will of recognising a Palestinian state. But who right now would you do that with? There’s a peace proposal on the table at the moment from Israel, but Hamas won’t accept that. They are a terrorist organisation. You cannot deal with a terrorist organisation.

I hope they [the government] don’t put a timeline on it, in the sense there happens to be a meeting in September, so that’s when they do it. That is not the right way to do this.

Malarndirri McCarthy says more work needed to reduce Indigenous incarceration

The minister for Indigenous Australians, Malarndirri McCarthy, says she’s concerned about the number of young First Nations people in prisons.

In the Northern Territory, which McCarthy represents in the Senate, the Territory government has been defending a controversial plan to reinstate spit hoods in it’s youth detention centres, a decade after they were banned.

Youth justice is one of the areas where there’s been no improvement, according to the latest Closing the Gap data.

McCarthy told RN Breakfast a bit earlier this morning that there are prisons in Alice Springs where nearly 50% of prisoners are on remand, where young people are in overcrowded watch houses while they are going through the court process.

It’s really tough when you have states who are focused on youth, in particular with the incarceration of young, Indigenous youth, certainly in the high rates of Indigenous people across here in the Northern Territory.

Why is it that we see so many young people before the courts who are in watch houses, who are in overcrowding? Even the corrections staff have told me this, the police association of the Northern Territory has told me this. These are really worrying trends we see.

McCarthy says justice is an area the government is “pursuing vigorously” to improve but also says the areas that are improving are “heartening to see”.

Details of PM and Keir Starmer’s phone call revealed

The prime minister spoke to his UK counterpart, Keir Starmer, last night, to discuss the war in Gaza.

We’ve received a read out of the phone call, which states “the leaders agreed on the importance of using the international momentum to secure a ceasefire, the release of all hostages and the acceleration of aid, as well as ensuring Hamas did not play a role in a future state”.

Albanese said during his press conference yesterday that he’d already spoken to Starmer before he announced that the UK would move to recognise a Palestinian state.

In the latest call, the leaders also discussed Aukus and “welcomed the progress being made by all partners”.

James Paterson says recognising Palestinian statehood would ‘lose all leverage over the Palestinian Authority’

The shadow finance minister, James Paterson, says recognising Palestine today would mean recognising a state “which is in part governed by a terrorist organisation”.

Paterson says Hamas has shown “no interest” in demilitarising or returning hostages – two key conditions held by the Australian government.

Canada is the latest country to declare its intention to recognise Palestinian statehood, after the UK and France.

Paterson tells Sky News Australia shouldn’t follow based on an “artificial measure of momentum”.

We should only recognise that Palestinian state after peace has been agreed and achieved, because otherwise you lose all leverage over the Palestinian Authority. They desperately want to achieve this international recognition, and they would be willing to do some things in exchange for that, including forswearing their desire to destroy the State of Israel in exchange for it. But if you hand over that recognition, you have no further leverage to expect them to negotiate over.

Yesterday, Labor MP Ed Husic said momentum in Australia is building and that Hamas is “built largely on grievance”, which he said would be removed with the establishment of a Palestinian state.

Jim Chalmers says delay in US sending new ambassador ‘not unusual’

Moving on to the Today Show, Chalmers is facing more questions about the relationship between the US and Australia.

There are a few elements to it this morning – there’s the tariff situation, the delay in the Aukus review (which the administration announced yesterday would be completed this spring, outside the original 30-day timeline), and the fact that the US hasn’t sent over a new ambassador to Australia.

It’s not super uncommon for the charges d’affaires (the second in charge in an embassy) to be the No 1 in charge for a while until an ambassador is selected.

Under the last Trump administration, Donald Trump took two years to appoint veteran Republican lawyer Arthur B Culvahouse Jr to the role – and it took another couple of months on top of that for the US Senate to approve him.

Chalmers says it’s “not unusual” for countries to take time to appoint an ambassador, and that “it hasn’t prevented us from working closely with the Americans”.

He rejects the assertion that there’s a lot of “uncertainty” in the relationship and also says it’s “not unusual” for the new government to review the Aukus deal.

Well, I’m not sure about that. I think that might be overdoing it but, more broadly, there’s a lot of uncertainty in the global economy. We’re seeing that play out. Tariffs are part of that. National security considerations are part of that as well.

Anika Wells on social media ban: ‘We can’t police the ocean, but we can police the sharks’

The communications minister has explained the government is restricting children’s YouTube access instead of targeting social media companies’ responsibilities with an analogy that while it is impossible to police the ocean, they are “going to have a crack” at policing the sharks.

Anika Wells appeared on ABC’s 7.30 program yesterday evening after news this week that children will be banned from having YouTube accounts from December, with the federal government backflipping on an earlier decision to exempt the video platform from the national under-16s social media restrictions.

In response to being asked if the bigger question was not why social media companies are putting vile material on their platforms in the first place, Wells said:

It is a question for the social media platforms. YouTube uploads 500 hours of content every 60 seconds. If you could put all of that social media content in a library, it would be the world’s worst library. You wouldn’t allow your child to walk into it, but the internet is here. The internet is ubiquitous. I’ve got little kids. We are all trying our best. Parents are trying their best, but it is like trying to teach your kids to swim in an open ocean with rips and sharks rather than at the pool. We can’t police the ocean, but we can police the sharks. We’re going to have a crack at it.

Wells said the government remains committed to a plan that will also see legal responsibility put on social media companies to prevent harmful content on their platforms.

Jim Chalmers says Australia ‘needs to do much better’ on Closing the Gap

Jim Chalmers starts on ABC News Breakfast this morning. He’s pretty happy with the inflation numbers and says the first two rate cuts this year were “very, very welcome” relief, but he won’t predict if there’ll be another.

Asked about the latest Closing the Gap data, Chalmers says Australia “needs to do much better” and that some outcomes have gone backwards in “worrying ways”.

Minister Malarndirri McCarthy is working in her characteristically diligent way with all of the stakeholders, all of the communities, to try to turn these numbers around. There has been progress in 10 of the 15. There has been some worrying outcomes in the rest, but overall, we need to do more and we need to do better.

McCarthy and the prime minister will be visiting the Garma festival this weekend, held in remote north-east Arnhem Land.

Good morning,

Krishani Dhanji here with you for the final sitting day of the fortnight, thanks to Martin Farrer for getting us started!

Jim Chalmers is doing the media rounds this morning, off the back of what he called “outstanding” inflation data yesterday.

The government has said it wants its childcare bill to be passed through parliament this week, which leaves today for it to be voted through the Senate (it has the support of the Coalition and the Greens).

And as Martin brought you earlier, we’ll be following the reaction to the latest Closing the Gap data.

Stay with us, it’s going to be a big one!

Closing the Gap review finds community controlled organisations key to progress

The new data follows a recent review of the Closing the Gap agreement, commissioned by the Coalition of Peaks.

The review found Indigenous community controlled organisations are key to progress, and governments must listen to First Nations people and share decision-making power to create positive change.

Productivity commissioner Selwyn Button said the review shows the outcomes of the agreement are falling well short of what governments have committed to.

What the outcomes in the agreement reflect most of all is the limited progress of governments in collectively acting on the priority reforms: sharing decision-making and data with communities; strengthening the Aboriginal community controlled sector and changing the way governments operate.

Coalition of Peaks Lead Convenor Pat Turner said improvements in early education enrolments, employment and land and sea rights show what’s possible when government partner with Indigenous organisations “in the right way”.

But she said when governments fail to meet their commitments to work with community controlled organisations the gap widens.

What’s important for Australians to understand is that Aboriginal community controlled organisations are not fringe services.

We’re not asking for special treatment. We’re asking for a fair share. When we get that, we deliver.

These are the Closing the Gap socioeconomic outcomes in the latest report in detail:

• 89.2% of babies were born with a healthy birthweight (improvement, but not on track)

• 94.2% of children were enrolled in preschool (on track)

• 33.9% of children commencing school were developmentally on track (worsening)

• 2,304 out of every 100,000 adults were in prison (worsening)

• 26 out of every 10,000 young people were in detention (no change)

• 50 out of every 1,000 children were in out-of-home care (worsening)

• 31 out of every 100,000 people took their own life (worsening)

• 4.3 million sq km of land were subject to Indigenous rights or interests (on track)

• 113,517 sq km of sea were subject to Indigenous rights or interests (on track)

• 88% of people used the internet (no assessment)

Closing the Gap results ‘unacceptable’

“It’s not enough to hope the gap will close, governments must hold themselves to account for the commitments they’ve made under the national agreement,” Coalition of Peaks lead convener Pat Turner said of the latest Closing the Gap report.

“That requires smart investment, longer-term flexible funding and full implementation of the four priority reforms – shifting power, not just policy.

“Without real power shift, we’ll keep seeing the same patterns repeat, and our people will continue to pay the price.”

The Queensland Aboriginal and Islander Health Council chief executive, Paula Arnol, said the latest Closing the Gap report card was disappointing.

“It’s 2025 and Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people are still not experiencing the health outcomes that non-Indigenous Australians enjoy. This is unacceptable,” she said.