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Indigenous affairs top priority at COAG

17 December 2007 - Indigenous affairs will be a top priority when Kevin Rudd meets state and territory counterparts this week as the new prime minister pledges to turn COAG into a workhorse not a "whipping boy".

The Council of Australian Governments (COAG) meeting in Melbourne on Thursday will discuss education, health, infrastructure, business deregulation, housing, water and climate change.

Today Mr Rudd announced that federal cabinet had decided to add indigenous affairs to that list.

"We believe these are critical areas of great interest and relevance to Australian families," Mr Rudd told reporters in Canberra.

Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Social Justice Commissioner Tom Calma said it was about time the issue was made a priority.

"COAG might not get to cover the full range of issues in much detail on this occasion," he told AAP today.

"But it is important that it becomes a high priority agenda item to be discussed on an ongoing basis rather than just the standing agenda item it has been in the past where it has not achieved priority status and which ultimately results in a lack of sustained attention to the issues."

Mr Calma said it was important that COAG asked the Ministerial Council for Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Affairs to prepare a comprehensive report on the state of indigenous affairs for the next meeting.

Adding indigenous affairs to the COAG agenda was requested by Queensland Premier Anna Bligh following outrage over the case of a 10-year-old girl who was gang raped in the Cape York community of Aurukun.

Ms Bligh said she did not expect any "miracle cures" would come out of the meeting but she hoped to achieve progress on several matters.

"They do expect us to come out with some very clear ideas of how we're going to take these things forward and some firm deadlines that we set ourselves for when we might be able to demonstrate some outcomes and achievements, and that's certainly what I'm intent on," she told reporters in Brisbane.

Mr Rudd has ruled out extending the Northern Territory indigenous intervention into other states until a review of its effectiveness is complete.

But COAG will discuss what further action could be taken at a federal level on indigenous affairs.

"I'm looking forward to a very broad ranging conversation with the premiers and chief ministers on what further actions can profitably, productively and co-operatively be undertaken," Mr Rudd said.

NSW Premier Morris Iemma said he was happy to discuss any matter Mr Rudd put on the agenda, particularly health matters.

Mr Rudd has said that health will be one of the first matters to be discussed.

"We are looking particularly at achieving early results on the question of elective surgery waiting lists," he said.

Mr Rudd said under his stewardship COAG meetings would be more regular.

"What I'll be proposing to the premiers and chief ministers is to meet COAG regularly," he said.

"Possibly quarterly during the course of 2008 so that we are regularly bringing up performance updates on how each of these working groups is going."

However, Mr Rudd said he would be seeking consensus.

"I intend not to use COAG as a whipping boy, I have no interest in allowing COAG to become the dead horse.

"I want it to be a workhorse not a dead horse, I don't want to whip it, I just want to stroke it gently."

Source: Sydney Morning herald

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