I acknowledge the people of the Yolngu nation, their elders, leaders and families who have made such an extraordinary contribution to Australia.
In particular, I acknowledge the Gumatj clan whose lands we are meeting on today.
It is an honour to be back here at Garma for a fourth time as Prime Minister and to join so many of my colleagues and all of you in celebrating ‘25 years of Success’.
From humble beginnings, Garma has grown and transformed beyond even the extraordinary vision and imagination of its founders.
But the generous, egalitarian and welcoming spirit of those early days is as strong and proud and warm as ever.
I grew up in a part of Australia different in almost every way to where we stand.
Yet like so many others here, when I come to Garma, I feel at home.
There is something universal in the joy of children performing their first bunggul.
The pride of their families watching on.
And people from all backgrounds and walks of life, gathered to learn, side by side.
Celebrating the unique privilege we have as Australians to share this continent with the world’s oldest continuous culture.
Each of us enriched by the presence of 60,000 years of art, ceremony, knowledge and unbroken love of country.
Garma teaches us, it inspires us and it challenges us.
Because this is a place for ideas, ambition – and accountability.
Where we learn from the past, are honest about the present and ‘look up to the future’.
This gathering was brought forth in hope – and that hope endures.
Because the hope Garma draws on - and offers - is not a passive emotion.
It is not the hope that waits for something to turn up, or someone else to fix it.
The hope Garma gives us is deeper and stronger than any of that.
It is light and heat.
It is the fire of purpose and urgency.
An optimism and determination driven by the understanding that real and lasting change is not just possible, it is vital.
That is why, when I came here last year, I outlined our Government’s commitment to a new way forward.
Putting a new focus on economic empowerment.
Recognising – as Djawa says – that Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people are ‘economic beings’.
Workers and small business owners and entrepreneurs who make a significant contribution to Australia’s national economy – and our international trade.
We want to build on this strength – and grow beyond it.
This is why Minister McCarthy and Senators Jana Stewart and Dorinda Cox are consulting with First Nations businesses to help inform the discussions at the roundtable we’re convening in Canberra later this month.
Our Government also wants to work with communities as economic decision-makers, to unlock the true potential of their land and their endeavour.
Beyond passing transactions to lasting partnerships that create and share wealth.
This depends on seizing and owning the opportunities of clean energy and critical minerals, in this decade.
Embracing projects and industries that can power long term prosperity.
Delivering the economic sovereignty that is fundamental to self-determination.
And securing the future of community controlled organisations.
This new approach requires new partnership.
Today, we bring it into being.
Today, I announce the First Nations Economic Empowerment Alliance, the Coalition of Peaks and our Government have established a new Economic Partnership.
This builds on our commitment to the Closing the Gap Agreement, to its call for a new way of doing business and to the principle of shared decision-making.
Working with Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people right around our nation to boost skills and education, create jobs and back businesses.
Empowering traditional owners to advocate for infrastructure, housing and energy projects on their land to strengthen their communities and to build up their equity beyond the land itself.
Having the confidence and the capability to deal with state and territory governments.
And - critically – to engage with business and the private sector as well.
Partnering with private capital and institutional investors from the outset.
So companies and communities can come to government as partners, putting forward projects that are ready to go.
These principles of community benefit are at the centre of our Future Made in Australia agenda and our energy policy.
Today, we are opening-up $70 million in funding to help get First Nations clean energy projects up and running.
This is about renewable energy generating good jobs in regional and remote Australia.
And making sure that people in some of the sunniest places on this continent don’t have to rely on diesel generators to light and power their homes.
We have made a start - but there is more to do.
We must end the stalemate that arises when Native Title Organisations with little in the way of back of house, or legal and commercial expertise and are expected to negotiate with multinational firms.
This is why the first priority for our new economic partnership will be to reform the funding model for Prescribed Bodies Corporate, so that it delivers meaningful participation for communities and timely decision-making for investors.
Today I announce our Government will provide $75 million in additional funding to support Native Title Holders to secure better deals, drive faster approvals and deliver a real and lasting economic legacy for communities.
This is the tone and the standard we want this partnership to set, from the very start.
Pragmatic action that brings economic development, ownership and equity to communities.
Not doubling-up on advice, or getting in the way of processes that are working.
But cutting through confusion and delay with new focus and new momentum.
This partnership is also about government making better use of the capital and equity in special investment vehicles, such as the Northern Australia Infrastructure Fund and the Australian Renewable Energy Agency.
As well as enhancing the work of Indigenous Business Australia and the Indigenous Land and Sea Corporation.
So communities across Australia, whether native title holders or not, can draw on their knowledge and aspiration to create jobs and build equity.
All of this, driving to delivery.
Delivery is our Government’s defining priority.
Repaying the trust people have placed in us, by delivering the commitments Australians voted for.
This is what Australians expect and deserve from their Government.
That accountability, that duty of delivery is every bit as important and relevant here in East Arnhem as it is in Western Sydney.
Because the policy agenda our Government took to the election was for all Australians, including Indigenous Australians.
Boosting wages, cutting taxes and protecting penalty rates means Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people earn more and keep more of what they earn.
We are investing in bulk-billing, expanding mental health services, opening new urgent care clinics and cutting the cost of medicines to strengthen Medicare, everywhere.
We are building new child care centres where they are needed most.
Delivering fair funding for every government school in every state and territory.
Making Free TAFE permanent, nationwide.
Cutting student debt by 20 per cent and opening new university hubs in the regions and outer suburbs.
Because we know education opens the doors of opportunity for Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander students.
Of course, there are other areas that demand a different, dedicated approach.
This week’s report from the Productivity Commission underlined that.
The challenges may be different – but few of them are new, or unknown.
Most are old and far too familiar.
Yet too many years and too many words have been spent seeking new ways to describe old difficulties.
Or worse, looking to manage expectations and moderate ambitions.
So at the beginning of our second term, let me make this crystal clear:
Reports and reviews have their place – but they are not a substitute for results.
Creating a process matters – but it is not the same thing as making progress.
Delivery is the standard by which all of us must measure ourselves.
Across every level of government.
In the public service.
And in organisations and services entrusted by community.
This is what drives me, Minister McCarthy, our Special Envoy for Remote Communities Marion Scrymgour, and each and every one of our colleagues:
Investing in what works.
Ownership.
Partnership.
Empowerment.
Building trust.
Working together to close the gap.
So more children are born healthy.
More young people grow up with opportunity.
More women live in security.
And Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people everywhere have a foundation on which they can build a good life for themselves and their families.
That is why we promised to abolish the failed CDP and replace it with real jobs, proper wages and decent conditions.
And on the 31st of October, the CDP will be gone for good, nationwide.
Already, the first round of our Remote Jobs and Economic Development program has delivered 650 new jobs.
Today I announce the second round will deliver another 800 jobs, in 160 projects.
We promised to train an additional 500 First Nations health workers.
All 500 are now enrolled - and 140 have already graduated.
The next generation of Indigenous Health Workers and Community Care Officers.
Last year, our Government made a generational investment in remote housing in the Northern Territory.
Since 2022, 685 new homes have been completed.
And our 10 year agreement is delivering up to 2,700 homes in the NT.
Tackling overcrowding and creating local jobs.
And in the years ahead, we can pick up the pace of construction.
In February this year, we promised new action to cut the cost of 30 household staples for families in remote communities.
And to strengthen the supply chains that bring these essential goods to community stores.
Today, in Wilcannia and Kintore.
On Croker Island.
In 76 community stores across Australia, the price of everything from flour and tea to tinned fruit and toothpaste is down, significantly.
In the year ahead, we will expand this program to 152 stores.
As long as Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people have loved and cared for this continent, they have known that water is life.
Yet when we came to government in 2022, so many people in remote communities across Australia did not have access to safe, clean or reliable drinking water.
We have been working side by side with locals to change this.
33 remote water projects are on track to bring clean and reliable water to 25,000 people.
Three years ago, in places like Warburton and Jigalong the water was unfit to drink.
Soon it will be clean enough to deliver dialysis on country.
This is transformative for communities and homelands.
Which is why we will be funding another 6 remote water projects, delivering for a further 9,000 people.
Including right here on the Gove Peninsula, with overdue upgrades at Gunyangara.
Across our cities and regions, more than 40,000 Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander students have enrolled in Free TAFE.
Our Government wants people in remote communities around our nation to have access to the life-changing benefits of vocational education and training.
Today I announce we will fund and deliver Mobile TAFE.
Utes and trailers that will enable teachers to take skills on the road and train the next generation of mechanics, carpenters, plumbers and workers in the Aboriginal community controlled sector.
We will provide $31 million to deliver this mobile training.
In partnership with community controlled organisations, states and territories.
So that instead of communities relying on drive-in, drive-out workers to build and maintain the new homes we are delivering.
Or to deliver vital health care in the 95 centres we are upgrading.
Locals get that training.
And instead of people having to move away from home to prepare for a career in mining or agriculture, construction or the care economy.
We will bring skills and jobs to communities.
Hands-on training, on country.
This all about tangible, meaningful change in remote communities.
So people can have a secure roof over their head.
Put food on the table.
Trust water from the tap.
Get help if their child is sick.
Learn a trade, gain a qualification.
Know the dignity of hard work for fair pay.
Back themselves to start a small business or build wealth from a lasting stake in a big project.
The positive impact of these programs reaches far beyond the families and communities whose lives they change.
Every example of delivery, every one of these success stories, reminds us that progress is possible.
Delivery is about repaying trust – and building it.
Pushing back against those who only ever talk in terms of cost or waste or problems without solutions.
Those who choose the cheap politics of division over the patient work of lasting change.
Or who seek to turn the grace and generosity of a welcome to country into a political weapon.
Culture wars are a dry gully. They offer us nothing, they lead us nowhere.
The way forward is to invest in Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people, trust in their aspirations and draw from their knowledge.
Because when we lay these strong foundations together, there is no limit to what we can build.
I know there are members of the Yoorrook Justice Commission here at Garma this weekend.
Their Commission has spent the last four years recording the testimony of thousands of people across Victoria.
Reflecting on the wrongs of the past, sharing the pain their families and ancestors suffered, as a result of dispossession and discrimination.
Policies and practices built on exclusion.
By neglect and by design, Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people were cut off from the nourishment of culture and country.
From the fullness of their history, the wealth of their land and waters.
From their rightful, equal place in our economy and society.
From the justice and opportunity that every Australian deserves.
And from the dreams and aspirations that every parent holds for their child.
As a nation, we are still coming to terms with the full truth and toll of this exclusion.
Even as we continue on the long journey of understanding our past, we must meet our responsibility to the future.
We must seize and harness the power of inclusion.
The sense of belonging that comes from having a stake in the economy, being embraced by society and equal in the law of the land.
Yunupingu once said, the key to any Yolngu’s person future is finding a part to play.
“To be dedicated to that work, to feed a child’s brain with knowledge, to arm that child with the tools for life, to make a home, to feed your family.”
That is a universal and enduring truth – a rock that stands against time.
For Yolngu, for Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people and for all Australians.
Serving as your Prime Minister is the great honour of my life.
The privilege of Government is the chance to serve this nation – and to change it, for the better.
This is a privilege that belongs to every Australian.
Because part of what makes this the best nation on earth is that each and every one of us recognise our collective responsibility to make it even better.
Our collective responsibility - and our shared opportunity.
Because when we broaden the circle of Australian fairness and deepen the meaning of Australian social justice, we are stronger for it.
When we include more people in the opportunities of our economy and the promise of our society, we are better for it.
When we embrace the fullness of our history and culture, we are richer for it.
When we draw on the genius and creativity, the courage and resilience, the compassion and love of country that Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people live every day, we are smarter and braver for it.
That is why closing the gap is a challenge all of us must meet.
And economic empowerment is an opportunity all of must seize.
This is a chance to mobilise the talent and wisdom and vision of every part of our country.
To fulfil our national potential by ensuring every citizen has a real and equal chance to realise their potential.
For Australia to be our best by ensuring every Australian has the opportunity to be their best.
I said earlier that coming to Garma feels like coming home.
Every year, when the time comes to leave, I always go with my determination renewed.
After a while the red dirt comes off your shoes - but the inspiration this place provides never leaves you.
This year Garma is dedicated to ‘standing firm’.
The Government I lead, is proud to stand with you.
To work with you.
And to walk with you, side by side, to a better future.