News

February 19, 2025

Message from the TIS National Coordinator, Prof Tom Calma AO 

I’ll begin by wishing everyone well, particularly those of you whose young ones in your life have recently transitioned back into the schooling system. I empathise with all those parents with children going into school or preschool for the first time, since it can be an emotional occasion. I felt that through my grandson, who is four years old and recently began preschool two days a week. It’s important we focus on our families and young ones and offer all the support we can. This also goes for family members who are considering giving up smoking and vaping, since these habits also have an impact on our young ones.

This leads me into a fairly significant meeting I attended in Brisbane/Meanjin last week, the Social and Emotional Wellbeing Policy Partnership Forum, convened by the Coalition of Peaks. The event involved all state and territory governments and many other groups and individuals working in the Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander social and emotional wellbeing, suicide prevention and mental health spaces. I attended as a patron of Gayaa Dhuwi, but I’ve been involved in the mental health, suicide prevention and social and emotional wellbeing space for a couple of decades now, particularly in the work I do with the Centre of Best Practice in Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Suicide Prevention, run by Poche Fellow, Professor Pat Dudgeon AM, our first Indigenous psychologist, out of the University of Western Australia. The event was co-led by Gayaa Dhuwi and the Commonwealth Department of Health and Aged Care and there was very good state, territory and Commonwealth government representation. An important discussion point in the forum was the relationship between social and emotional wellbeing, food insecurity and family disruptions. As we’ve discussed in the past, some of these issues can be traced back to the high cost of smoking and vaping having an impact in the home. Of course, there were many other important issues discussed.

My role as an invited speaker was to speak during the opening proceedings about what the attendees might want to consider during their deliberations. I emphasised a need for self-determination – which is what’s already being practiced or attempted to be practiced – and community empowerment, and also how government agencies need to consider social and emotional wellbeing impacts each time they develop policies, as well as considering other important social and cultural determinants that impact on social emotional wellbeing. Departments need to look more broadly at the way that they deliver their services and how they can jointly work with the Coalition of Peaks as well as other government agencies in a meaningful way and not just in a cursory, ‘tick a box’ way. It’s happening in part, but there are still some glaring gaps. This is no doubt one of the reasons why we might not be achieving the progress that we’d like to see through the Closing the Gap initiatives. Keep an eye out for the communique that will be published as a result of this forum in the coming months.

It was a busy week in Queensland, since I also attended the launch of the Gayaa Dhuwi (Proud Spirit) Declaration Framework and Implementation Plan and spoke as a member of the governance committee and as Gayaa Dhuwi patron. The result of a significant number of consultations (including with our community, who had a significant role in presenting on a number of issues), this report clearly demonstrates how we should move forward in areas of mental health, social and emotional wellbeing and suicide prevention. I’d really encourage all of our teams to have a look at this easy-to-read report and consider what role they might play, not only as a TIS representative but also in discussing these issues with your own families.

On 13 February I attended the 17th Anniversary of the National Apology to the Stolen Generations Breakfast at Parliament House in Canberra. I was very moved by the speeches including great presentations by members of the Stolen Generations, talking about some of their journeys and what the Apology meant to them. It really highlighted that the Stolen Generations are still within the living experience of people, with the impacts of being removed and being institutionalised still being felt today. They talked about the impact on their families and how there needs to be a more consistent approach across Australia’s state and territory jurisdictions to look at addressing the issue, provide support and have a redress system (some states are well advanced on this, while others haven’t made moves to deal with it at all). Former Prime Minister Kevin Rudd, who delivered the National Apology in 2008, gave a very good speech that’s worth watching, but the key message was to recognise that evidence shows that people who are forcibly removed suffer intergenerational trauma, plus the statistical information shows the children of people who were forcibly removed have lower outcomes in all the main social and economic indicators. The Healing Foundation recently launched their Are you waiting for us to die? The unfinished business of Bringing Them Home report, and what it highlighted again is that only a few of the recommendations of the 1997 Bringing Them Home report on the Stolen Generations have ever been meaningfully addressed. There’s still a lot of work to be done to make sure that we put those other support mechanisms in place.

In the 2005 Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Social Justice report I delivered to the Federal Parliament in 2006, I talked about it being a 25-year strategy predicated on being a needs-based, funded initiative that was led by Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people and was consistently applied. That’s one of the biggest failures that we see as Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people: changes and inconsistency due to different governments, different ministers, a churn of bureaucrats and changing ways services are delivered to Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people. Sometimes they’re subtle, sometimes they’re very significant, but without consistency in policy, funding and the empowerment of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people the rate of change is affected and not reaching its full potential. One of the hallmarks of what the Voice referendum was all about was to be able to change the way governments go about delivering services and funding to Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people and reorientate it so that it’s putting Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people at the centre, in the box seat, and driving the change, not governments. With this in mind, the recently released Closing the Gap 2024 Annual Report and 2025 Implementation Plan makes for sobering reading. There are advancements in some areas, but I think one of the key issues is that major policy changes are only going to be successful if there is a consistent approach. The Close the Gap campaign was established in 2006, but we still haven’t seen big changes because the period since then has been marked by a number of different prime ministers, changes in Federal Governments and shifts in direction. These are all major issues that impact on our ability to be able to effectively address the necessary changes. This is not an Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander problem, this is a government problem. It’s important for the broader Australian community to recognise this, and for us, as Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people, not to lose hope. We are trying to do the right thing, but we’re not being supported by governments in a meaningful and consistent way and there is too much misinformation and disinformation circulating about Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples.

I recently visited Sydney’s office of the Australian Commission on Safety and Quality Healthcare, where I was honoured to have a meeting room named in my honour. Also being acknowledged at the event were Pat Anderson AO, who we all know for her lifelong work in Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Affairs, including co-authoring the Little children are sacred report, as well as Aunty Dulcie Flower AM, a Torres Strait Islander lady who was one of our first nurses and midwives and someone who has worked tirelessly in that sector, as well as in advocacy for Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples. The photo included here is of me with one of the attendees, Dr Alicia Veasey, who I’ve known since she was a trainee doctor. She’s since become one of five Aboriginal obstetricians and gynaecologists, so she’s a real champion of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander health workers and I think she’s fantastic.

In terms of Tackling Indigenous Smoking news, I wanted to draw your attention to the National Reach and Priority Projects (NRPP) website update, where you’ll find advanced notice of a forthcoming funding opportunity. After a successful round of funding new Tackling Indigenous Smoking NRPP projects last year, what’s important in this round is that it’s been expanded to look at regional, remote and very remote communities. The tender isn’t officially open yet, but we really encourage you to consider organisations in your communities or Indigenous Region (IREG) who might be eligible to apply for an NRPP grant. If any TIS providers know of organisations who could address smoking or vaping within the community, then they should refer them to the website and talk about how they might partner with them. As with the last round of funding, youth are still a focus – particularly around vaping – as well as pregnant women. Remember: it’s not about duplicating work already being done by TIS teams, but this is a really good opportunity for TIS teams to potentially partner with other community groups and organisations. Keep your eyes open for further announcements.

Speaking of partnerships, World No Tobacco Day is just three months away on Saturday May 31, so I’m hoping all teams are considering what events you can hold in your communities and other local businesses and organisations you can get involved. This year’s theme is Unmask the appeal #TobaccoExposed, which highlights the need to recognise the role Big Tobacco is playing in encouraging people to continue smoking and vaping. One of their efforts is through the promotion of vaping, because that can be, as you know, a lead-in to smoking tobacco. In a similar vein, Australian National University’s Associate Professor Raglan Maddox and Associate Professor Lisa Whop, who will both be known to regular readers of this newsletter, recently advocated for the eradication of commercial tobacco in Australia. You can read their policy brief, Want to Close the Gap? Eradicate commercial tobacco, here. The good news is that some communities are taking tobacco eradication into their own hands by looking to ban sales in community stores, since they recognise the detrimental impact that it’s having on their people. I will be keeping you informed of any progress in this regard, plus the National Best Practice Unit will be providing guidance on how teams might raise Big Tobacco’s impact in their local areas.

Did you see the recent report on Australian litter that states vapes now make up 50% of reported e-waste? Littering disposable vapes is incredibly irresponsible, since I’ve previously highlighted the plastic doesn’t biodegrade, plus the batteries and vape chemicals leach into the environment and have a significant impact on waterways in particular. This latest statistic is ultra concerning, so we need to ramp up some of our public information about responsible disposal of vapes and look at ways in which they can be collected. We’re seeing an increasing number of city councils collecting vaping devices for responsible disposal, so TIS teams should be looking at any local networks taking part in similar strategies. Cigarette butts are also covered in the report as they are full of harmful chemicals going into the environment when they aren’t effectively disposed of, so as well as promoting the health impacts of smoking and vaping, we also need to continually refer to the environmental impacts.

One last thing I wanted to mention is that the Prime Minister, the Hon Anthony Albanese MP, has announced a new Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Knowledge Systems Prize as part of the annual Prime Minister’s Prizes for Science. The award is valued at $250,000 and submissions close on Tuesday March 18. I’d really encourage people to have a look at the link and, if you know of anybody within their community who you think might be worthy, encourage them to submit an application. The prize money could make a big difference to a community group or project, so don’t miss out on this exciting opportunity.

I’ll be working from Adelaide/Tarndanya over the next few weeks, so I look forward to catching up with some of the South Australian-based teams during this time and seeing what they’re doing in their local areas. I’ll let you know what we get up to in my March update.

Prof Tom Calma AO 
FANZSOG FAA FASSA FAHAN
TIS National Coordinator