‘Closing the Gap’. A technician from the PCbyCP Institute in uniform demonstrates the utility of the report

Dear reader, there’s been a lot of loose talk about the failure of the ‘Closing the Gap ‘initiative. The noble, far sighted, innovative, and very weighty (the initial report weighs some several kilos) ‘Closing the Gap’ report has been very useful in our offices as a subsidiary chair or coffee table, when we require additional support infrastructure for high level meetings.

In spite of this Pat Dodson, has described its impact as marginal. He’s unconvinced, stating that the disparities in wealth, health and access to employment hasn’t changed much at all. He even intimated that it’s just getting worse. And he decried the lack of a meaningful treaty.

Pat Dodson.

But you know what they say about ‘lies, damn lies, and statistics’. The problem with Mr Dodson, we humbly submit, is that he’s looking at the data incorrectly.

Senior Executive salary growth and bureaucrat entitlements since the intervention,Real Growth and successful Outcomes. “Off the Scale”!

This graph put together by our research team at the PCbyCP Institute points to a counter reality, And the results are clear and OUTSTANDING. Just look at the metrics they speak for themselves!! Mortality has made minor improvements. Infant mortality is really very good. And that proves that ‘in utero’, Aboriginal and Torres Strait islanders are almost certain not to be imprisoned. And we should be thankful that better indices for mortality and access to health professionals has shown promise. This is an emerging trend, and we expect that on current projections, say another ten years, we’ll have another 5 percent increment. That’s another year of life on average. And in another two hundred and twenty years aboriginal life expectancy will be the norm, (unless we “other’ folk all live longer).

Executive and middle management salary growth in the Aboriginal  adminstrative sector, (blue line). Aboriginal mortality. (burgundy line)

Imprisonment rates since the intervention. Left hand column represents percentage of males incarcerated. Strong growth, and a positive boon for regional employment.

Just look at the outstanding indices. Male aboriginal imprisonment has skyrocketed, it’s almost off the page. Think of the employment, the police complexes and the happy (non aboriginal) nuclear families that have prospered as a consequence of ‘Closing the Gap’ and the ‘Intervention’. If we didn’t have the entire nation to assess and just concentrated on the NT and WA, the results would be even more impressive. But what surprises us is the paralleled and absolutely staggering index of Senior Executive Salaries. They’ve gone off the scale. This is just in the upper six tiers of aboriginal and aboriginal related organisational infrastructure. For Senior Executives for instance, look at this with a base salary of 150,000 per annum, (upward of $250,000 for GEM’s) and allied researchers, policy co-ordinators, outflow managers, (they deal with processing white papers) and discussion papers. There’s the on-flow to service providers, land cruisers and the entire panoply of servicing these remote communities, helicopters, provisioning, first class travel and regular attendance in states and Canberra on progress initiatives and infrastructure meetings.

These statistics prove that ‘Closing the Gap’ has delivered real progress, on every available index, and with the streets cleaned up of ‘average’ Aboriginal males, there’s substantial savings in recycling, servicing, and the unforeseen acceptance of numerous ‘Tidy Town’s awards’ and other important and critical citations.

Norm Whitebread. PCbyCP Research head, (formerly CSIRO Climate Division).

But most importantly, it has given is certainty, to the most uncertain science of the problem itself. That’s why the PCbyCP institute is dedicated to further research of this difficult and persistent problem.

We asked the Institute’s, research head, Mr Norman, (norm) Whitbread, and he concurred; ‘We’re in unknown territory, never ever in the history of aboriginal welfare have so many well meant organisations, both government and charitable worked so earnestly to help these people. We consequently have seen a stratospheric growth in employment. I’m loathe to use managerialist speak, but these are measurable outcomes, and with stronger futures we’re moving forward to close the gap and shut the door on those not equipped to help these poor wretched unfortunate people. And we’ll continue to do the heavy lifting till they, (aboriginal australians) find a voice, and demonstrate leadership within tried and tested economic principles. Until such time as they can manage themselves, we must shoulder the burden. If I may say so; It’s a ‘Whitbread Burden’. (laughter) And, it causes me some distress, that people like Dodson, who decry the initiative in the absence of “real dialogue, a treaty and substantive facts’ don’t get it. You can’t measure what he’s talking about, and when he talked about a Treaty, we just laugh. There’s a museum in Missouri, and another in Washington that’s chock a block with treaties, and they’re not worth the paper they’re written on.

PCbyCP Institute under construction at Docklands.

And do you know why the treaties failed? Well, I’ll tell you, (turns off power point presentation), its the thing that lies at the core of the matter. It’s not their abject condition, their near extinction, loss of tribal lore, dignity, land, respect, everything, but their tendencies’. “Tendencies?” we asked, ‘Well there’s standout tendencies that makes it all very difficult’. ‘And what could that be’? Well, it their lack of gratitude for all we’ve done to to help them. If only they could be more grateful, and we’d work just that bit harder. And maybe then we could well and truly “Close the Gap”