11:12am: Meanwhile, in Melbourne.
With his wife Zoe by his side, former federal Labor MP Craig Thomson has this morning faced a Melbourne court to be formally charged with 154 fraud offences, including allegations he used his union credit card to pay for prostitutes.
Mr Thomson, 48, who is now sitting as an independent in Parliament, appeared in the Melbourne Magistrates Court for a brief filing hearing on the charges.
He was arrested last Thursday at his NSW Central Coast office and charged with fraud and theft offences relating to the alleged misuse of entitlements when he was national secretary of the Health Services Union.
Read Mark Russell's news story here.
11:05am: Well that was terrific wasn't it?
Thoughtful, authentic speeches by both the leaders.
Reasons to suspend cynicism.
Here's Kevin Rudd - he of the apology - watching on.
Kevin Rudd during the closing the gap statement. Photo: Andrew Meares
10:58am: Mr Abbott:
There is a new spirit in this land. There is a new spirit that reaches out to embrace indigenous people in this country.
This is very different from when the Prime Minister and I were young.
The Opposition leader pays tribute to his friend Noel Pearson; to business leaders who are rolling up their sleeves on indigenous disadvantage.
Mr Abbott says he can bear witness to progress in schools in Cape York.
He says if elected to high office, he will make good his promise to spend time in remote communities. Public servants, he says, should do likewise.
Mr Abbott says the test of progress is not the laws we pass, the money we spend, the programs we implement - it's whether children are at school and adults are at work.
Real change does not happen in this building although it may start here.
Real change happens in all the places Australians live.
Our lives should be ours to make. Noel Pearson's cry: our right to take responsibility, should echo around this chamber.
It should always be at the forefront of our mind as we consider how to make out country whole.
Opposition Leader Tony Abbott responds to the Closing the Gap statement. Photo: Andrew Meares
10:48am: The Leader of the Opposition Tony Abbott is on his feet now.
Mr Abbott says Paul Keating was right about indigenous disadvantage.
But doing right by indigenous Australians is not a Labor issue or a Liberal issue. The Coalition has a proud record on reconciliation, he says. Apologies are important, but so is progress.
Mr Abbott welcomes Ms Gillard's candour in this closing the gap report. There has been progress, and there has been slippage.
He backs Ms Gillard's stern reprimand to the Northern Territory government over winding back alcohol restrictions. I share the Prime Minister's concern, Mr Abbott says.
He says it is easy to spend money, but harder to get results.
Are the children at school and is the ordinary law of the land being enforced?
10:42am: Ms Gillard is now making the case to recognise indigenous people in the Constitution.
I believe that constitutional recognition is fundamental to the process of Reconciliation so that all Australians can feel pride in our Indigenous heritage and understand its centrality in our national story.
Without it, that story will remain incomplete and the soul of our nation will remain unhealed.
But she says that task will not be easy.
I am determined that the referendum will be held only when the nation is ready.
10:39am: Now here is the expected warning to state and territory governments currently intent on winding back some of their alcohol restrictions.
The Prime Minister warns that Canberra will take action in response to any irresponsible policy changes that threaten to forfeit our hard-won gains.
Today I call on the Country Liberal Party to reinstate the Banned Drinkers Register, immediately. I call on the Liberal National Party to exercise extreme caution in reviewing remote community alcohol restrictions in Queensland, too.
Every Australian who puts the interests of Indigenous children first and the alcohol industry second will support this call. Let's always remember, closing the gap is not inevitable.
Keeping it closed is not inevitable either.
We must guard our gains and never allow a backward step.
10:34am: Ms Gillard says the picture is less promising in literacy and numeracy. This, she says, is a source of personal disappointment.
Year 3 Reading actually declined in 2012 after improving between 2008 and 2011. Overall, only three out of eight indicators in reading and numeracy are tracking as expected and the other five will need considerable work.
So NAPLAN will continue to challenge us with its annual output of hard, clinical data. I cannot conceal that these literacy and numeracy results are a source of personal disappointment.
Last year's optimism gives way this year to a starker realism.
10:30am: Ms Gillard:
Encouraging progress is also being made on two other closing the gap targets. In 2008 the nation set itself the challenge of halving the gap in Year 12 attainment by 2020. In 2006, just 47 per cent of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islanders aged between 20 and 24 had a Year 12 or equivalent qualification.
In the 2011 Census that had risen to 54 per cent, a level of progress that puts us ahead of schedule to meet our closing the gap target. Yet compared to the 86 per cent rate in the non-Indigenous population, it's clear that substantial further improvements will be needed if our target is to be met in 2020.
Another closing the gap target is now also within sight. In 2008 leaders pledged to halve the gap in mortality rates for Indigenous children under five within a decade. I can report that real progress is being made and, if current trends continue, our target will be met.
This is a precious human achievement.
Babies will live who might have died.
Infants will thrive who once would not.
And the tragic reality of Indigenous children dying before their fifth birthday at twice the rate of other Australians will become a sad relic of history.
Prime Minister Julia Gillard delivers the Closing the Gap statement in the House of Representatives.
10:24am: Ms Gillard:
Speaker, this is the fifth such Statement since the task began in 2008.
Already we know that some targets, like life expectancy, will be enormously challenging to meet, even with almost two decades still to run.
On others, progress has been encouragingly swift.
Across the board, our sources of data and information are stronger than ever before.
The report I make today is especially significant because this year, the very first of the target deadlines established five years ago falls due.
In 2008 we pledged to deliver access to early childhood education to all four-year-olds in remote communities within five years.
Well, the five years are up.
I'm proud to say – we've got it done.
This target is on track and will be met on schedule.
10:22am: Here is the Prime Minister, Julia Gillard, presenting the closing the gap statement.
Ms Gillard is outlining Labor's record on indigenous affairs.
Speaker, closing the gap is a plan of unprecedented scale and ambition.
Ms Gillard says some of the targets will be enormously challenging to meet.
10:16am: Don't forget to get involved in today's conversation.
Comment here on the blog, I'll try and get back to at least some of you! Or if you tweet, add the hashtag #thepulselive
9:46am: Craig .. who?
Eddie .. who?
The Prime Minister Julia Gillard has her eye resolutely on closing the gap, as you can see. Pulse Live photographer Alex Ellinghausen was there.
Prime Minister Julia Gillard hosts a morning tea for Closing the Gap representatives at Parliament House.
9:41am: It's also Craig day.
Reporters are on the scene in Melbourne waiting for the former Labor MP Craig Thomson's first court appearance on matters relating to his time running the Health Services Union.
The Australian Financial Review's Mark Skulley tweets thus.
9:26am: More of ski lodges and the like shortly. We need to transit over to the House of Representatives for a moment or two.
Mr Burke is on his feet speaking of portfolio matters - the Kakadu National Park.
Watching on from the floor of the chamber is former Labor Prime Minister Bob Hawke, who pursued World Heritage listing for the park.
Hawke in da House. Photo: Andrew Meares
Eddie who? Photo: Alex Ellinghausen / Fairfax
9:16am: Good morning Pulsers and welcome.
The political day in Canberra will begin officially shortly with the Prime Minister, Julia Gillard, delivering the annual report on closing the gap.
You can read Michael Gordon's news preview here.
The morning news cycle is pre-occupied with ski lodges: which senior federal Labor ministers stayed in The Stables, a three bedroom ski lodge owned by the Obeid family.
Environment Minister Tony Burke and Communications Minister Stephen Conroy (pictured) have hit the airwaves early.
Their message?
Eddie .. who?
ABC Radio.
HOST: Tony Burke are you a friend of Eddie Obeid?
MR BURKE: We were in the same parliament.
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