With the 2025 federal election approaching, QAIHC is calling on political parties to make a strong, tangible commitment to advancing progress on Closing the Gap targets. Sector Leader takes a closer look at what’s at stake.
Just over four-and-a-half years ago, the National Agreement on Closing the Gap (the National Agreement) was re-established as a commitment to improve the lives of all Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people.
The historic National Agreement marked a watershed moment for Indigenous health advocacy in Australia, with Australian governments and the Coalition of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Peak Organisations agreeing to work together to ‘close the gap’ and overcome inequality experienced by Indigenous Australians.
Today, progress on the Closing the Gap targets, which include health and wellbeing, education, justice and job prospects, has been embarrassingly slow.
Of the 19 national socio-economic targets under the National Agreement, only five are on track to be met by 2031 (only one of these is related to health and wellbeing).
A further five targets show improvement but are not on track to be met, while progress towards four targets are worsening. Targets going backwards include Indigenous adults in incarceration, Indigenous children in out-of-home care and Indigenous Australians dying by suicide.
In February 2024, the Productivity Commission released its three-year review into progress of the National Agreement. The report found governments had largely not fulfilled their commitments.
Although pockets of “good work” had been done, the report found government progress on meeting the targets had been “weak”.
The report stated governments had failed to “fully grasp the nature and scale of change” required to meet the obligations they signed up to under the National Agreement.
To date, most government actions and plans to implement the agreement relabel business-as-usual, or simply tweak existing ways of working,” said Commissioner Natalie Siegel-Brown.
With the Albanese Government expected to call an election any day now at the time of publication, and Australians facing the prospect of welcoming a new federal government in 2025, the likelihood of closing the health gap in the next six years look uncertain.
If there is any hope of achieving the targets under the National Agreement, the Prime Minister of the day must have a strong plan for progressing the Closing the Gap targets, and for ensuring shared decision-making with Indigenous Australians.
What progress has been made?
The National Agreement has 19 national socio-economic targets across 17 socio-economic outcome areas that have an impact on life outcomes for Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people.
The five targets on track to be met by 2031 are: increase the proportion of Indigenous children enrolled in a preschool program before full-time schooling, babies born at a healthy birthweight, employment goals, an increase in Australia’s land mass subject to Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people’s legal rights or interests and an increase in sea covered by Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people’s legal rights or interests.
Only four of the 19 targets are related to health-and-wellbeing, with three of these not on track to be met by 2031.
The life expectancy gap (Socioeconomic target 1) between Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people and non-Indigenous people is improving but the target of a zero-life expectancy gap is not on track to be met by 2031.
For Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people, the rate of deaths by suicide is increasing. The target of a ‘significant and sustained reduction’ is not on track to be met (Socioeconomic target 14).
In 2022, 33.8 per cent of Queenslander Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander children starting school were assessed as being developmentally on track in all five AEDC domains. This outcome is improving (Socioeconomic target 4). A trajectory is not available for Queensland but nationally, the target is not on track to be met by 2031.
On the upside, a higher proportion of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander babies are being born at a healthy birthweight (Socioeconomic target 2) and is on track to be met by 2031.
What needs to be done?
According to the review of the National Agreement on Closing the Gap, one of the key findings was that governments had failed to grasp how fundamentally they needed to transform the way they operated and were instead mainly pursuing only “piecemeal changes”.
This is at odds with Priority 3 of the National Agreement, which was specifically written to achieve the ‘systemic and structural transformation of mainstream government agencies and institutions to ensure that governments are accountable for Closing the Gap and are culturally safe and responsive to the needs of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people’.
Selwyn Button, Indigenous Policy Evaluation Commissioner at the Productivity Commission, told Sector Leader:
“Again, governments at all levels — federal, state and territory — have provided little evidence to demonstrate how they are doing this, and many are continuing business as usual, with no sign of improving outcomes.”
For real change to occur, Mr Button said governments must be willing to relinquish decision making power to ACCHOs when making new policies and programs.
“This is directly connected to governments transforming the way they do business with Indigenous people and communities,” he said.
“If there is no change in the power dynamic between governments and ACCHOs when it comes to providing services to communities, then we will not see progress against the Closing the Gap targets.
“Governments must be able to share power with ACCHOs because where this has happened, and government has invested in ACCHO solutions, we have seen tremendous gains in outcomes.
“A great example of this approach has been through the Birthing in Our Community (BiOC) program across South East Queensland, where governments have invested in a program that has been designed and led by the community controlled sector.
“Thanks to this program, the share of Indigenous babies in South East Queensland with healthy birthweights is now higher than the national average, above that of non-Indigenous babies, and ahead of where we need to be to achieve target 2 of the Closing the Gap indicators.”
QAIHC Acting Chief Executive Officer Paula Arnol agreed the findings demonstrated governments were not sharing responsibility or using the skills and knowledge of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander community controlled organisations.
“The Priority Reforms under the National Agreement were meant to ensure governments listened to Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people, we know what is best for our communities,” Ms Arnol said.
“Governments need to strengthen the structures that empower Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people and share decision-making authority, and the quality of the data available to us. We often rely on data that is updated infrequently to measure progress.
“They must recognise the expertise of Aboriginal community-controlled organisations in what works for their communities.
“We need stronger involvement from community-controlled organisations if we’re really going to close the gap. Our Members live and work in our communities and regions, their strength is in building solutions for mob.
“Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander partnerships and collaboratives are essential to achieve real change.”
She said urgent action was needed now and a new government needed a strong plan to address the health inequities that Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islanders face on a day-to-day basis.
“Our communities and services live with real inequity. Life expectancy targets aren’t on trajectory, and suicide rates amongst our people are climbing,” she said.
“We are not just statistics in a report. Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people want and deserve healthy, fulfilled lives with opportunities equal to those of non-Indigenous people.”
The future
Following the release of the Productivity Commission’s review last year, the Albanese Government stressed there would be improvements.
In a speech to Parliament, Prime Minister Anthony Albanese said the Australian Government was still committed to Closing the Gap targets, but the change would not be immediate.
“If we want to close the gap, we have to listen to people who live on the other side of it,” he said.
“Canberra must be willing to share power with communities. To offer responsibility and ownership and self-determination.
“To let local knowledge design programs, to trust locals to deliver them and to listen to locals when they tell us what’s working and what isn’t.
“That’s a culture change we have to drive — in this building, in the public service and across governments at all levels.
“The price of failure — over successive governments — isn’t just counted in dollars, it’s measured in lives.
“Not every community-driven initiative will be an overnight success, but we know that we cannot just keep doing things the same way. The Productivity Commission has outlined the case for a new approach.”
Following release of the review, the government announced two measures to close the gap — a national Commissioner for First Nations Children and Young People, and a job program for remote areas (the Remote Jobs and Economic Development Program).
In contrast, the Shadow Minister for Indigenous Australians Jacinta Price said there needed to be a serious examination of existing expenditure on Indigenous programs, before focusing on improving Closing the Gap targets.
“We need an audit into spending on Indigenous programs. If we do not examine what is working and what is failing, nothing will improve,” she said.
“So much has been spent in this portfolio over the years, there are game-changing lessons just sitting and waiting to be unearthed with a proper forensic examination.”
Four-and-a-half years after the refreshed launch of the National Agreement on Closing the Gap, the lack of significant progress on its targets is a stark reminder of the challenges in addressing entrenched inequalities faced by Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples.
This slow progress reflects not only systemic inefficiencies within government agencies but also underscores the critical need for transformative internal change among decision-makers.
Regardless of which political party forms government after the election, they must prioritise meaningful action to ensure these commitments lead to tangible outcomes.
More Information
Check out our Data Room infographic for more information about CtG outcome progress.
