In March 2019, 231 years after the first British ships landed at Warrane (Sydney Cove), a formal Partnership Agreement on Closing the Gap was established between the Commonwealth Government of Australia, State and Territory Governments, the Coalition of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Peak Organisations (the Coalition of Peaks) and the Australian Local Government Association.
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For the first time since colonisation, Australian Governments agreed to shared decision-making with Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peak representatives to develop a new National Agreement on Closing the Gap (the National Agreement).
It recognised what First Nations representatives and communities have always known – that policy making in areas that impact their lives is more effective if there is shared decision-making.
It is the idea of “nothing about us without us.”
As stated in the Partnership Agreement, there is recognition “that shared decision-making with Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples, through their representative organisations, in the design, implementation, monitoring and evaluation of the Closing the Gap framework is essential to closing the gap in life outcomes between Indigenous and non-Indigenous Australians.”
Such a self-evident idea.
For Peak Organisation representatives there is accountability to their own communities.
In the past, there was little or no accountability by the different levels of government for their lack of progress in improving the lives of First Nations people on the many measures we had heard about year after year – health, education, housing, employment and justice to name some.
This was a watershed moment – a recognition that top-down government policy-making, a lack of accountability and the absence of shared decision-making have led to the appalling results we had come to expect.
Instead, the 2020 National Agreement’s objective was to enable Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people and governments to work together to overcome the inequality experienced by Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people and to achieve life outcomes that are equal to all Australians.
A lofty ideal.
At the centre of the National Agreement are four Priority Reforms that focus on changing the way governments work with Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people.
These Priority Reforms are underpinned by the United Nations Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples (UNDRIP), which is the most comprehensive tool Australia has to advance and protect the rights of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples.
The foundational principles of the rights of self-determination, participation in decision-making, respect for and protection of culture and equality and non-discrimination, shaped the National Agreement’s inclusion of the four Priority Reform Areas of:
- Strengthening and establishing formal partnership and shared decision-making;
- building the Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander community-controlled sector;
- transforming government organisations so they work better for Aboriginal and Torres Strait islander peoples; and
- shared access to data and information on a regional level so Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander organisations can make informed decisions.
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.
Outcomes are the desired result for Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people.
The targets are specific and measurable goals that will be monitored to show how progress is being made across each of the outcome areas.
Under each of the targets there are indicators that help to provide an understanding of how progress will be tracked.
On March 20, the Close the Gap Campaign released its 2025 Annual Report: Agency leadership, reform: ensuring the survival, dignity and wellbeing of First Nations Peoples.
The forward to the report acknowledged how “this year’s themes of agency, leadership, and reform highlight how Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander leaders and communities have worked to embed the four Priority Reform Areas in the National Agreement on Closing the Gap (National Agreement).”
The report goes on to say: “Despite government inaction regarding comprehensive reform, Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander leaders and communities are creating successful initiatives that ensure the survival, dignity, and wellbeing of our peoples. It is their dedication, knowledges and work — often at significant personal and emotional cost — that creates the changes our families and communities need”.
The report continues: “Four years on from the revised National Agreement we are deeply disappointed that very little meaningful reform has been implemented. For almost two decades some iteration for the Closing the Gap strategy has been in place and yet comprehensive departmental and agency reform is seriously lacking.”
In releasing the 2025 Close the Gap Campaign Annual Report on March 20, Close the Gap co-chair Karl Briscoe said:
“We are proud to share this report, which not only highlights the achievements made in the pursuit of equity and justice but also reinforces the importance of continuing to elevate Indigenous voices.
“This campaign, our work, is about amplifying and championing Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander-led solutions and showing how our leadership is the key to achieving genuine, sustainable reform.”.
Briscoe’s fellow Close the Gap co-chair, Commissioner Katie Kiss, reinforced these comments, and also stressed the significance of holding governments accountable for their commitments.
“Our recommendations in this report are clear. We urge all levels of government to fulfil their obligations under the National Agreement on Closing the Gap.
“This landmark policy initiative is the most comprehensive to date, aimed at delivering improved outcomes across critical health and wellbeing indicators for First Nations peoples. All state and territory governments have signed onto the National Agreement, and they must be held accountable for its implementation.”
The 2025 report makes 44 recommendations.
Lack of clear national co-ordination of the Priority Reform areas; a call to fully embed Australia’s human rights obligations into domestic law and policy; improving areas of hospital health delivery and aged care; and full implementation of the National Children’s Commissioner’s report Help Way Earlier!, are some of the focus areas of the recommendations.
The 2025 Close the Gap Campaign Report calls on Australian governments to implement all 44 recommendations and to empower communities and organisations to lead in the solutions that affect “our peoples and our futures”.
The report also highlights what is possible when “we create the enabling environment for systemic reform to be implemented.”
All state and territory governments are a signatory to the National Agreement. They are responsible for its deliverables and must be held accountable for its progress or lack thereof.
The 2025 report is a call to Commonwealth, State, and Territory Governments to fulfil their commitments in and to the National Agreement.
While it is inspiring to read the accounts in the report that highlight the achievements of First Nations leaders and communities that are achieving real change, it is worth reflecting on the following words from the report:
“The shocking truth is that the extreme inequities that Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people experience are entirely preventable.”
Stop for a second and read this sentence again.
“The extreme inequalities … are entirely preventable”
What does it say about us a nation, that we continue to allow such preventable extreme inequities to exist?
Is this the type of nation we want to be?
Or can we all be better than this?
What can you do?
- Write to your Federal and State Members of Parliament asking them what they have done to support the implementation of deliverables and ensuring accountability under the National Agreement.
- Write to your local Government Councillors asking them to outline what your council is doing in relation to achieving socio-economic targets in our local community.
- Join the Close the Gap Campaign. Visit https://closethegap.org.au/join-the-campaign/
To read the Close the Gap Campaign 2025 Annual Report, visit https://closethegap.org.au/wp-content/uploads/2025/03/ONLINE-Close-the-Gap-Report-2025_v5-final.pdf
To find out more about the 2020 National Agreement visit https://www.closingthegap.gov.au/national-agreement
Reconciliation column