Closing the Gap Refresh

It is very disappointing, although not unexpected that the National Aboriginal Community Controlled Health Organisation (NACCHO) and other Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peak bodies have had to write for a second time to the Prime Minister, State Premiers and Territory Chief Ministers seeking a full partnership approach to the next phase of Closing the Gap.

In fact, in February a Special Gathering of 64 Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander leaders, selected by State, Territory and Commonwealth governments, called on Governments in a statement calling for a partnership approach. They urged Governments to allow Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples to enact the principles of self-determination and empowerment in the next phase of closing the gap to improve outcomes. They also called on governments to negotiate additional targets with Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples and our representative bodies.

The Special Gathering coincided with a COAG meeting and First Ministers responded positively saying that its statement would inform future community consultations, undertaken by all governments. The website that Australian governments set up to promote what they call the “Closing the Gap Refresh” says that Australian Governments “acknowledge they need to work differently with Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Peoples, and this includes genuine partnership with Indigenous leaders, organisations and communities, to identify the priorities that will inform better programs and services, to close the gap.”

A genuine partnership means more than ostensible consultations, it means full involvement of both sides in a process and negotiations with a view to reaching an agreement.

A genuine partnership means more than ostensible consultations, it means full involvement of both sides in a process and negotiations with a view to reaching an agreement.  But there has been no partnership in the Closing the Gap Refresh. Nine months later we have nothing like what the Special Gathering of our leaders hoped for and nothing like what the Governments said that they would do.

Instead, we have had superficial consultations led by public servants. The workshops were organised without us being given an opportunity prepare.  The consultations were based on a discussion paper produced by the Department of the Prime Minister and Cabinet in December 2017 which stated that only one of the seven Closing the Gap targets was on track to be achieved and which, only two months later, was contradicted by the former Prime Minister who told Parliament that three of the seven targets were on track.

Moreover, critical elements of the original Closing the Gap framework, particularly COAG’s National Indigenous Reform Agreement, were not referred to at all in the consultations. The focus was on the targets without discussions about how they could be achieved this time around.  There was no independent report prepared on the outcomes of the consultations and therefore no evidence that what was said in the consultations is reflected in what governments are proposing to agree to when they meet at COAG on 12 December 2018.

In fact, the Closing the Gap website has not been updated since August 2018. NACCHO and others believe that the Commonwealth is pressing for new targets to be agreed next month by COAG, something they have only been advised of informally.  There has been no formal communication such as a letter or press release about what is to happen next. In the meantime, the targets that may be agreed to have not been shared publicly and the lack of transparency is astonishing.

The process of the supposed inclusion of the consultations in the Closing the Gap Refresh – despite the rhetoric of COAG – has been ‘more of the same old same old’.

The process of the supposed inclusion of the consultations in the Closing the Gap Refresh – despite the rhetoric of COAG – has been ‘more of the same old same old’. This damaging process has only further entrenched the failed way that governments work with Indigenous peoples and their communities.

This is not good enough.  The evidence is uncontested – when Indigenous peoples are included and have a real say in the design and delivery of policies that affect them, the outcomes are much better. We are certain that Indigenous people need to be at the centre of the Closing the Gap Refresh policy and that the gap will not close without our full involvement.

Accordingly, we are insisting that a process is put in place by COAG that allows for negotiations to occur between governments, and Indigenous peak and representative bodies to reach agreement about the Closing the Gap Refresh.  Targets should not be agreed to next month at COAG and instead a meeting should be organised with peaks to work out a way forward to achieve this.

We don’t think this is asking for too much.  We ask Indigenous organisations and communities, and the Australian people to support us to write and take the matter up with their government as a matter of the highest priority.