The revamped Closing the Gap agreement is a significant achievement for Indigenous organisations. But we need more detail about who will be responsible for what.
The government will unveil 16 targets for Indigenous advancement, when Scott Morrison announces on Thursday a new national agreement on “Closing the Gap”.
Rather than continually focusing on the “gap” between Indigenous and non-Indigenous Australians, we should look at pathways to success within First Nations communities.
The coronavirus crisis has demonstrated how vital local-level decision-making is in Indigenous affairs – and why the government needs to listen more often.
Simon Quilty, Australian National University et Lisa Wood, The University of Western Australia
A safe home, a working fridge and access to transport are all needed before western medicine has a chance of working in the long term. But a new way of providing care can help.
There’s a need to develop new tourism activities at Uluru, especially more educational and immersive experiences that would entail interacting respectfully with traditional owners.
Indigenous children are admitted to out-of-home care at 11 times the rate for non-Indigenous children. The lack of safe housing for mothers fleeing family violence is a key factor.
A review of 20 studies shows that sport can improve outcomes for Indigenous youth in education and culture, but the evidence on longer-lasting impacts is lacking.
While the new minister has the chance to make a real difference, unrealistic expectations of him should be tempered- real change will take not just the whole government, but the nation.
There is little reason to think changes made to the Closing the Gap targets and partnerships with Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander representatives will have much of an impact.
Some targets seem easier to meet than others, while some are just plain unreliable. Here are four things we’ve learnt from the last decade of Closing the Gap policy.
The NDIS has good intentions, but its design doesn’t seem to support the unique needs of Indigenous people living with a disability, particularly if they’re living in remote communities.
Most book clubs are white and middle-class. Even today, books and reading can presume a divide between Indigenous oral story-telling and non-Indigenous literacy.
Decent housing underpins the Closing the Gap goals, with a decade-long national remote housing program having made measurable progress. If the Commonwealth pulls out now, hard-won gains could be lost.
Director Monash Indigenous Studies Centre, CI ARC Centre of Excellence for the Elimination of Violence against Women (CEVAW), School of Philosophical, Historical & International Studies (SOPHIS), School of Social Sciences (SOSS), Faculty of Arts, Monash University