Squiz Shortcuts - Closing the Gap

Closing the Gap

The 25th Garma Festival - Australia’s largest Indigenous gathering - has just wrapped up in the Northern Territory. PM Anthony Albanese was there, and he promised to fund training and economic opportunities for Indigenous Australians. But, as the latest Closing the Gap report shows, there’s still a long way to go when it comes to improving the lives and life expectancy of First Nations people across the country. So in this Squiz Shortcut, we’ll cover:

• what the Closing the Gap agreement involves,

• what the latest figures show,

• and what’s being done to address the issues…

Prefer this in your ears?

Listen to our podcast 🎧

Listen time: 10 minutes

Squiz the Shortcut

What’s the Garma Festival?
It’s an annual gathering of Australia’s First Nations people at Gulkula - a ceremonial site that’s home to the Yolngu, the Indigenous people of that region - about 1,000 kilometres east of Darwin in Arnhem Land.

Tell me about the Yolngu…
They’re one of the oldest living cultures on Earth, with a history stretching back over 60,000 years. Garma has been going for 25 years, and it’s a big deal. It’s known as Australia’s most significant Indigenous gathering. 

How many people go along?
Thousands of people travel there for it, and they camp out over the 4 days it runs. The theme this year was “the law of the land, standing firm”, which reflects the Yolngu fight for empowerment and land rights. 

What happens?
It’s a big cultural celebration - there’s dancing, story telling and art - but a lot of serious policy discussion also goes on, so our political leaders make sure they’re there.

Which leaders went along this year?
PM Anthony Albanese was one - this was his fourth time at Garma and he had a swag of his ministers with him, including Social Services Minister Tanya Plibersek and Indigenous Affairs Minister, Malarndirri McCarthy. And he took the opportunity to announce some new funding measures for Indigenous communities. 

What did he announce?
They included $70 million for green energy projects, $75 million for wealth creation through native title projects, and a $31 million investment in mobile TAFE centres, which are utes and trailers that will travel to remote Indigenous communities to provide hands-on training in areas like construction, agriculture, mining, carpentry and community services.

What’s the idea there?
It’s so that Indigenous people can be trained on Country, so they don’t have to move away from their homes to get skills and jobs. This way, instead of having to rely on fly-in, fly-out workers to build houses or other projects, locals will have the skills to do it themselves - and be paid for it. It’s all part of a wider push by the federal government to back what it calls “economic partnerships” with First Nations people to work together on things like housing, employment, and education. Those partnerships are one part of the Closing the Gap agreement.

Back it up… What’s the Closing the Gap agreement?
It’s an agreement between our federal and state governments to implement a plan to reduce disadvantage among Indigenous Australians… 

How did it come about?
You may remember back in 2008, our PM at the time, Kevin Rudd, delivered a national apology to the Stolen Generations… That was significant because it was the first time an Australian government had officially acknowledged the trauma caused by past policies of forcibly removing children from their families. 

Did anything stem from it?
Yep… The apology was seen as a first step towards reconciling past wrongs, and it paved the way for what the government saw as the next step in that process, which was to put in place a plan to effectively “close the gap” between Indigenous and non-Indigenous people when it comes to things like health, education, employment and life expectancy. It’s called, not surprisingly, Closing the Gap.

So what does it involve?
We’re going to try to explain this simply - it’s been quite a task to untangle the corporate-speak this agreement is wrapped up in… Basically, it’s a commitment between the federal government, state and territory governments, and Indigenous groups to set and meet targets in the various areas we mentioned (health, employment, education, and more that we’ll get into in a sec). Funding is dispersed via the federal government for that purpose, and it’s spent accordingly. And the deadline to meet the targets is 2031…

What are some of the major goals they’re striving for?
They include boosting school attendance, getting more kids into preschools, lowering incarceration rates and suicide rates. Other big ones are to increase job opportunities, to help people access housing, and to increase life expectancy. 

What has progress been like?
Not great… Since the plan was put in place, progress has been slow and inconsistent - so much so that in 2020 the whole agreement was overhauled. The new version was co-designed with Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander groups through what’s called the Coalition of Peaks. That’s a body of more than 80 Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander community-controlled organisations.

What was different about it?
It meant that it now had input from the communities it was designed for, which was an important shift, because the original plans were drawn up by governments and largely left Indigenous Australians out of the driver’s seat. The reboot also demanded more accountability by requiring each state and territory to report its own progress.

How often are reports released?
Progress data is released annually by the Productivity Commission. The latest batch came out last week, ahead of the Garma Festival, and it showed that things are well behind schedule…

How far behind…?
There are 19 targets, and of those, 4 are on track for 2031 - meaning 15 are lagging behind. And for anyone doing the maths, that only leaves 6 years to turn things around… 

Which ones are on track?
Those are preschool enrollments, employment, and what’s known as land and sea legal rights and interests, or native title issues… But in the areas of adult incarceration rates, suicide rates, children in out-of-home care, and child development, the trends are actually getting worse…

What’s ringing alarm bells?
Across the board, adult imprisonment is a big issue - rates went up in every state and territory except Victoria and the ACT last year. But the Northern Territory is the state that’s got the furthest to go to meet targets, with figures for 8 out of the 19 going backwards. Another area of concern is deaths in custody, with 17 Indigenous deaths recorded in custody this year alone; that’s taken us past the grim milestone of 600 Indigenous people having died in jail since the Royal Commission into Aboriginal Deaths in Custody in 1991.

What are some other areas in the report that need attention?
The figures show an increasing number of Indigenous children are being taken into out-of-home care - many due to domestic violence - and suicide remains a leading cause of death for First Nations people under 35yo… So, it’s a bleak picture.

Are there ideas to turn things around?
Productivity Commissioner Selwyn Button suggested that federal funding should be pulled from states that aren’t “pulling their weight” to push them to take more accountability... That’s significant because it shows that the commission is concerned that some governments aren't taking the agreement seriously…

What has the Indigenous community’s response been?
Some Indigenous leaders still believe the problem is that the decision-making still sits with the government rather than the communities themselves. It’s something Megan Davis and Pat Anderson, who were 2 key figures in drafting the Uluru Statement from the Heart, spoke about last week. 

What did they say?
They said that’s where the Voice to Parliament was meant to come in - but the referendum to enshrine it in the constitution failed in 2023. They said, “The disappointment we feel this week isn’t only directed at the lack of progress. It’s directed at the sheer magnitude of how different this year could have been if we had a voice. The reality is, we’ve had 18 years to make progress on Closing the Gap, but the same people and institutions are still in charge of deciding what we do and what changes are made.” 

What’s the PM’s stance?
Albanese says his government is still making progress, and, along with the funding increases he announced last week, he’s just appointed a new National Commissioner for Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Children and Young People…

Who will that be?
Adjunct Professor Sue-Anne Hunter; she’s a Wurundjeri and Ngurai Illum Wurrung woman with more than 2 decades of experience in child and family services who’s also served as deputy chair of the Yoorrook Justice Commission, or the truth-telling inquiry, which has given Indigenous Australians a formal place to tell their stories and ‘truths’… 

What has she been brought in to do?
She’ll help address some of the issues the report has revealed in relation to children, particularly after the stats showed that Indigenous kids are 10 times more likely to be in out-of-home care, and 27 times more likely to be in youth detention than non-Indigenous ones… Those figures, along with the other lagging targets in the report, have put the PM under a fair bit of pressure from the Coalition.  

What has the Coalition said?
While Coalition leader Sussan Ley wasn’t at Garma - she spent the weekend in Aboriginal communities in the WA’s Kimberley region - she said Albanese’s announcements were “insufficient”. She said he made a similar economic partnership announcement at the festival last year, and yet many Closing the Gap indicators are “going backwards,” which showed a “lack of progress”. 

So what’s next?
Albanese says his government is committed to working with the Indigenous community and listening to them. As for whether they can turn things around in time to meet the Closing the Gap targets by 2031 remains to be seen… 

Sweet dreams are made of this

Sleep is the best, right? If you’re tossing and turning over picking a new mattress, Sleep Republic is a top choice for comfort and support. Recommended by CHOICE and backed by the Australian Spinal Research Foundation, their award-winning 'mattress-in-a-box' is all about comfort. Experience the Sleep Republic difference with a 100-night trial, and get ready to dream.

Onto our Recommendations

Looking: At this gallery/report in The Guardian from this year’s Garma Festival which gives a good look at the who and what of the festival….

Reading: The Productivity Commission’s latest Closing the Gap data is a good place to start if you’d like to take a closer look at the numbers....

Recent Shortcuts