First Nations organisations demand accountability as report reveals Closing the Gap shortfalls

First Nations children’s, housing and health organisations have demanded that governments step up and deliver on the Closing the Gap agreement. 

The recent findings of the Productivity Commission’s first three-yearly review paint a stark picture of government inertia and a “failure to grasp” the magnitude of change required.

The review recommends departing from a business-as-usual mindset and instead adopting power-sharing arrangements to acknowledge Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people’s perspectives.

Catherine Liddle, chief executive of SNAICC — National Voice for our Children, said the organisation, which represents Indigenous children in out-of-home care, had signed the agreement in 2020 in good faith.

“It’s past time all governments got serious about changing the way they work with Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples and organisations,” Liddle said. 

The recommendations from the review include sharing power, recognising Indigenous data sovereignty, rethinking mainstream systems, and strengthening accountability.

Commissioner Natalie Siegel-Brown emphasised the prevailing issue of successive governments’ failure to recognise the profound shifts necessary to honour their obligations under the agreement.

“The agreement can and should be a blueprint for real reform, but governments will need to move beyond business as usual and address the entrenched attitudes, assumptions and ways of working that are preventing progress,” she said. 

The Closing the Gap review underscores a critical sentiment of the need to move beyond rhetoric and address attitudes hindering progress. It advocates for substantial changes in how governments engage with Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander communities, echoing the agreement’s intent.

Rob Macfarlane, chief executive of the National Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Housing Association, said in Victoria alone, the number of Aboriginal women accessing specialist homelessness services increased 20% over the past five years, compared to a nearly 14% decrease over the same period for non-Aboriginal women.

Macfarlane said governments must take immediate and tangible steps to strengthen accountability mechanisms for housing solutions, which requires a radical shift in behaviour and mindset within governments and institutions.

“The First Nations housing sector, with its long-term experience and innovative approaches, holds a unique and essential power in driving sustainable solutions,” he said.

“The gap will widen for our people if attention is not given to addressing the housing emergency faced by our people.”

Victorian Independent Senator Lidia Thorpe said she believed Closing the Gap was a distraction from the real issues.

“And to Close the Gap we need to deal with the fundamental causes of those areas of concern and that is genocide, that is invasion, and that is the ongoing trauma that Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people face in this country with incarceration rates, deaths in custody, child removal, destruction of Country, the list goes on,” she said.

— with reporting from AAP.