Image: Community consultations, Binjari, Northern Territory
Our key focus areas for 2024–25 are informed by our purpose and vision. The focus areas set out the specific deliverables and priorities that will improve the impact of our key activities. They are strategically important areas we will prioritise throughout the year.
National Agreement on Closing the Gap
Closing the Gap is central to all our work in the NIAA and is an overarching focus area. We are working to strengthen the implementation of the National Agreement on Closing the Gap so it supports more rigorous and responsive policy development.
Under the National Agreement, governments at all levels will work together with Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people and the Coalition of Peaks to:
- overcome the inequity experienced by First Nations peoples
- achieve life outcomes equal to all Australians.
The NIAA is the central coordination point for the Closing the Gap Commonwealth Annual Report and Implementation Plan. This plan provides transparency and accountability for Commonwealth actions in support of the aspirations of the National Agreement. We play a key influencing role in supporting the Minister for Indigenous Australians on the agenda for Joint Council on Closing the Gap.
The NIAA also represents the Australian Government in the Partnership Working Group to drive the implementation of the National Agreement.
We will work together to accelerate the pace of change and embed Closing the Gap outcomes.
The NIAA plays a key role in coordinating the Commonwealth’s implementation of the Joint Council’s response to the Productivity Commission’s Review of the National Agreement. In 2024–25 we will:
- undertake a stocktake of actions and deliverables, in partnership with the Coalition of Peaks, to determine a clear direction for the partnership in the year ahead
- establish a Commonwealth independent mechanism to further government agency transformation efforts under the National Agreement
- coordinate the establishment of a Data Policy Partnership, ensuring the right organisations are at the table to accelerate progress on Indigenous data
- fund an Indigenous-led Review and Assembly to ensure the lived experiences of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people and communities are captured as part of implementing the National Agreement.
We will also continue to work with other Australian Government agencies to accelerate the pace of change and embed Closing the Gap outcomes, particularly the 4 Priority Reforms:
- Formal partnerships and shared decision-making
- Building the community-controlled sector
- Transforming government organisations
- Shared access to data and information at a regional level.
Images, left to right: Young person receiving their learners licence with support from Twofold Aboriginal Corporation, Eden, NSW.
Congress Allied Health mobile clinic, Mparntwe, NT. Photo courtesy of the Central Australian Aboriginal Congress.
New playground at Bung Yarda (Lake Tyers) Kindergarten, Gunaikurnai Country, Vic.