30-07-2025
Australia on track with only four of 19 Closing The Gap targets
The country is severely behind in bringing outcomes for Indigenous Australians in line with their non-Indigenous counterparts, with only four of 19 Closing The Gap targets on track, a new report shows.
The Productivity Commission, which monitors progress on the targets, revealed on Thursday that Australia was on track in boosting preschool enrolments, employment and two land rights goals.
But the rest were either improving too slowly or worsening.
Among those getting worse was adult imprisonment, with 2304 out of every 100,000 adults behind bars Indigenous.
Other areas worsening were children in out-of-home care (50 out of every 1000 children), suicide rates (31 out of every 100,000 people) and children's educational development, with only 33.9 per cent on track.
Productivity Commission chief Selwyn Button said in a statement the report 'shows that outcomes can't easily be reduced to a number'.
'The outcomes are all connected, each reflecting aspects of a broader system and the experiences of the people who have shared their stories,' Mr Button said
'What the outcomes in the agreement reflect most of all is the limited progress of governments in collectively acting on the priority reforms: sharing decision making and data with communities; strengthening the Aboriginal community controlled sector and changing the way governments operate.'
He went on to say a recent 'independent Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander-led review of the agreement and the PC's 2024 review both show that the transformational change that governments committed to is falling well short of what has been promised'.
Asked about the report's findings on breakfast news, Treasurer Jim Chalmers echoed Mr Button, saying governments have not done enough.
'We need to do much better,' Mr Chalmers told the ABC.
'I think every member of the government, I think many Australians, would acknowledge that we need to do better and the reason why these reports are so important is because they make sure that we keep governments and the community more broadly up to the mark.'
He praised Indigenous Australians Minister Malarndirri McCarthy for 'working in her characteristically diligent way with all of the stakeholders, all of the communities to try to turn these numbers around'.
