The ALGA has released its annual Closing the Gap Report for 2023, which outlines actions that councils across Australia are taking to support reconciliation and provides updates on progress compared to the ALGA’s previous Implementation Plan.
The report also provides a high-level assessment of progress on each of the actions ALGA and member state and territory local government associations committed to undertake in partnership with the Coalition of Peaks and jurisdictions.
The report identifies four priority reform areas that will support continued reconciliation efforts, which include:
- Partnership and shared decision making: empowering people to share decision-making authority with governments to accelerate policy and place-based progress on Closing the Gap through formal partnership arrangements. This involves the establishment of formal partnership arrangements to support Closing the Gap between Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people and governments in each state and territory, enshrining agreed joint decision-making roles and responsibilities and where Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people have chosen their own representatives
- Building the community-controlled sector: the development of a strong and sustainable Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander community-controlled sector delivering high-quality services to meet the needs of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people across the country. This would be achieved by increasing the amount of government funding for Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander programs and services going through Indigenous-owned organisations
- Transforming government organisations: improving governments, their organisations and their institutions, and holding them accountable for Closing the Gap and ensuring they are culturally safe and responsive to the needs of Aboriginal and Torres StraitIslander people, including through the services they fund
- Shared access to data and information at a regional level: Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people have access to, and the capability to use, locally-relevant data and information to set and monitor the implementation of efforts to close the gap, their priorities and drive their own development. Increase the number of regional data projects to support Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander communities to make decisions about Closing the Gap and their development
To read the full report, click here.
