Measuring Outcomes for First Nations Communities
Submission Date: 7 March 2025
The Law Council of Australia provided a submission to the Senate Select Committee on Measuring Outcomes for First Nations Communities’ inquiry into ‘the current regression of the Closing the Gap targets on the rates of suicide, the number of children in out-of-home care, adult incarceration and the number of children commencing school who are developmentally on track’.
The submission has been informed by contributions from the Law Council’s Indigenous Legal Issues Committee and the Law Society of New South Wales.
It is essential for the Select Committee to foreground the National Agreement on Closing the Gap (National Agreement) in its analysis, and ensure that any recommendations respond directly to the four Priority Reform outcomes of the National Agreement.1 The Productivity Commission’s Final Report on its Review of the National Agreement on Closing the Gap found, among other things, that the transformation of government organisations has barely begun, that government policy does not reflect the value of the community-controlled sector, and that accountability for delivering on the commitments in the National Agreement is lacking.2
In addition, the Law Council suggests that the current inquiry focus on the issues detailed in the submission.
1 The four Priority Reforms broadly include to: strengthen and establish formal partnerships and shared decision-making, build the Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander community-controlled sector, transform government organisations so they work better for Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people, and improve and share access to data and information to enable Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander communities make informed decisions. See National Agreement on Closing the Gap (An Agreement between the Coalition of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Peak Organisations, and all Australian Governments, July 2020).
2 Productivity Commission, Review of the National Agreement on Closing the Gap (Study Report, January 2024) vol 1, 5-7.
Last Updated on 30/04/2025
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