CLOSING THE GAP COMMITMENTS NOT FULFILLED, SAYS PRODUCTIVITY COMMISSION

BY GERARD MAZZA

The Productivity Commission has today released a damning review of Australia’s progress towards The National Agreement on Closing the Gap.

The agreement was made in 2020 between all levels of government and the Coalition of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Peak Organisations. 

It overhauled the Closing the Gap targets first set 15 years ago. The targets aim at reducing the disparities in outcomes between Indigenous and non-Indigenous people when it came to issues including health, education, and housing.

Djugun and Yawuru man and Productivity Commissioner Romlie Mokak told Ngaarda Media governments have failed to meet their obligations under the agreement.

“Much of what we’ve seen in our review that we’ve done for over 18 months is that it’s largely business as usual, or a relabelling or rebadging of business as usual,” he said.

“We will continue to fail if it continues to be business as usual. It’s as simple as that.”

Listen to Romlie Mokak speak about the four recommendations of the Productivity Commission’s report:

The report says governments have committed to share power with Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people and communities, but have failed to relinquish control.

“We saw lots of instances characterised by a bit of an attitude around ‘government knows best’, and we know that that’s just wrongheadedness,” Mr Mokak said.

“This is basically about valuing the knowledge of those who are living the experience.”

The report made recommendations including that governments recognise and support Indigenous data sovereignty and commit to stronger accountability.

In response to the report, independent senator Jacqui Lambie said the government must change its approach to Closing the Gap and listen to the needs of communities.

“Keep it simple, stupid: That’s all the Indigenous want you to do, and every community go to is slightly different to the one you went beforehand,” she said. “That’s what you need to look at and that’s what you need to consider.”

On Tuesday, Independent senator Lidia Thorpe said the Closing the Gap framework was flawed.

“I think that it’s a distraction from the real issues. To close the gap, you 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,” she said.

“From the Aboriginal people that I speak to across this country, ‘Close the Gap’ is a dirty word. Not even the people on the ground support Closing the Gap. They support implementation of the Royal Commission into Aboriginal Deaths in Custody and the end to stolen generations, which, if you don’t know, is a genocidal act. Look it up.”

On Tuesday, Anthony Albanese said his government was committed to “making a practical difference on housing, on health, in education” and would have more to say on Closing the Gap next week.