Description

The National Agreement on Closing the Gap (the National Agreement) was developed in partnership between Australian Governments and Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peak organisations in March 2019. A Joint Council on Closing the Gap (the Joint Council) consisting of the partners, is co-chaired by the Coalition of Aboriginal Peak Organisations (CAPO) and the Minister for Indigenous Australians, and was established to recognise Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples as joint decision makers. On 3 July 2020, the Joint Council including the Australian Local Government Association agreed to the National Agreement, which came into effect on 27 July 2020.

The National Agreement commits all parties to action. Its success depends on all parties committing the right resources and efforts to deliver on these actions in practice.

All Parties to the National Agreement have developed an Implementation Plan and will report annually on the progress of the actions in their plans. A National implementation tracker will record the progress of each partner and a National Data Dashboard will provide data on the agreed targets.

The Joint Council also has an ongoing role in monitoring performance and implementation of all parties’ actions under the jointly agreed National Agreement. As a part of this process five National partnership working groups are being established for the following targets:

• Justice
• Social and Emotional wellbeing
• Housing
• Early Childhood and Development
• ATSI languages