Indigenous Employment and Skills Strategies in Australia by OECD

Author:OECD
Language: eng
Format: epub
Tags: regions/education/employment
Publisher: OECD Publishing
Published: 2019-10-02T00:00:00+00:00

Refreshing the Closing the Gap Targets

Under the Closing the Gap initiative, the Australian government has set a series of targets with the goal of reducing disparities between the Indigenous and non-Indigenous population. To monitor change, the Council of Australian Governments (COAG), a key intergovernmental forum in Australia between Commonwealth, State and Territory governments, set measurable targets in 2008 to monitor improvements in the health and wellbeing of Indigenous Australians. This included halving the gap in employment by 2018. While this employment gap target was not met, the Prime Minister’s recent 2019 Closing the Gap progress update notes that the government is committed to continuing to build evidence around what works to improve Indigenous outcomes (Department of the Prime Minister and Cabinet, 2019[5]).

In December 2018, COAG agreed to a new set of targets under the Closing the Gap Refresh. Part of the refresh included putting Indigenous Australians at the heart of the development and implementation of the next phase of Closing the Gap. A Special Gathering of prominent Indigenous Australians presented COAG with a statement setting out priorities for a new Closing the Gap agenda to be guided by the principles of empowerment and self-determination and deliver a community-led, strengths-based strategy that enables Indigenous Australians to move beyond surviving to thriving (COAG, 2018[6]). The refreshed framework recognised that:

“one level of government may have a greater role in policy and program delivery in relation to a particular target while another level of government may play a greater role in funding, legislative or regulatory functions. Meeting specific targets will require the collaborative efforts of the Commonwealth, states and territories, regardless of which level of government has lead responsibility”. (COAG, 2018[6]).

In March 2019, A Closing the Gap Partnership Agreement was announced, which is a formal agreement between Commonwealth, state and territory governments, the National Coalition of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Peak Organisations, and the Australian Local Government Association. At the heart of this approach was the establishment of the Joint Council on Closing the Gap, which includes ministers from each jurisdiction, twelve members of the National Coalition of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Peak Organisations, and one representative of the Local Government Association. Under this agreement, it is acknowledged that:

“This new and formal partnership builds on the progress over the past 10 years under Closing the Gap and is a commitment to fundamentally change the way that governments and Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people work together in order to accelerate improved outcomes” (COAG, 2019[7]).

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