National Agreement on Closing the Gap Priority Reforms

Priority Reform One: Formal Partnerships and Shared Decision-Making

Outcome: Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people are empowered to share decision-making authority with governments to accelerate policy and place-based progress on Closing the Gap through formal partnership arrangements.

Target: There will be formal partnership arrangements to support Closing the Gap in place between Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people and governments in place 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.

The Victorian Government is committed to building and strengthening structures that empower Aboriginal people and communities to share decision-making authority, as outlined in the National Agreement. Shared decision-making extends beyond individual partnership arrangements and is only a step towards achieving the ultimate goal of First Peoples’ self-determination.

Treaty is the embodiment of First Peoples’ self-determination, and it represents a fundamental reset of the relationship between the State and First Peoples. It provides a pathway to ensure that First Peoples in Victoria have the power and resources to control matters which impact their lives.

Victorian actions

The Partnership Forum on Closing the Gap (Partnership Forum) continued its work in 2024, with the Victorian Government and Ngaweeyan Maar-oo working in formal partnership.

The Partnership Forum met three times and undertook three policy deep dives into the areas of housing and homelessness, economic development, and education policy. Each deep dive was conducted by a government department in partnership with sector experts from Ngaweeyan Maar-oo. The housing and homelessness deep dive led to the establishment of a working group to develop a homelessness target.

The Victorian Government has been on the Treaty pathway with First Peoples for nearly a decade. The First Peoples' Assembly of Victoria is the independent and democratically elected body recognised under the Advancing the Treaty Process with Aboriginal Victorians Act 2018 (Vic) as the Aboriginal Representative Body that represents all First Peoples in Victoria in the Treaty process.

Treaty-making in Victoria will include the negotiation of both Statewide and local Traditional Owner Treaties. Treaty recognises that programs and services led by First Peoples are the best way to close the gap. When First Peoples make decisions for Aboriginal families and communities, we see better results.

As detailed under Domain 6 of this Report, the Treaty process has achieved significant milestones. Further information about the work of the Victorian Government in advancing the Treaty process is included in the Treaty Annual Report. [1]

For a comprehensive list of actions to implement shared decision-making, please refer to Closing the Gap Table A.

A combined Place-based Partnership and Community Data Project continues to be progressed. Place-based partnerships are partnerships based on a specific region, between government and Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander representatives, and others by agreement, from those specific areas. In June 2023, Joint Council endorsed Victoria’s nomination of Gippsland as the location for a Place-based Partnership, to be combined with a Community Data Project, which will focus on reducing rates of Aboriginal children in out-of-home care.

The Victorian Aboriginal Child and Community Agency (VACCA) is leading a scoping exercise for a business case for a future Place-based Partnership in partnership with Ngaweeyan Maar-oo, local communities, key sector representatives and government. Community consultations in Morwell were held over July and August 2024, bringing together local community members and Aboriginal Community Controlled Organisation (ACCO) representatives to explore priorities and aspirations.

The scoping exercise will inform a 2026-27 State Budget submission.

The Victorian Aboriginal Governance Forums are well-established strategic and coordinating bodies across various sectors. Aboriginal Governance Forums, which comprise senior Aboriginal community leaders and Victorian Government representatives, are responsible for overseeing the development, implementation and direction of Aboriginal-led policy and service delivery agendas. All Aboriginal Governance Forums are resourced to enable shared decision-making with Aboriginal communities and organisations.

Some examples of shared decision-making with Aboriginal Governance Forums in 2024 are included below.

Korin Korin Balit-Djak Funding of Regional Priorities

Regional Aboriginal governance groups elevate Aboriginal voices from the community to high-level policy and decision-making forums such as the Department of Fairness, Families and Housing’s Aboriginal Strategic Governance Forum, Aboriginal Children’s Forum and the Dhelk Dja Aboriginal Partnership Forum.

Regional governance also helps to support government policy and program directions by establishing a direct link between community need and departmental priorities. In 2024, just under $1 million was invested to re-establish Aboriginal governance groups in the western, eastern and southern regions of the state.

Approximately $5 million was allocated to ACCOs for projects and services which reflected communities’ own priorities. Examples of funded projects include an Elders-led cultural revitalisation strategy, workshops for young people on conflict resolution, problem solving and leadership, exploring culturally appropriate models of support, and transforming electronic processes to enhance quality data management and heighten productivity.

National Partnership actions

Policy partnerships have been established between all governments in Australia and the Coalition of Peaks to identify opportunities to work more effectively, reduce gaps and duplication, and improve Closing the Gap outcomes on discrete policy areas. Under clause 38 of the National Agreement, five policy partnerships have been established:

• Justice Policy Partnership, established in 2021.
• Social and Emotional Wellbeing (Mental Health) Policy Partnership, established in 2022.
• Early Childhood Care and Development Policy Partnership, established in 2022.
• Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Languages Policy Partnership, established in 2023.
• Housing Policy Partnership, established in 2023.

Victorian Government representatives actively participate in all five policy partnerships, which provide a crucial forum for discussion with First Peoples stakeholders on sector issues and priorities.

In 2024 Joint Council agreed to progress the establishment of a Data Policy Partnership to accelerate progress on data reform and achieve outcomes under Priority Reform Four of the National Agreement. The Productivity Commission’s 2024 Three-Yearly Review of the National Agreement on Closing the Gap recommended that Indigenous Data Sovereignty be recognised and supported, and recommended the establishment of a National Bureau of Indigenous Data to achieve this. However, in response to the recommendation Joint Council elected to establish a data policy partnership to accelerate progress on data and report back to Joint Council, and did not endorse proceeding with a centralised, national model.

Joint Council met twice in 2024. Key outcomes included agreement to the four key recommendations of the Productivity Commission’s first Three-Yearly Review of the National Agreement, discussion of a new approach to develop jurisdictional Inland Waters Targets, discussion of critical matters regarding youth justice and steps to progress the Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander-Led Review in 2025.

Priority Reform Two: Building the Aboriginal Community Controlled Sector

Outcome: There is 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.

Target: Increase the amount of government funding for Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander programs and services going through Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander community-controlled organisations.

Aboriginal Community Controlled services and Traditional Owner Corporations achieve better results, are more culturally safe, and employ more Aboriginal people than mainstream services. The Victorian Government is committed to building the Aboriginal Community Controlled sector and organisations in line with the strong sector elements in the National Agreement to deliver Closing the Gap services and programs, in partnership with Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander representatives.

Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander community control is an act of self-determination, as noted in Clause 44 of the National Agreement. Aboriginal Victorians hold the knowledge and expertise about what is best for themselves, their families and their communities. Local and international evidence shows us that self-determination is the policy approach that best delivers the most effective and sustainable outcomes for Indigenous peoples.

Victorian actions

Victoria completed its Closing the Gap Expenditure Review in November 2023, in collaboration with Ngaweeyan Maar-oo, acquitting Clause 113 of the National Agreement which required governments to review and identify current spending on Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander programs and services.

In partnership with Ngaweeyan Maar-oo, DPC established a working group and commenced preliminary planning for Victoria’s second Expenditure Review. In September 2024, the Partnership Forum agreed to pause work on the second Expenditure Review and instead consider options to progress that work as part of the development of Victoria’s next Implementation Plan.

The Victorian Government committed $3.3 million for sector strengthening funding to progress Priority Reform Two of the National Agreement: Building the Aboriginal Community Controlled Sector. In 2024, the Partnership Forum endorsed the allocation of approximately $2.2 million to seven ACCO-led sector strengthening projects across the priority sectors of health, housing, disability, children and families, and languages and culture. The project proposals were developed by Ngaweeyan Maar-oo to support ACCOs to build their capacity and capability to provide high-quality services for First Peoples in Victoria. The projects are being led by ACCOs with relevant service delivery experience and community links.

In 2023, the Partnership Forum endorsed a proposal for sector strengthening funding to be used on an Early Years Summit (Summit). The Summit, which was co-led by Bubup Wilam and the Victorian Aboriginal Corporation for Languages, was delivered in June 2024. Further sector strengthening proposals in the priority sectors of health, disability, and housing, were endorsed by the Partnership Forum in June, 2024, with two additional languages and culture proposals endorsed in December 2024.

The Department of Education, the Department of Families, Fairness and Housing and the Department of Health are working collectively in the context of the Victorian Government’s Children’s Portfolio, to develop proposals for more streamlined and flexible approaches to funding ACCOs that deliver integrated children’s services.

National partnership actions

Under the National Agreement, national sector strengthening plans were established in 2021 and 2022 for the four priority sectors under Priority Reform Two: Health, Early Childhood Care and Development, Disability and Housing. In 2023, three additional sectors were identified and agreed by Joint Council for Sector Strengthening Plans: Justice, Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Languages and Family, Domestic and Sexual Violence. The finalised plans will identify opportunities for joint national strengthening efforts. In 2024, these plans progressed to the scoping stage.

For a comprehensive list of actions to strengthen the Aboriginal Community Controlled sector, please refer to Closing the Gap Table B.

Priority Reform Three: Transforming Government Organisations

Outcome: Improving mainstream institutions: Governments, their organisations and their institutions are accountable for Closing the Gap and are culturally safe and responsive to the needs of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people, including through the services they fund.

Target: Decrease in the proportion of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people who have experiences of racism.

Under the VAAF, SDRF, National Agreement and Victoria’s Implementation Plan, Victoria has committed to structural transformation of government organisations and mainstream service providers to respond to the needs of First Peoples. This means doing more to tackle systemic racism and promote cultural safety.

Victoria’s nation-leading work on Treaty and Truth is central to the transformation of government, the transfer of power and resources to communities and the improvement of outcomes.

Victorian action

Yoorrook Justice Commission:

The Victorian Government publicly released its Implementation Progress Report: Yoorrook for Justice (Progress Report) on 18 October 2024. The Progress Report outlines government progress on implementation of child protection and criminal justice system recommendations from the Commission’s 2023 Yoorrook for Justice report. Delivering the reforms envisaged by the Commission and achieving meaningful change will be complex and require a considered and flexible approach. The Victorian Government will consider mechanisms to accurately and transparently demonstrate progress over time on the implementation of each Yoorrook for Justice recommendation and recommendations from the Commission’s remaining reports.

To support the Commission’s Land Injustice and Social Injustice lines of inquiry, the Victorian Government responded to Notices to Produce and provided extensive materials to support the Commission’s hearings between March and June 2024. The hearings included appearances by the Premier – the first time the leader of any jurisdiction in Australia has fronted a truth-telling inquiry of its kind – the Chief Commissioner of Victoria Police and a number of Government Ministers.

The Commission’s final interim report is due by 27 June 2025. This report will be the Commission’s most substantive reform-focused report and include findings and recommendations from its Land Injustice and Social Injustice lines of inquiry. The Commission is required to deliver its final report, including an official public record based on First Peoples’ experiences of Systemic Injustice since the start of Colonisation, by 30 June 2025.

Establishing an independent mechanism by First Peoples for the benefit of First Peoples is a critical commitment under the National Agreement. Clause 67 of the National Agreement specified that by 2023, governments should each identify, develop or strengthen an independent mechanism that will support, monitor and report on the transformation of mainstream agencies and institutions. No other Australian government has met this timeline.

The Victorian Government has committed to progressing the establishment of an independent mechanism for First Peoples’ affairs through Treaty negotiations with the First Peoples’ Assembly.

Independent oversight of Closing the Gap implementation remains a core priority for the Coalition of Peaks and for First Peoples in Victoria. As the Treaty process unfolds, the Victorian Government is committed to continuing to identify opportunities to strengthen accountability and transparency in all areas of Closing the Gap implementation.

The Independent Mechanism is also consistent with recommendation 4(a) from the Commission’s Yoorrook for Justice report, calling for the establishment of an independent and authoritative oversight and accountability commission.

Victoria is progressing other key actions to improve mainstream organisations, including:

• Anti-racism strategy: In late November 2024, the Victorian Government publicly released the Victoria's anti-racism strategy 2024-2029. The strategy is a five-year plan for how the VictorianGovernment will tackle racism across Victoria. The 2024-25 State Budget committed $4 million over two years for anti-discrimination measures, which will deliver key actions identified in the strategy. This includes the Local Anti-Racism Initiatives Grants Program, which assigned a dedicated stream for First Peoples-led projects. Other anti-discrimination measures include a new campaign to address racism in community sport, development of an anti-racism ‘tick’ accreditation scheme, and funding to reduce discrimination in policing. The strategy is supported by a suite of work underway across the Victorian Government, including the introduction of anti-vilification legislation.
• Cultural safety and self-determination in the budget process: The Government continues to apply cultural safety and self-determination principles to the budget process.
• Cultural safety and the Barring Djinang Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Cultural Capability Toolkit: The Victorian Public Sector Commission has rolled out the toolkit to support public sector workplaces to attract, recruit, retain, support and develop Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander staff at all levels. The toolkit's aim is to strengthen the cultural capability of managers and staff, as well as the cultural safety of public sector workplaces.

Examples of how all departments and agencies are transforming to enable self-determination are included throughout this Report under relevant domains.

National partnership actions

For a comprehensive list of actions to transform its institutions and systems, please refer to Closing the Gap Table C.

Priority Reform Four: Shared Access to Data and Information at a Regional level

Outcome: 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.

Target: 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.

Victoria is working towards increasing Aboriginal ownership and control of data. This includes shared access to local and disaggregated data and information for Aboriginal communities and organisations. Indigenous Data Sovereignty is a key enabler of self-determination. By having greater access to and control of data and information, Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander People can make informed decisions so that they can meet the needs of their communities.

Victorian actions

In June 2023, Joint Council endorsed Victoria’s nomination of Gippsland as the location for a combined Place-based Partnership and Community Data Project, which will enable First Peoples’ communities and organisations to access and use location-specific data on the Closing the Gap Priority Reforms and the socio-economic outcomes.

VACCA is leading the development of a detailed scoping exercise for a business case in partnership with local communities and for consideration by the Partnership Forum in 2025. This will inform a 2026-27 State Budget submission. The Community Data Project, alongside the Place-based Partnership, will focus on child protection and support partners to identify and use data to inform decision-making, identify data gaps, and design outcomes measurement that respond to local priorities.

Victoria is committed to shared access to data and information at a regional level. Examples of key actions include:

• Data to support Aboriginal Governance Forums and ACCOs: Victorian Government departments and agencies have continued to implement data sharing processes to provide Aboriginal Governance Forums and ACCOs with data and insights to support analysis of trends, monitoring and evaluation, and decision-making. This includes enhancing datasets and developing data packs and interactive data visualisations. It also includes facilitating meetings, agenda items or deep dives to discuss data.
• Data to support transparency and public accountability: Through the Victorian Government Aboriginal Affairs Report, Victorian Government departments and agencies have committed to publishing data that matters to First Peoples in Victoria. This includes data disaggregated by geography, age, gender and other demographic factors. This data is published annually on the VAAF data dashboard to help understand how policies and programs affect First Peoples all over Victoria.
• Indigenous Data Sovereignty principles: Victorian Government departments and agencies are working with First Peoples to embed Indigenous Data Sovereignty principles across data systems. For example, the Victorian Government has progressed legislative change to uphold the choices of First Peoples providing evidence to the Yoorrook Justice Commission including about how their information will be stored, accessed and used in the future. The Inquiries Amendment (Yoorrook Justice Commission Records and Other Matters) Act 2025 received Royal Assent on 25 February 2025. This legislative reform upholds the Commission’s commitment to the principles of Indigenous Data Sovereignty.

National partnership actions

The quality and quantity of data to measure progress to improve socio-economic outcomes varies. The Victorian Government is working collaboratively with other jurisdictions and the Coalition of Peaks to implement the national Data Development Plan to ensure that each socio-economic outcome has a richer array of high-quality data sources over the life of the National Agreement. For example, the Victorian Government has been working to improve Life Expectancy estimates for First Peoples in Victoria through improving identification of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander deaths led by the Department of Health with the support of the Registry of Births, Deaths and Marriages.

Joint Council agreed in August 2022 to allocate funds from the shared resourcing pool to develop a framework that enables all jurisdictions to measure progress against the four Priority Reforms. To deliver this framework, the Productivity Commission commissioned the Australian National University’s Centre for Aboriginal Economic Policy Research to undertake an external review of the methods for assessing progress on Closing the Gap in 2023/24. The Review made 12 recommendations to improve how progress is assessed and how government contributions can be evaluated. Victoria is supporting consideration of recommendations to finalise the approach for implementing the recommendations by June 2025.

For a comprehensive list of actions to promote shared access to data and information, please refer to Closing the Gap Table D.

Footnotes

[1] Treaty Annual Report, Victorian Government