The gaps between First Nations people and other Australians aren’t closing quick enough according to Minister for Indigenous Australians Linda Burney.
Productivity Commission data has shown that some key targets in Closing The Gap are not on track with some going backwards.
9 out of 19 socio-economic targets from the National Agreement on Closing the Gap had information released.
Out of the nine, two of the targets were on the right track those being employment of Indigenous adults and land rights, while targets such as “babies with a healthy birth weight, finishing Year 12, appropriate housing, and reducing suicide rates were not.
In a statement Linda Burney said that it was “particularly disappointing” seeing healthy birth rates for babies going from being on track to not on track.
“More of the same isn’t good enough. We need to do things differently by working in partnership with communities to get better results,” she said.
Last month the federal government in partnership with the Indigenous representative body the Coalition of Peaks announced the implementation plan for the Closing the Gap which included $425 million dollars to tackle Indigenous disadvantage in housing, food, education, water infrastructure, and social services.
NIRS/APP
