COAG - a new partnership with all governments
Through COAG, all governments have pledged to develop and implement coordinated strategies to address the key causes and determinants of Indigenous disadvantage, underpinned by a new approach to governance and shared accountability.
The platform for change
The Council of Australian Governments (COAG) is the principal forum through which Australia’s Commonwealth, state and territory governments are advancing their collaboration towards Closing the Gap.
Through COAG, governments have committed to the six Closing the Gap targets to address Indigenous disadvantage across urban, rural and remote areas. To support this work, COAG has also agreed to seven strategic platforms or ‘building blocks’ as a means of meeting these targets:
- early childhood
- schooling
- health
- economic participation
- healthy home
- safe communities, and
- governance and leadership.
The evidence indicates that these are the areas requiring priority investment, and improvements in these areas will have the greatest impact.
Additional investment
In 2008, COAG reached agreement on a $4.6 billion program of targeted reform measures and national payments to address gaps and shortfalls in existing Commonwealth, state and territory initiatives. The $4.6 billion program of measures for National Partnerships between the Commonwealth and the states and territories in areas of key reform include:
- National Partnership on Indigenous Health Outcomes
- National Partnership on Remote Indigenous Housing
- National Partnership on Indigenous Early Childhood Development
- National Partnership on Indigenous Economic Participation, and
- National Partnership on Remote Service Delivery.
National Partnership on Indigenous Health Outcomes
Governments have committed $1.57 billion over four years through COAG to reduce the biggest risk factors, such as smoking, to improve chronic disease management and follow-up, and to expand the capacity of the health workforce to tackle chronic disease in the Indigenous population.
Over the next four years, this investment will result in more than 133,000 additional health checks and 400,000 additional chronic disease management programs for Indigenous people with a chronic condition, support for more than 160 new Indigenous outreach working positions, 75 extra health professionals and practice managers in Indigenous healthcare services, 38 new GP registrar training posts in Indigenous health services and expanded nurse scholarship and clinical placements.
Implementation will commence from 1 July 2009 and in the first year over 40 Indigenous outreach working positions will be supported, as well over 15 new health professionals and practice managers. In addition, from 1 November 2009, the number of Aboriginal health worker and practice nurse follow-up care services available to Indigenous Australians with a chronic disease will be increased through changes to the Medicare Benefits Schedule.
National Partnership on Remote Indigenous Housing
COAG has committed $1.94 billion over ten years, commencing this year, to reform housing and infrastructure arrangements in remote Indigenous communities. This will address significant overcrowding, homelessness, poor housing conditions and severe housing shortages in remote Indigenous communities. Improving housing conditions will provide the foundation for lasting improvements in health, education and employment and make a major contribution towards closing the gap in Indigenous disadvantage.
This will bring a total investment of up to $5.48 billion over ten years, allowing for the construction of up to 4,200 new houses to be built in remote Indigenous communities, upgrades and repairs to around 4,800 houses in remote communities with a program of major repairs starting in 2008-09, improved tenancy management services, increased local training and employment opportunities in construction and housing management (providing up to 2,000 new jobs) and access to affordable accommodation options in regional centres to support employment, education, training opportunities and access to support services in regional areas of high employment. This investment will support up to 9,000 families in accessing safe and healthy housing.
National Partnership on Indigenous Early Childhood Development
COAG has also committed $564.6 million over six years, commencing this year, to improve Indigenous early childhood development by providing funding for 35 children and family centres to provide early learning, child care and parent and family support services to Indigenous children and families. This investment will also fund increased access to antenatal care services, sexual and reproductive health services for Indigenous teenagers, and maternal and child health services for Indigenous children and their mothers.
National Partnership on Indigenous Economic Participation
Funding of $228.8 million over five years has been committed to create sustainable Indigenous employment opportunities. Up to 13,000 Indigenous Australians will be assisted into employment over four years through the creation of waged market jobs from Community Development Employment Projects (CDEP) program positions that have subsidised government service delivery, public sector recruitment drives to increase Indigenous employment, strengthened procurement policies and the development of COAG Indigenous workforce strategies across other priority reform areas. Implementation will commence in 2009, with the rollout of jobs converted from CDEP to be completed by 1 July 2009.
National Partnership on Remote Service Delivery
Commencing this year, funding of $291.2 million over six years will support improvements to the delivery of services across 26 remote locations across the Northern Territory, Western Australia, Queensland, New South Wales and South Australia. These locations represent some of the largest concentrations of Indigenous Australians in remote Australia.
The measure will improve the coordination and delivery of services in these major remote townships by all levels of government. There will also be a focus on driving reforms to service delivery including early childhood, schooling, housing and health. Importantly, engagement with local communities will be front and centre, including attention to governance and leadership within Indigenous community organisations.
Substantial investment to achieve real progress
The Australian Government has made substantial financial commitments to support the objective of closing the gap on Indigenous disadvantage. Since coming to office, the Government has committed $4.9 billion in additional and re-targeted funding.
The Government’s commitments in 2008 began with a $580 million investment announced in February 2008. This was followed by $425.3 million of new funding allocated in the 2008-09 Budget to improve the lives of Indigenous Australians, complemented by the redirection of $222.5 million to address key priorities for Closing the Gap.
In late 2008, COAG agreed to a $4.6 billion package of measures. Of this commitment, $3.6 billion is Commonwealth funding, including over $3.5 billion of new investments.
Since COAG, over $100 million in additional funding has been committed by the Commonwealth for priority areas.
These agreements are designed to ensure that all governments are held accountable for their performance in these key areas. This commitment to a common framework of outcomes, progress measures and policy directions will guide Indigenous reform and build on current initiatives. Indigenous people will be involved in the implementation of each of these agreements through consultation on the implementation plans, as set out in the COAG communiqué.
A strong focus on better Indigenous outcomes has also been incorporated into the new National Agreements for mainstream funding and service delivery agreed through COAG. This will help to ensure that Indigenous Australians living in urban and regional areas also benefit from the reformed arrangements.
For instance, Indigenous Australians living in urban and regional Australia will be significant beneficiaries of the Government’s recent $6.4 billion allocation for social housing as part of the Nation Building and Jobs Plan. The allocation will allow the states and territories to make major improvements to the provision of public and community housing in urban and regional areas, and target people identified as at risk, including Indigenous Australians.
Likewise, Indigenous Australians will benefit from a new National Partnership on Early Childhood Education, agreed by COAG in November 2008. This National Partnership is a major step forward in supporting universal access to quality early childhood education, and a key national objective is to ensure access for Indigenous four-year-olds. A number of different approaches will be taken by the states and territories to ensure better access and greater participation for Indigenous children, including addressing barriers such as distance, cost, cultural appropriateness and convenience for working families. The Commonwealth is working closely with the states and territories to support this work.
Future reform
The commitments made to date by all governments are a first step towards a new partnership between the Commonwealth, the states and territories, and Indigenous Australians, in meeting the Closing the Gap targets. Governments must continue to work together to sustain this partnership and achieve real results measured against the targets.
Later this year COAG will hold a meeting with a focus on Closing the Gap. This meeting will discuss how we will work together to improve service delivery, how we will harness the private and community sectors to maximise change and continue to improve the lives of Indigenous Australians, wherever they live. At this meeting, COAG will consider additional reform proposals, including nationally consistent benchmarks and indicators for improvements in services and related outputs relevant to family and community safety.