Closing the Gap and health governance reform: a brief review

NSW Premier Dominic Perrottet has confirmed that the Aboriginal flag will fly permanently atop the Sydney Harbour Bridge “as soon as possible“.

As important as this symbolism is, arguably more important is the Premier’s announcement that he will be taking an all-of-government approach to the national “Closing the Gap” targets, by committing his entire cabinet to “close the gap in their respective portfolios under a new section of their ministerial charter“.

The National Agreement on Closing the Gap is an ambitious all-of-government framework for improving the health and welfare of Australia’s first nations peoples.

This post briefly reviews the Agreement and considers its significance as an example of health governance reform.

Health and “governance reform”

A great deal of public health law is outward looking: it regulates the “world out there”, whether it be harmful products, the businesses that sell them, occupiers, premises, professionals, or the population generally. Equally important, however, are the actions taken by governments to structure their own functions and activities effectively.

Sometimes this takes statutory form, such as legislation to establish a National Children’s Commissioner, or the legislation that established Australia’s “zombie” health agency, the National Preventive Health Agency (the legislation remains in force, but in 2014 the agency was abolished and its functions absorbed back into the Commonwealth Health Department).

At other times, health governance initiatives may consist of new organisational structures, “frameworks”, and agreements – including inter-governmental agreements.

One of the most important inter-governmental agreements in Australia today, on any measure, is the National Agreement on Closing the Gap.

This is an agreement between the Council of Australian Governments or COAG (comprising the Commonwealth, States, Territories and the Australian Local Government Association) and the Coalition of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Peak Organisations (“Coalition of Peaks”).

The “Coalition of Peaks” convenes over 50 community-controlled Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peak and member organisations in every state and territory.

While not intended to be legally enforceable, the Closing the Gap Agreement is our best hope yet of addressing the appalling disparities that persist between the health and socio-economic circumstances of indigenous and non-indigenous Australians.

COAG no more

The National Agreement on Closing the Gap was made between the Council of Australian Governments (COAG) and the Coalition of Peaks.

However, on 29 May 2020, COAG was replaced by the National Cabinet, a new inter-governmental forum that now excludes local government: see here, here and here.

[National Cabinet has also established National Cabinet Reform Committees in five areas, although at the time of writing there is little publicly available information. These committees include the Health Ministers’ Meeting Forum (formerly the Health Council), which is supported by the Health Chief Executives Forum, formerly the Australian Health Ministers Advisory Council (AHMAC).]

In addition to the National Cabinet, another inter-governmental structure is the National Federation Reform Council. Meeting annually, the Council convenes the Prime Minister, Premiers and Chief Ministers, Treasures and the Australian Local Government Association: see here and here. See these links for summaries of 2020 and 2021 meetings.

The National Federation Reform Council has established several NFRC Taskforces to address inter-governmental priority areas falling outside the job creation focus of National Cabinet, including the Women’s Safety Taskforce, and the Indigenous Affairs Taskforce.

Closing the Gap

Back to the Closing the GAP Agreement. The Agreement took effect on 27 July 2020.  It built on an earlier Partnership Agreement on Closing the Gap, which recognised that the key to accelerating improvements in health and livelihoods of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islanders lies in “shared decision making with Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander community controlled representatives in the design, implementation and monitoring” [of the National Agreement].

As expressed in the Preamble to the National Agreement on Closing the Gap:

6 This Agreement also stems from the belief that when Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people have a genuine say in the design and delivery of services that affect them, better life outcomes are achieved. It recognises that structural change in the way Governments work with Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people is needed to close the gap.

7 In response, all Australian Governments are now sharing decision-making with Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people represented by their community-controlled peak organisations on Closing the Gap, the Coalition of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Peak Organisations (Coalition of Peaks). This is an unprecedented shift in the way governments work, by encompassing shared decision-making on the design, implementation, monitoring and evaluation of policies and programs to improve life outcomes for Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people.

In addition to embedding formal partnerships and shared decision-making, the National Agreement on Closing the Gap set out a number of additional priority reforms (see para 6):

• to strengthen the Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander community-controlled sector to deliver services to support closing the gap;
• to transform mainstream government organisations “to improve accountability and respond to the needs of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people”; and
• to improve access to data for the purposes of monitoring progress in closing the gap.

The Agreement sets out targets for the priority reforms mentioned above, as well as socio-economic outcomes and targets; the latter are discussed further below.

Parties to the Closing the Gap Agreement committed to agreeing to “partnership actions” throughout the life of the Agreement, which would be implemented by all Parties in order to ensure “joined up national action on the Priority Reforms“.

The Agreement provided for the development of implementation plans by the Commonwealth, States and Territories, Australian Local Government Association, and Coalition of Peaks. Jurisdictional Implementation Plans must be “whole-of-government plans, covering government agencies and statutory bodies“, developed and implemented in partnership with other governments, the Coalition of Peaks, and other Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander partners.

See here for the current NSW Implementation Plan.

The Commonwealth Implementation Plan can be found on the website of the National Indigenous Australians Agency, a Commonwealth agency established in 2019 to lead the development and implementation of Commonwealth government policies and programs on indigenous affairs.

Public accountability: The National Agreement on Closing the Gap called for annual, public reports by each Party, with progress monitored by the Joint Council (see below), a comprehensive review of progress every three years by the Productivity Commission (and a further Independent Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander led review within 12 months of the Productivity Commission’s review).

Joint Council on Closing the Gap

The Partnership Agreement on Closing the Gap 2019-2029 announced the creation of a Joint Council on Closing the Gap.

Co-chaired by the Commonwealth Minister for Indigenous Australians (the Hon. Ken Wyatt AM MP), and the Lead Convenor of the Coalition of Peaks (Ms Pat Turner AM), the Joint Council embodies the promise of shared decision-making and accountability.

The Joint Council convenes one Minister with responsibility for Closing the Gap from the Commonwealth, States, Territories and one representative from the Local Government Association, together with twelve representatives from the Coalition of Peaks.

The Joint Council is responsible for “monitoring the implementation of the National Agreement on Closing the Gap, including progress by the Parties against their Implementation Agreements” (see also here).

National Federation Reform Council – Indigenous Affairs Taskforce

The Indigenous Affairs Taskforce formed under the new National Federation Reform Council (referred to above) does not displace the governance arrangements to which governments have committed under the Closing the Gap Agreement. The Taskforce convenes the Commonwealth, State and Territory ministers with responsibility for indigenous affairs.  Meeting twice a year, and involving government members of the Joint Council on Closing the Gap, the Taskforce will consider issues referred to it by the Joint Council, and other policy issues requiring “in-depth focus, collaboration and agreement from the Federation“.

Closing the Gap Targets

The National Agreement on Closing the Gap is supported by outcome measures, and targets.

The targets provide an important accountability mechanism for measuring performance and if realised, will transform the lives and opportunities available to Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people.  For example:

• Target 1: Close the gap in life expectancy within a generation, by 2031.

The Australian Institute of Health and Welfare reports that for Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people born in 2015-17, life expectancy is 71.6 years for males and 75.6 years for females: that’s 8.6 years lower than for non-Indigenous Australian males (80.2 years), and 7.8 years lower than for non-Indigenous Australian females (83.4 years).

Other health-related and socio-economic targets relate to healthy birthweight (Target 2), early-childhood development (Target 4), completion of tertiary education (Target 6), and appropriately sized (not overcrowded) housing (Target 9).

There are targets for reducing the rate of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander young people in detention (Target 11), the rate of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander children in out-of-home care (child protection) (Target 12), and the rate of violence against Aboriginal and Torres Straight Islander women and children (Target 13). Target 14 calls for “significant and sustained reduction in suicide of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people towards zero“.

These targets depend on and are supported by targets to strengthen Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander cultures and languages, relationships with land and waters as well as “equal levels of digital inclusion”.

The Closing the Gap framework, described above, illustrates institutional structures and arrangements for working across all levels of government, across ministries and sectors (all-of-government), and in particular with Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples and organisations, through the Coalition of Peaks.

State institutional reforms

Understood against the background of the inter-governmental governance arrangements that make up the Closing the Gap framework, the decision by NSW Premier Dominic Perrottet to embed Closing the Gap actions across his entire cabinet makes perfect sense.

But it’s worth keeping an eye out for further institutional changes, such as the appointment of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Children’s Commissioners, to complement the Children’s Commissioners at State and Federal level.

Victoria appointed a Commissioner for Aboriginal Children and Young People in 2013, and South Australian in 2018 – see also here (Part 2A).

Together with the strengthening of community-controlled child protection and family support services, Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Children’s Commissioners could play an important role in reducing Target 12 of the Closing the Gap Agreement: to reduce by 45% the rate of over-representation of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander children in out-of-home care. See, further, here.