The National Agreement has been built around what Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people said is important to improve our lives. It includes four Priority Reforms to change the way governments work with our people, new government accountability measures, and shared monitoring and implementation arrangements.
Under the Partnership Agreement, the Coalition of Peaks sat down with Australian governments and looked at what had and hadn’t been working on Closing the Gap over the last ten years, what things could be strengthened, and what needed to be changed.
The Coalition of Peaks and governments agreed that the National Indigenous Reform Agreement – an Agreement signed by Australian governments in 2008 that set out the original Closing the Gap strategy – needed to be replaced by a new National Agreement built around what Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people have been saying is needed to improve our lives; and to be signed off by the Coalition of Peaks and Australian governments.
On 3 July 2020, the Joint Council met to discuss the final draft of the National Agreement on Closing the Gap. It is the first National Agreement of its kind and has been developed in genuine partnership between the Coalition of Peaks and Australian Governments.
The National Agreement was informed by a comprehensive engagement process, led by the Coalition of Peaks, in late 2019. Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people from across the country were consulted about what should be included.
The National Agreement sets out a strategy to close the gap that is strongly based on, and underpinned by, Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples’ priorities. It is built around four Priority Reforms about transforming the way governments work with and for Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people to improve outcomes. The Priority Reforms were overwhelmingly supported during the engagements.