Deflect, defer and delay: the Commonwealth strategy for closing the gap

                                         Defer no time, delays have dangerous ends.

    1 Henry IV, Act three, Scene two.

 

Inside Story has just published a short article I wrote titled Gap Years (link here). It outlines my reaction to reading the Closing the Gap Commonwealth 2023 Annual report and 2024 Implementation Plan, published together as a single document (link here).

 

I will let my arguments speak for themselves. In terms of policy proposals, I argue for three substantive policy shifts:

 

First, the Commonwealth must step up and take seriously its role as the national government and ensure that the national level reforms implicit in the National Agreement on Closing the Gap are co-ordinated and thus coherent. This is the position that was inherent in the result of the 1967 referendum which gave the Commonwealth a constitutional head of power to legislate in relation to First Nations and by virtue of the principle that Commonwealth legislation overrides inconsistent state legislation, the power to effectively shape the institutional architecture of the Indigenous policy domain. The states continue to have a role, but the Commonwealth should stand up and assert its place as the first amongst equals.

 

Second, the Commonwealth should apply much greater rigor and discipline to the formulation of the Implementation Plan for closing the gap it committed to in signing up to the National Agreement, and consistent with the first point above, must ensure that the states and territories do so as well. This issue was identified as a shortcoming in the recent Productivity Commission report.

 

Third, the Commonwealth should look to the defence portfolio for guidance on how best to think about the complex and challenging dynamics of the Indigenous policy domain. I argue that it is time the government commissioned an independent strategic review of the Indigenous policy domain, akin to the recent 2023 Defence Strategic Review (link here), aimed at bringing a much greater degree of discipline, rigour and, most importantly, urgency to a worsening crisis blighting the life opportunities of many tens of thousands of First Nations citizens. The government should also initiate action to estimate the cost of closing the gap over the next decade. This would do two things: it would give greater prominence to the actual economic costs (but not wider social and cultural costs) of the disadvantage, trauma and structural exclusion too many First Nations citizens live with; and it would allow the electorate at large to build a greater understanding of the financial and policy effort that will be necessary to close the gap.

 

None of these three policy reforms involves legislation, significant financial outlays, and adverse impacts on other interest groups. They are what is required for any serious attempt at closing the gap. The failure to pursue them is a sign that we Australians are prepared to live with a national tragedy which involves the continuing diminution of thousands of First Nations citizens’ life opportunities.