The Albanese Labor Government is building Australia's future, delivering on commitments to First Nations people to help close the gap in partnership with peak bodies, states, territories and local government.
Today, the Government releases the Commonwealth's 2024 Closing the Gap Annual Report and 2025 Implementation Plan.
The 2024 Annual Report outlines the actions the Albanese Government has taken over the past year to deliver on the outcomes of the National Agreement on Closing the Gap, focused on creating jobs and economic empowerment for remote communities, easing housing overcrowding and improving safety.
In 2024, the Commonwealth Government:
- Commenced the new Remote Jobs and Economic Development Program, which will create up to 3,000 jobs in remote communities over three years.
- Expanded the Indigenous Rangers Program to create 1,000 new jobs, including 770 positions for First Nations women.
- Released the First Nations Clean Energy Strategy, to maximise the nation-wide potential for First Nations people to benefit from the clean energy transformation.
- Introduced legislation to expand the role and remit of Indigenous Business Australia to boost First Nations economic empowerment.
- Built more than 200 new homes in remote communities in the Northern Territory as part of our 10-year goal to halve overcrowding.
- Expanded access to affordable PBS medicines for more First Nations people.
- Opened the first of up to 30 dialysis units in regional and remote locations so First Nations people can receive treatment closer to home and on Country.
- Welcomed over 300 enrolments in the First Nations Health Worker Traineeship Program.
- Significantly increased funding for Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Legal Services and Family Violence Prevention Legal Services to help more women and children escaping family, domestic and sexual violence.
- Established a dedicated National Commission for Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Children and Young People, to address the over-representation of First Nations children and youth in out-of-home care and detention.
- Invested in 27 community-led justice reinvestment initiatives in First Nations communities across Australia.
- Expanded the Connected Beginnings program to 50 communities, supporting more First Nations children to thrive in their crucial early years.
- The 2025 Implementation Plan outlines our strategy for the year ahead, focussing on easing cost of living pressures and improving food security in remote communities, delivering the next steps of our economic empowerment agenda, and continuing to improve outcomes for First Nations people.
We've already announced an $842 million, six-year partnership with the Northern Territory Government and Aboriginal Peak Organisations Northern Territory to deliver essential services for remote communities, including policing, women's safety, health and education.
In 2025, the Commonwealth will also invest in a range of new measures to:
- Reduce the costs of 30 essential products in more than 76 remote stores to help ease cost of living pressures and improve food security in remote communities.
- Build a nutrition workforce in remote communities by upskilling up to 120 local First Nations staff in remote stores.
- Roll out new laundries or upgrade existing facilities in 12 remote First Nations communities, to help improve long-term health outcomes.
- Strengthen the Indigenous Procurement Policy to boost opportunities for First Nations businesses to grow and create jobs.
- Increase opportunities for First Nations Australians to buy their own home and build intergenerational wealth through a boost to Indigenous Business Australia's Home Loan Capital Fund.
- Establish a place-based business coaching and mentoring program for First Nations businesswomen and entrepreneurs.
- Increase the availability of culturally safe and qualified mental health support including scholarships for up to 150 First Nations psychology students.
- Continue to deliver critical prevention, early intervention and response services to address family, domestic and sexual violence in high need First Nations communities.
- Extend the Territories Stolen Generations Redress Scheme for an additional two years to support Stolen Generations survivors.
- Continue digitisation of at-risk audio and video collections held by First Nations broadcasters and community organisations by the Australian Institute of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Studies.
These new measures will build on what we are already committed to delivering over 2025, including:
- Build an additional 270 new houses across 40 remote Northern Territory communities and Alice Springs town camps to help reduce overcrowding.
- Increase access to culturally safe maternal care through 10 Birthing on Country activities across rural, remote and very remote locations to improve healthy birthweights and reduce pre-term births.
- Remove the Child Care Subsidy Activity Test, guaranteeing 100 hours of subsidised early childhood education and care per fortnight for First Nations children.
- Transition more health programs to Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander community-control, because we know community-led services achieve better results.
- Create up to 210 First Nations health care positions to improve cancer outcomes for First Nations people.
- Provide prison to employment mentoring in up to 15 locations, helping people reconnect with health, housing and other social services, to improve employment outcomes and reduce risk of re-offending.
- Deliver free community wide Wi-Fi to 23 remote First Nations communities, in partnership with NBN Co.
Read the Commonwealth Closing the Gap 2024 Annual Report and 2025 Implementation Plan at Closing the Gap
Quotes attributable to Prime Minister Anthony Albanese:
"We are working in partnership with States, Territories and peak organisations to Close the Gap.
"We are delivering record funding in health, education and housing, as well as $842 million to fund essential services in remote communities.
"Australians want to close the gap between indigenous and non-indigenous Australians. Australians believe in the fair go.
"The task before us is to build a future in which all Australians have access to the same opportunities."
Quotes attributable to Minister for Indigenous Australians, Malarndirri McCarthy:
"The Albanese Labor Government is getting on with the job of delivering for First Nations people.
"We are focused on creating jobs with decent conditions in remote Australia, addressing housing overcrowding, supporting healthy children and safe families, and community driven responses to address the causes of crime.
"In 2025 we are building on these investments, focused on easing cost of living pressures in remote communities, our long-term economic empowerment agenda and even greater effort to improve living conditions and wellbeing.
"Through the Joint Council on Closing the Gap we are creating systemic change to improve the way we work with First Nations Australians, the Coalition of Peaks and State and Territory Governments, to ensure policies and programs are community-led and self-determined to provide the best opportunity for success."
Quotes attributable to Lead Convenor of the Coalition of Peaks, Pat Turner AM:
"Closing the Gap is not just policy; it is the intentional pursuit to make life better for our people and for the generations that come after us. We will hold governments and ourselves accountable until we achieve real, lasting change.
"While we know that the full impact of the changes we are making will take time to materialise, the National Agreement has already begun to show results. The most recent data from the Productivity Commission's dashboard highlights progress.
"For the first time, 5 out of 19 targets are on track. We have seen improvements in critical areas such as the proportion of First Nations babies born at a healthy weight and the increase in the land and sea country under Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander control. These are significant achievements that deserve recognition.
"For the implementation to be successful, systems, policies, and governance must evolve. Government must evolve. It is our responsibility, in partnership with governments, to strengthen the policies that are working and change the ones that are failing - those that continue to exclude the basic needs of our people."
