Nigel Scullion (NT, Country Liberal Party, Minister for Indigenous Affairs) Share this | Hansard source

I thank the senator for the question. For the last two years, we have been working with communities across the country to refresh the Closing the Gap targets and frameworks. We know the 2008 Closing the Gap targets, as well intentioned as they were, were not developed in partnership with Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Australians. In fact, they were developed over a four-week period, largely by bureaucrats in Canberra. Responsible governments—Commonwealth, state and territory—were not accountable for their areas of responsibility and the targets were not based on evidence about what could be achieved in that timeframe.

We've adopted a different approach. Between November 2017 and August 2018 there were 29 roundtables across the country with 1,200 participants and 170 submissions received, and two peak body forums were held, on 5 April and 24 July. We convened a special gathering of Indigenous leaders who, for the very first time, reported to the Council of Australian Governments. We're committing to a formal partnership with a coalition of peak bodies.