Close the Gap – 10 Year Review Report

This review assesses the most significant national effort to date to improve Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander health: the 2008 Council of Australian Governments’ (COAG) Closing the Gap Strategy with its target to achieve life expectancy (health) equality by 2030. Ten-years after its commencement, it is time to critically reflect on why Australian governments have not yet succeeded in closing the health gap to date, and why they will not succeed by 2030 if the current course continues. In fact, a December 2017 Australian Institute of Health and Welfare report found the mortality and life expectancy gaps are actually widening due to accelerating non-Indigenous population gains in these areas.

The major findings of the Review find that we are far behind the goals that we set and that in many instances our efforts were abandoned just years into the strategy. Implementation has largely been chaotic and incoherent.

For a Summary and the Full Report Visit the Human Rights Commission.