The Victorian Closing the Gap Implementation Plan

Date:: August 2021

Introduction

Opening statement, message from the Acting Premier, and working in partnership.

Opening statement

Minister for Aboriginal Affairs and Chair of the Aboriginal Executive Council

The National Agreement on Closing the Gap (national agreement) represents a fundamental shift in the approach of Governments to closing the gap, one that is built upon genuine and meaningful partnerships with the Aboriginal Community Controlled Sector, Traditional Owner groups and the wider Aboriginal community. This shift has been driven at the national level by the Coalition of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Peaks (coalition of peaks), and here in Victoria by the Aboriginal Executive Council (AEC) and other key Aboriginal Community Controlled Organisations (ACCOs).

The original closing the gap framework was not able to deliver on the hope and expectation it created as it was not developed or implemented in true partnership with Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander communities, nor did it adequately resource Aboriginal communities as the drivers of change. Unlike the original framework, the new national agreement reflects the needs, expectations and hopes of Aboriginal and Torres Strait islander people from across Australia.

Whilst Victoria is in the early stages of transferring power, decision-making and resources to the Aboriginal community-controlled sector and Aboriginal-communities, we know this is central to developing a new relationship between the State and Victoria’s First Peoples. This is reflected in Victoria’s Closing the Gap Implementation Plan and the Victorian Government’s broader commitment to Treaty, working with the First Peoples’ Assembly of Victoria (Assembly); and to truth telling through the Yoo-rrook Commission.

Prioritising self-determined solutions that promote culture, connection and community strengthening is the key to closing the gap. We are ensuring the preservation of Aboriginal culture by supporting Aboriginal Elders, and empowering the next generation of proud, strong and thriving Aboriginal people to continue their culture.

A strong, sustainable, and well-resourced Aboriginal community-controlled sector will enable the delivery of critical services across all areas of inequity, including health, justice, education and employment whilst also driving accountability of other parties to deliver on their responsibilities.

For thousands of years, Victoria’s Traditional Owner communities have expertly managed Country and its natural resources to ensure sustainable food supplies, ongoing prosperity and the maintenances of strong culture. They remain the traditional custodians of the lands, waters and country that we all live and work upon and have profound cultural, spiritual and economic connections through their relationship with country. This connectedness to land and water resources on country is fundamental to the health and wellbeing of Aboriginal families and communities.

Continued connection to country, and particularly through increasing the role of Aboriginal communities in caring for country, improves the social and emotional wellbeing outcomes across all aspects of community as well as provide Aboriginal Victorians with opportunities for economic advancement.

Our shared aspiration extends beyond closing the gap and reflects a move away from just measuring life expectancy towards fulfilling what Aboriginal people desire out of life.

Aboriginal people know what is best for themselves, their families and their communities. Commitments under the national agreement include transferring power and resources from Government Departments and mainstream agencies to Aboriginal community control, strengthening shared decision-making structures, achieving a minimum level of progress against socio-economic targets by 2031, and independent Aboriginal led evaluation and monitoring of progress.

Self‑determination is the human right that underpins our collective efforts under the national agreement and Victoria’s existing Victorian Aboriginal Affairs Framework (VAAF) 2018-2023. The VAAF is Victoria’s overarching framework for Aboriginal Affairs and commits the Government to advancing Aboriginal self-determination through an ambitious, forward-looking agenda.

The Aboriginal Executive Council is the Victorian Government’s partner in closing the gap implementation. The AEC was established in 2017 to provide sector-specific advice on whole of government self-determination reform. AEC meets jointly with the Secretaries’ Leadership Group on Aboriginal Affairs (SLG), to set self-determination reform priorities, and the Senior Officers’ Group on Aboriginal Affairs (SOG), to operationalise these. AEC also meets independently of government.

This commitment acknowledges that the best outcomes for Aboriginal Victorians are achieved when policies and programs are based on their knowledge, expertise and priorities.

While Aboriginal self-determination means different things to different people, the United Nations Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples (UNDRIP) describes self-determination as the ability for Indigenous people to freely determine their political status and pursue their economic, social and cultural development. Australia is a signatory to international law instruments, including UNDRIP, that affirm the right to self-determination for Indigenous peoples

In implementing the national agreement, we will continue to be driven by the right to self-determination and existing commitments under the VAAF. We will pursue more ambitious targets in areas such as youth and adult justice, and family violence and push beyond the closing the gap targets where they are already within reach. We are committed to parity and equity.

Alongside closing the gap, the foundational work to support future treaty negotiations with the Assembly is continuing. The Assembly is the sole representative of Aboriginal Victorians for the purpose of working with the State to establish by agreement the elements necessary to support future treaty negotiations.

We know that restoring the health, wellbeing and prosperity of Aboriginal people and communities requires acknowledging and understanding past wrongs, from their perspective, and the intergenerational impacts. The establishment of the Yoo-rrook Justice Commission, the first of its kind anywhere in Australia, represents a significant step forward on Victoria’s path towards treaty. Truth-telling recognises the strength and resilience of Aboriginal people and acknowledges that it is only through a shared understanding of, and reckoning with, our past that Victorians – both Aboriginal and non-Aboriginal – can build a shared future. Treaty and truth telling are fundamental to closing the gap.

Victoria’s commitment to closing the gap is unequivocal. We will be clear about our commitments, rigorous in assessing progress and always led by the views, aspirations, rights and priorities of Victoria’s Aboriginal community.

Message from the Acting Premier

After generations of injustice, dispossession and deprivation, we need to recognise a fundamental truth:

If we are genuinely committed to better outcomes for Aboriginal people, then they need to be led by Aboriginal people.

It’s why here in Victoria, we’re proud to be progressing both truth-telling and Treaty.

The Yoo-rrook Justice Commission will serve as our nation’s first formal truth-telling forum – compelling us to confront what’s come before and acknowledging that the pain of our past lives on in our present.

We’re also delivering on our promise to give Aboriginal Victorians a voice by establishing – and enshrining in law – the First Peoples’ Assembly of Victoria.

Our state’s first and only democratically elected body for First Nations people, the Assembly ensures that Aboriginal people are at the heart of Victoria’s Treaty discussions.

Far more than a seat at the table, this is recognition that the table – and the Treaty process – must belong to Aboriginal people too.

Although, in many respects, Victoria continues to lead the nation, there remains much more to be done.

As a state and as a nation, we need to acknowledge the deep injustices Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people continue to confront – and their remarkable strength and survival in the face of it all.

Together, we must do more.

A more just, more equal, more decent future – for all Australians – is relying on it.

Working in partnership

Purpose of this implementation plan

Victoria’s implementation plan on closing the gap (implementation plan) outlines the actions Victoria will undertake to achieve the objective of the new national agreement on closing the gap:

‘overcome the entrenched inequality faced by too many Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people so that their life outcomes are equal to all Australians’

The purpose of this implementation plan is to make clear the work we will undertake for the first three years of the national agreement (2021-2023). The plan is not fixed for three years. It will be closely monitored and reviewed. Victoria has worked in close partnership with the AEC, other key Aboriginal partnership forums and Aboriginal community-controlled organisations (collectively referred throughout this plan to as Victoria’s Implementation Partners) to develop this plan. We will continue to work with our Implementation Partners to identify specific additional measures required to keep the closing the gap targets on a trajectory to success.

This plan, is the first of a series running to 2031, and focuses on the enablers that will drive Closing the Gap in the long term. Quite deliberately the first stage of implementation will involve engagement and consultation with the Aboriginal community and Aboriginal governance structures so that the plan remains responsive to emerging needs.

The plan focuses on embedding key priority reform enablers across the work of Victorian government including:

Priority Reform 1: Formal partnerships and shared decision-making.
Priority Reform 2: Building the community-controlled sector.
Priority Reform 3: Transforming government organisations.
Priority Reform 4: Shared access to data and information at a regional level.

Enablers of success include implementing Aboriginal Funding Reform, providing ACCOs with longer term flexible funding with reduced administrative burden; Data Development, ensuring that progress against the commitments in the Victorian Aboriginal Affairs Framework and the closing the gap outcomes and targets can be assessed at regional and statewide level and committing to ACCO Sector Development Plans to grow and sustain the ACCO sector across all Closing the Gap outcome areas.

The enablers set the groundwork for lasting change. They will ensure we achieve sustainable, long-term success, that we equip Victoria’s Aboriginal community-controlled organisations to take the lead while ensuring Departments and mainstream services are accountable for delivering effective culturally-safe services.

The plan references specific clauses under the national agreement including those that have specified timeframes for completion. The Plan includes, Jurisdictional Actions, actions that the Victorian Government is required to undertake, and Partnership Actions, actions that all governments and the Coalition of Peaks must work on collectively and implement nationally.

This plan is informed by and includes commitments from existing State Government policy including the Victorian Aboriginal Affairs Framework 2018-2023 (VAAF). The plan aligns these existing commitments, on areas such as funding reform, with the reforms and strategies under the national agreement.

As a public document the plan will assist the Victorian Aboriginal community to hold all parties under the national agreement, the Commonwealth, State and Local Government, mainstream agencies and ACCOs, to account for their role in closing the gap.

Closing the gap partnership

In October 2018, a revised closing the gap framework was due to be finalised and signed off by the Council of Australian Governments (COAG) – a forum consisting of the Prime Minister, State Premiers, Territory Chief Ministers and the Australian Local Government Association.

Aboriginal Community Controlled Organisations (ACCOs) from across Australia came together as the National Coalition of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Peaks to call for the new closing the gap framework be re-developed through a formal and equal partnership with the ACCO sector. The AEC joined the Coalition of Peaks and advocated to the Victorian Government that it support this position.

At their meeting in December 2018 COAG agreed to enter into a formal partnership and in March 2019, a formal partnership agreement on closing the gap (the partnership) was established between the Commonwealth Government, State and Territory Governments, the Coalition of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Peak Organisations (the Coalition of Peaks) and the Australian Local Government Association.

From 2019-2029, the partnership agreement commits all parties to the shared governance of closing the gap through a Joint Council on Closing the Gap. The Joint Council on Closing the Gap is comprised of 12 ACCO Peak representatives (one from each State and Territory and four national ACCO peak representatives) and 9 Government representatives (the Prime Minister, Premiers and Chief Ministers or their Ministers for Aboriginal Affairs and the Australian Local Government Association).

The Joint Council on closing the gap, which represents both government and the wider Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander communities is the ultimate decision-making body on closing the gap. In July 2020, the Joint Council signed off the national agreement on closing the gap with an expanded set of agreed outcomes and targets to be achieved by 2031 and its four priority reforms as the drivers of sustainable change. Under the national agreement all governments are required to develop Closing the Gap implementation plans with their initial implementation plan to be provided to Joint Council in July 2021

Victoria plays an important role in the Partnership and has strongly advocated for all governments to commit to genuine Aboriginal community control to improve the outcomes for Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples across Australia.

Shifting the way in which governments works with Aboriginal communities and organisations takes time. The national agreement and this implementation plan set the groundwork for this necessary change by prioritising partnership in decision making between governments and Aboriginal communities, making mainstream organisations more culturally safe and responsive to the needs of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people, as well as improved data sharing.

Partnership on this implementation plan

The actions contained in the implementation plan along with the commitments made under the national agreement will be felt first-hand by Victoria’s Aboriginal communities. To ensure the Plan reflects the needs of the wider Aboriginal community, Victoria has worked in close partnership with the AEC and other key Aboriginal partnership forums and Aboriginal community controlled organisations (collectively referred throughout this plan to as Victoria’s Implementation Partners) to develop this plan.

The AEC and the Victorian Government’s Secretaries’ Leadership Group on Aboriginal Affairs (SLG) holds responsibility for development, oversight and review of Victoria’s closing the gap implementation plan. To draft the plan a Working Group consisting of officials from all Victorian Government departments, our Implementation Partners and key representatives from Aboriginal community-controlled sector organisations was established. Input into the Working Group was drawn from existing Aboriginal governance structures across all service sectors.

The actions contained in this plan will be felt first-hand by Victoria’s Aboriginal communities. Ongoing engagement with Traditional Owners, Aboriginal community and the ACCO sector is a feature of the plan, which will assist in developing new iterations of this plan informed by ongoing reviews.

Final endorsement of the plan was provided through the joint AEC and the Secretaries’ Leadership Group on Aboriginal Affairs prior to sign off by the Victorian Cabinet.

Working with local government

Local Government is central to the achievement of equity and closing the gap for Aboriginal communities and has a responsibility under the national agreement to actively support closing the gap implementation. Recognising the critical role and potential of local government to contribute to closing the gap, the Victorian Government has developed this implementation plan in consultation with local government, to ensure local councils can be engaged to drive positive change.

To acknowledge the important role of local governments, Victoria appointed a State Ambassador for closing the gap (State Ambassador). Victoria’s State Ambassador is Christine Couzens MP, who has actively engaged and advocated with local councils to strengthen shared decision making at the local level with Aboriginal communities.

The role of local governments will continue to develop throughout the life span of this implementation plan. Victoria will shortly be refreshing the Victorian Aboriginal and Local Government Strategy, which will align the Whole of Victorian Government Aboriginal Affairs program of work with the vital services and programs delivered by local governments.

Accountability, monitoring and reporting progress

Independent monitoring and annual reporting against the closing the gap outcomes and targets is essential to accountability and ensuring that the Aboriginal and broader community has access to regular information on progress.

The national agreement has specific requirements for accountability monitoring and reporting that must be adhered to by all governments. Consistent with the national agreement the following will occur:

The Productivity Commission will:
- develop with the Joint Council a publicly accessible data dashboard on progress against closing the gap covering all State and Territories
- undertake a comprehensive independent review of progress every 3 years.
Each party, including the Victorian Government and the Coalition of Peaks, must prepare an annual public report including information on the measures and actions taken to implement the national agreement and the number of ACCOs funded and supported under closing the gap.
At the national level independent Aboriginal led reviews of progress will be carried out within 12 months of each Productivity Commission review.

Under the Victorian Aboriginal Affairs Framework (VAAF) 2018-2023 the State Government has committed to the establishment of an Aboriginal led evaluation and review mechanism to provide independent monitoring the VAAF goals and measures.

Since then, the establishment of the Assembly and Victoria’s journey towards Treaty means this overarching reporting and review mechanisms will be considered and developed having regard to structural and systemic reform proposed through the treaty process.

Until independent Aboriginal-led evaluation and review mechanisms are finalised, Victoria will report on closing the gap measures under the Victorian Aboriginal Affairs Report (VGAAR). Currently the Victorian Department of Premier and Cabinet has lead responsibility for the development of the annual VGAAR. Victoria will embed and report on closing the gap through the VGAAR, which is tabled in Parliament annually in July. Current reporting requires annual progress reports on Victoria’s implementation and commitments to embed self-determination across all areas of the government.

Whilst not an independent report, the VGAAR provides progress on not only how better life outcomes and equity is being achieved but aims to hold government accountable for what we are doing to improve outcomes for Aboriginal Victorians and enable self‑determination. It provides an overview of how government is working with community to realise the goals and objectives of the Self-Determination Reform Framework and encompasses the Victorian commitment to embed self-determination across all areas of government.

The 2020 VGAAR Report tracks progress against 111 VAAF measures across 20 goals, as well as reporting on action towards the government’s commitment to self-determination. The report demonstrates a significant shift in the way government measures and reports on outcomes in Aboriginal affairs. Along with the publication of this year’s VGAAR in late 2020, an interactive data dashboard was launched to improve transparency and accessibility of government data.

The annual VGAAR is subject to review by the AEC and tabled in Parliament, to ensure transparency and accountability from both government and the community-controlled sector. This will continue to occur as the VGAAR monitors Victoria’s progress and reports on actions under this implementation plan.

The Victorian Government will work with the Victoria’s Implementation Partners to ensure Aboriginal-led evaluation and review against the VAAF and the national agreement on closing the gap progresses in the immediate term. A summary of this annual VGAAR review will be included in the VGAAR when tabled in Parliament, while acknowledging that in the longer term, both Treaty and the recommendations of the Yoo-rrook Justice Commission will likely lead to significant systemic reform, including in relation to systems oversight and accountability.

The VGAAR and implementation plan will also be tabled at an annual meeting of the AEC, all departmental secretaries and the Minister for Aboriginal Affairs, and representatives from Aboriginal partnership forums to provide an opportunity to discuss progress and additional measured required to accelerate meeting our commitments under the national agreement.

Making a difference

This implementation plan acknowledges that real and sustained impacts are made through Aboriginal self-determination.

This plan, which is for an initial three-year period, focuses on advancing Aboriginal self-determination through empowering the community-controlled sector, transferring power and resources to the Aboriginal community-controlled sector, promoting accountability of Government Departments and mainstream service providers and breaking down systemic barriers faced by Aboriginal people throughout life.

The plan will drive the 4 closing the gap priority reforms that hold the key to achieving and exceeding the socio-economic targets and outcomes within the national agreement. The Victorian Government will continue to transform the way in which we work with the Aboriginal community-controlled sector to ensure Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people are respected to make decisions about their own lives.

Priority reforms

Priority reform areas outlined are mutually reinforcing enablers in order to successfully achieve equity and better outcomes for Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people across Victoria.

These reforms respond to the voices and aspirations of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people and provide a clear strategy for changing the way governments work with community. These reforms will support the overall objective of the National Agreement – equity.

The priority reforms are consistent with Victoria’s nation-leading approach to Aboriginal affairs, and complement our existing policies and commitments including the VAAF, Treaty and the Yoo-rrook Justice Commission. These actions combined demonstrate the changing nature of the relationship between the Victorian Government and the Victorian Aboriginal community, towards partnership and self-determination.

The priority reform areas set out foundational enablers for changing the way we work, which includes embedding Aboriginal-led approaches that are underpinned by self-determination and partnership. We recognise that improved outcomes can only be achieved through policy initiatives that are informed and guided by Aboriginal communities.

As the funder and provider of many of the services accessed by Aboriginal Victorians, government must also transform its systems and structures to support self-determination and improve outcomes for Aboriginal peoples.

Victoria is committed to embedding these priority reform areas in our planned activity over the next three years. Work is already underway in transforming the way government works, with key reforms and nation-leading projects across all four Priority Reform areas including:

Priority reform 1: Partnership and shared decision-making

Outcome

People are empowered to share decision-making authority with governments to accelerate policy and place-based progress on closing the gap through formal partnership arrangements

Target

There will be formal partnership arrangements to support closing the gap in place between Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people and governments in place in each state and territory enshrining agreed joint decision-making roles and responsibilities and where Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people have chosen their own representatives.

Victoria recognises that meaningful and sustainable change can only come about if Aboriginal people are empowered to share decision-making authority with governments. This is articulated in the VAAF as a step on the continuum towards self-determination. Victoria has established shared governance and decision-making mechanisms, including through our partnership with the Aboriginal Executive Council on closing the gap and the development of this plan.

The AEC, as the Victorian member for the Coalition of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Peak Organisations, play a crucial advocacy role in Victorian Aboriginal Affairs. Due to this advocacy, and in part Victoria’s significant involvement in developing the National Agreement, many of the agreements commitments under the Priority Reform Areas align with the work programs of Victoria’s Implementation Partners.

The AEC continues to operate as the Victorian member of the Coalition of Peaks working with all governments to progress the partnership actions and joint commitments at the national level.

Partnership actions

The Victorian Government is committed to partnership actions under the National Agreement, including the establishment of policy partnerships and place-based partnerships.

Jurisdictional actions

The Victorian Government has many structures and mechanisms to partner with the ACCO Sector and Aboriginal community. In alignment with the National Agreement, existing governance forums, including Local Aboriginal Networks, will be tasked with completing a self-evaluation of their structure against Partnership Elements outlined in clauses 32 and 33 of the National Agreement.

In 2020, the Improving Aboriginal Governance Structures Project, commissioned by the Department of Premier and Cabinet, outlined a series of recommendations for how existing shared governance structures could be collectively improved. This will be an important resource for the self-evaluation process to draw upon.

As part of priority reform 1, the Victorian Government will:

ensure that the parameters for the self-evaluation process will include the option of improving investment in independent Aboriginal-led policy secretariats for each of the existing Aboriginal governance forums. The eventual establishment of reporting and evaluation approaches will be considered and developed having regard to structural and systemic reform proposed through the treaty process and the Yoo-rrook Justice Commission
consider the principles in the Partnership Agreement on closing the gap
agree with existing Aboriginal Governance Structures arrangements for their role in independent review and monitoring of the Victoria’s closing the gap implementation plan and the VAAF
work with Aboriginal Governance Structures to strengthen their role in the State Budget process
respond to findings and recommendations arising from the Improving Aboriginal Governance Structures Project
align these recommendations with the principles elaborated on in the Partnership Agreement on closing the gap.

Current initiatives

Shared decision-making through Aboriginal governance structures is crucial for ensuring self-determining and culturally appropriate responses are provided for the Victorian Aboriginal Community. Victoria has a long history of shared decision-making through both the Aboriginal Justice Forum and the partnership in Aboriginal Education (1990) and the resulting Yalca Agreement (2001) - which has existed for over a decade. These forums have developed and evolved over time to respond to the changing needs of communities. Victoria is committed to further strengthening these structures and incorporating meaningful partnership opportunities moving forward.

Shared Aboriginal – State Government decision-making structures include:

The Aboriginal Justice Forum
Aboriginal Children’s Forum
Dhelk Dja Partnership Forum
Marrung Central Governance Committee
Victorian Aboriginal Employment and Economic Council
Aboriginal Strategic Governance Forum
Aboriginal Health Partnership Forum
Victorian Aboriginal Employment and Economic Council
Victorian Aboriginal Housing and Homelessness Forum, Implementation Action Group and Implementation Working Group)
Aboriginal Executive Council/Secretaries Leadership Group on Aboriginal Affairs
State-wide Caring for Country Partnership Forum

Priority reform 2: Building the community-controlled sector

Outcome

Building the community-controlled sector: There is a strong and sustainable Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander community-controlled sector delivering high quality services to meet the needs of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people across the country.

Target

Increase the amount of government funding for Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander programs and services going through Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander community-controlled organisations.

Victoria acknowledges that Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander community-controlled services produce better, more sustainable outcomes for Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people and their communities. They achieve better results, employ more Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people, and are often preferred over mainstream services. Empowering the sector to provide culturally sensitive, appropriate, and accessible services to Victorian Aboriginal communities is in line with Victoria’s ongoing commitment to self-determination.

Building the capacity and capability of the community-controlled sector also drives sustainability and self-determination by equipping organisations to set the policy direction for, and independently plan the services, they provide to their people and community.

Victoria is committed to embedding the elements of a strong community-controlled sector across its actions under this priority reform area, by working towards ensuring:

there is sustained capacity building and investment proportionate to the number of people accessing services in Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander community-controlled organisations to deliver certain services to address community identified needs, and address issues through a set of clearly defined standards or requirements, such as an agreed model of care
there is a dedicated and identified Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander workforce (that complements a range of other professions and expertise) and people working in community-controlled sectors have wage parity based on workforce modelling commensurate with need
a strong and sustainable Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander workforce that experiences wage parity through aligning workforce costs in State Budget business case development with current Victorian Public Service remuneration standards
Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander community-controlled organisations which deliver common services are supported by a Peak Body, governed by a majority Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Board, which has strong governance and policy development and influencing capacity
Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander community-controlled organisations which deliver common services have a dedicated, flexible, reliable and consistent funding model designed to suit the types of services required by communities, responsive to the needs of those receiving the services, and is developed in consultation with the relevant peak body.

This Priority Reform will align with the VAAF by:

Taking guidance from the VAAF action logic and self-determination continuum, which provides a path towards improved outcomes for Aboriginal Victorians through the transformation of structures and systems.
Working alongside the ambition set by Goal 9 of the VAAAF: Strong Aboriginal workforce participation. The VAAF recognises that Aboriginal staff bring unique knowledge, skills and expertise to the workforce and understand the needs and aspirations of the Aboriginal community. The importance of representation working in sectors like the Victorian public service also enhances the quality of the workplace and career experiences.

Partnership actions

As agreed by the Joint Council on closing the gap in April 2021, Victoria will develop Sector Strengthening Plans for the four sectors identified for priority action - early childhood care, housing, health, and disability. The Victorian Government will work closely with Coalition of Peaks and the relevant Aboriginal community-controlled sectors to support the development of these plans. Active engagement with both the Coalition of Peaks and the community-controlled sector will ensure these plans reflect the needs and expectations of the sector, and in turn produce better outcomes for the wider Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander community.
The Victorian Government is also committed to fast-tracking work on the justice policy partnership, which is a commitment under the National Agreement (clause 28). This policy partnership has been expedited due to the pressing need to address Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander incarceration rates across Australia. This work will be progressed in partnership between the Commonwealth, States and Territories, and Coalition of Peaks.

Jurisdictional actions

Consistent with clause 46 of the National Agreement, the Victorian Government is committed to building the Aboriginal community-controlled sectors across all outcome areas of the National Agreement on closing the gap. This will include, but not be limited to, the four sectors specified as priorities in the National Agreement - early childhood care and development, housing, health, and disability

Work to develop the Sector Strengthening Plans will commence during the first year of this implementation plan with existing Aboriginal governance structures playing a key role in developing the plans.

Sector strengthening is required across all areas of the community-controlled sector, given the integrated and wholistic nature of many ACCOs. The first four priority sectors listed above will have immediate focus in line with the National Agreement.

This consideration will be informed by Victoria’s baseline performance against targets and its performance relative to other jurisdictions. For example, at 30 June 2019, Victoria had the highest rate of overrepresentation in out-of-home care in Australia, with Aboriginal children being placed in care at 20 times the rate of their non-Indigenous peers. In 2020, there were 3,518 family violence incidents in Victoria in which Aboriginal women were the victim/survivors. We know that family violence is under-reported and that there has been no significant or sustained decrease over the past five years. This data highlights the need to strengthen ACCOs to provide early intervention and family support for families at risk of child protection involvement and incidents of family violence as a priority.

The Victorian Government recognises that building the ACCO sector must include more than building their contracted service delivery role. As such, Sector Strengthening Plans will include actions that pertain to:

resourcing ACCOs for their cultural programs, community, sport and recreation activities and their roles in community development and advocacy
the prioritising of cultural activities and languages
the multi-functional nature of many ACCOs that provide services across a diversity of closing the gap outcomes
supporting and resourcing ACCOs to transition to carbon neutral service operations
resourcing the development of existing ACCOs to extend their scope of operations in response to local/regional community needs and aspirations
providing access to long-term support, particularly to smaller ACCOs, to develop and expand their scope of operations
identifying locations/regions where new ACCOs should be developed in line with local community aspirations.

More broadly, the Victorian Government will undertake the following actions to strengthen the ACCO sector and achieve the objective of the National Agreement:

In partnership with the ACCO sector and shared governance structures, identify and embed initiatives that enable Aboriginal Elders to live longer healthier and active lives and enjoy community engagement and connection in accordance with cultural protocols, by embedding mandatory consideration of the needs and rights of Elders in all aspects of Victoria’s implementation plan, including in each sector strengthening plan. Early consideration will also be given to standalone policy for Aboriginal Elders.
In alignment with Clause 55b of the National Agreement, where new funding programs are intended to service the broader population, allocate a meaningful proportion of funding to ACCOs
Consolidation of accreditation, regulation and standards to support holistic culturally based service provision by ACCOs, noting work that is already underway in relation to this such as the Department of Fairness, Families and Housing review of the Human Services Standards.
Taking account of Infrastructure Victoria’s 30-Year Draft Infrastructure Strategy plan for, and undertake long-term investment in ACCO infrastructure that is fit for purpose and accommodates the service breadth of ACCOs.

This Implementation Plan will also integrate existing funding and actions from the AEC/SLG meetings that directly align with Victoria’s commitments under the National Agreement. This includes commitments to:

contractual and Systemic Funding Reform: Clauses 55a and 55b
alignment of State Budget Development Process with Aboriginal Governance Structures
establishing a baseline of funding for the ACCO sector: Clauses 59-62
streamline funding arrangements through options such as pooled funding, longer-term funding agreements, optimised purposeful reporting and minimised compliance burden
systemic funding reforms that align with Aboriginal self-determination and provide maximum flexibility to respond to local community priorities
alignment of the State Budget development process, service planning and funding with the high level of Aboriginal population growth in Victoria and regional variations in population growth
by July 2022 identify current State Government spending on Aboriginal programs and services and identify opportunities to re-prioritise funding to Aboriginal Community Controlled Organisations (Clause 113).

Current initiatives

Victoria is committed to strengthening the ACCO sector, which is in line with our commitment to self-determination. Empowering ACCOs to determine their own planning and funding priorities provides sustainable, flexible and culturally appropriate responses for Aboriginal Victorians. Existing initiatives aimed at strengthening the ACCO sector include:

Aboriginal Workforce Fund to strengthen Aboriginal workforce capacity and capability

The Victorian Government has partnered with the Aboriginal community controlled sector to design a funding model for the $40 million Aboriginal Workforce Fund. For the first time in Victoria, Aboriginal community controlled organisations are creating a model which builds their organisation’s workforce capacity without a complicated and onerous application process. The fund is being co-designed by the Department of Families, Fairness and Housing and the Victorian Aboriginal Social Recovery Advisory Group. It will use Aboriginal measures of success and funding will be allocated on the advice of Aboriginal-led governance groups.

Funding to Aboriginal community controlled organisations

The Victorian Government’s Department of Families, Fairness and Housing (DFFH) are co-designing with Aboriginal community controlled organisations (ACCOs) a suite of reforms to the way funding is provided to the sector. Reforms include a prioritisation funding policy, longer term funding contracts, a pooled outcome based funding model and a reduction to onerous reporting and accountability processes, including multiple funding reports to the one department. The pooled outcome based funding model is being piloted with three Aboriginal community controlled organisations. The pilot model will include health and human service funding across both DFFH and the Department of Health. Critical features of the model will be:

measuring investment against Aboriginal defined outcomes
co-design of service agreements
reduced reporting burden
monitoring and evaluation processes to measure impact.

COVID-19 Aboriginal Community Response and Recovery Fund

The $10 million COVID-19 Aboriginal Community Response and Recovery Fund (Fund) was established in 2020, following calls from the COVID-19 Aboriginal Community Taskforce that the community-controlled sector required more funding opportunities to provide local services to their communities. The Fund provided flexible funding to Aboriginal communities and organisations across four categories - Emergency Relief, Outreach and Brokerage, Cultural Strengthening and Social and Emotional Wellbeing.

The Fund ensured Aboriginal communities were adequately resourced to develop local, place-based responses to address key impacts of COVID-19. Government is committed to ensuring that Aboriginal self-determination is embedded throughout response and recovery efforts. To ensure that post-COVID-19, all Aboriginal people, families and communities are safe, resilient, thriving and living culturally rich lives, the Victorian Aboriginal Social Recovery Advisory Group was developed to continue the crucial work required to recover from COVID-19 impacts.

Priority Reform 3: Transforming government organisations

Outcome: Improving mainstream institutions: Governments, their organisations and their institutions are accountable for closing the gap and are culturally safe and responsive to the needs of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people, including through the services they fund.

Target: Decrease in the proportion of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people who have experiences of racism.

The Victorian Government is committed to the services Aboriginal Victorians access being culturally safe and culturally responsive whether the service is provided by an Aboriginal organisation, a government department or agency or a mainstream non-government organisation. As the provider or funder of services intend to benefit the entire community, it is crucial that the Victorian Government ensures its systems, institutions, and the services it funds, are culturally safe and responsive to the needs of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people.

Historic government policies and processes have caused systemic racism across Victoria’s service system. A culturally safe and racism-free service system is one in which people feel safe, where they can freely affirm their identity and where their needs are met.

The VAAF outlines the Victorian Government’s existing commitment to transform its systems and structures to support self-determination and improve outcomes for Aboriginal peoples. As identified by community, the four enablers which government has committed to act upon to make Aboriginal self-determination a reality are:

Prioritise culture
Address trauma and support healing
Address racism and promote cultural safety
Transfer power and resources to community.

The Victorian Government Aboriginal Affairs Report, tabled in Parliament annually, will provide detail on how we are tracking to address these enablers, alongside outcomes for Aboriginal Victorians in a broader range of socio-economic domains than that is captured in the National Agreement. The Victorian Government is making significant inroads towards structural and systemic transformation. This includes action on the Self-Determination Reform Framework, and funding reform.

Under Clause 59 of the National Agreement, Victoria has committed to structural transformation of government organisations and mainstream service providers, including:

establishing an anti-racism taskforce which will Identify and eliminate racism through a state-wide anti-racism strategy
embed and practice meaningful cultural safety
partner with Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander organisations, communities and people with the goal of these organisations transitioning to independently delivering services in the future.
increase accountability through transparent funding allocations
support Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander cultures
improve engagement with Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people.

Partnership actions

The National Agreement requires governments to identify, develop or strengthen an independent mechanism that will support, monitor and report on the transformation of mainstream agencies and institutions. The mechanism must be culturally safe and support mainstream agencies to embed and practice culturally appropriate service offerings. It will be required to engage with Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people in relation to any concerns about mainstream institutions and report publicly on the transformation of mainstream agencies.

Both treaty and the Yoo-rrook Commission will likely lead to significant systemic reform, including in relation to systems oversight and accountability. The Victorian Government will work with Victoria’s Implementation Partners to consider the best approaches for establishing the mechanism to support and monitor the transformation of mainstream agencies, services and institutions. This will include how any mechanism aligns with existing commitments to Aboriginal-led evaluation and review of progress against the VAAF and the closing the gap.

In the immediate term the VGAAR, which is tabled in State Parliament, will incorporate the AEC’s review of the VGAAR as a key Aboriginal sector led accountability approach.

Jurisdictional actions

Through a range of strategies and frameworks, the Victorian Government is undertaking transformative action to ensure institutions are culturally safe and are responsive to the needs of Aboriginal Victorians.

This already includes requiring all Victorian Government departments to report against the Self-Determination Reform Framework on action they are undertaking to transform their organisations in line with the VAAF self-determination enablers. Noting that the statutory bodies are within the scope of the National Agreement on Closing the Gap, the Victorian Government will work with its implementation partners and statutory bodies to ensure they are culturally safe and responsive to the needs of the Victorian Aboriginal community.

Noting that Priority Reform Three is inclusive of mainstream institutions and agencies that are funded by governments to develop policies or deliver services, the Victorian Government will work with ACCOs, mainstream institutions and funded agencies to:

develop an agreed health and human services-wide approach to progressing cultural safety of mainstream institutions and funded services
develop sector-specific commitments for resource transfer from mainstream NGOs and Government departments to Aboriginal community control.

Other whole-of-government ways in which the Victorian Government is supporting the transformation of institutions are outlined below.

Self-determination reform framework

The Self-Determination Reform Framework guides public service action to enable self-determination in line with government’s commitments in the Victorian Aboriginal Affairs Framework 2018-2023. It also provides an architecture for government departments to report annually on this action under the Framework, outlining progress towards transforming government systems and structures to enable self-determination.

Anti-racism strategy and taskforce

The Victorian Government has committed to establishing an Anti-Racism Taskforce to guide the design and implementation of a whole of government Anti-Racism Strategy (strategy). The new state-wide strategy will prevent and crackdown on race-based discrimination and abuse.

The strategy will focus on a broad range of elements that underlay and perpetuate racial discrimination such as unconscious bias, privilege, and the intersection of race and other forms of discrimination.

The new Anti-Racism Taskforce will provide advice and recommendations to the Government to ensure the strategy sets out a clear and targeted road map to reduce racism in Victoria.

The Taskforce is co-chaired by Josh Bull MP, Parliamentary Secretary for Multicultural Affairs and Member for Sunbury, and Sheena Watt MP, Member for the Northern Metropolitan Region and a proud Yorta Yorta woman.

Membership includes ex-officio representatives from the Victorian Multicultural Commission and the Victorian Equal Opportunity and Human Rights Commission, as well as 11 community members appointed through an open and competitive recruitment process.

The Taskforce comprises people with a broad range of professional and lived experience, reflecting the diversity within our communities. Three young Victorians have been appointed to ensure young people’s voices are central to this work.

Anti-vilification inquiry and inter-departmental working group

The Legislative Assembly’s Legal and Social Issues Committee completed an in-depth inquiry into the overall effectiveness of the Racial and Religious Tolerance Act 2001 (RTTA), and in March 2021, delivered 37 recommendations across multiple portfolios on how to strengthen its effectiveness and eliminate vilification within Victoria.

The government’s response to the Inquiry is being led by the Attorney-General and an Interdepartmental Working Group is coordinating across government to prepare the response and develop a Bill for implementing key recommendations for introduction in 2021.

The Social Procurement Framework (SPF)

The Department of Treasury and Finance (DTF) led the development and implementation of the SPF. The SPF uses government buying power to generate social value beyond the value of the procurement spend. This has enabled government to support and grow Aboriginal businesses and employees. The framework provides a platform to engage with Aboriginal business and enable access to economic opportunities that may not ordinarily occur.

Longer-term planning to deliver self-determination reform and improved outcomes for Aboriginal Victorians

DTF provides economic, financial and resource management advice to help the Victorian Government deliver its policies.

DTF’s Self-Determination Taskforce was established in 2019 to promote Aboriginal self-determination in DTF’s work and meet commitments in the Self-Determination Reform Framework. Since delivering the first set of reforms published in the Advancing self-determination in DTF in May 2020, the Taskforce has undertaken a series of workshops to progress new plans.

DTF’s next steps involve preparing a longer-term plan for promoting self-determination and expanding the Taskforce’s scope to include the Department’s preparations for treaty. Key focuses of the long-term plan will include budget reform, cultural safety and how the Department can support improved outcomes for Aboriginal Victorians.

Cultural Safety Framework

DFFH is responsible for the implementation of the Cultural Safety Framework in health and community services across the state. The framework was developed in collaboration with Aboriginal communities, Aboriginal organisations and provides a continuous quality improvement model to strengthen the cultural safety of individuals and organisations. Cultural safety has been embedded systemically by the former Department of Health and Human Services into hospitals’ Statements of Priorities, Human Service Standards, Improving Care for Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Patients reforms and the Child Safe Standards. The department has also included guidelines for reporting racism within the department’s Positive and Fair Workplaces Policy and redesigned the department’s peer support model to better deliver tailored supports for Aboriginal staff. The department has released the Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Cultural Safety Guidelines for funded agencies on how to apply the framework in the service sector.

Priority reform 4: Shared access to data and information at a regional level

Outcome: Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people have access to, and the capability to use, locally-relevant data and information to set and monitor the implementation of efforts to close the gap, their priorities and drive their own development.

Target: Increase the number of regional data projects to support Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander communities to make decisions about closing the gap and their development.

Increasing Aboriginal ownership and control of data is a key enabler of self-determination. Aboriginal data sovereignty recognises that Aboriginal communities and organisations should have governance, choice and control over data collected from and about their communities, and have ready access to data and data analytics capacity necessary to support strong organisational governance and service planning.

When Aboriginal community-controlled organisations are adequately resourced and supported to undertake this work, it strengthens Aboriginal advocacy, sector and local level service planning. Open, transparent and meaningful data that is disaggregated at the local and regional level is essential to ensure that service responses reflect local needs and that all stakeholders are accountable. It tells us what is working and where further action is needed.

Sharing data that is locally relevant demonstrates that the Victorian Government is working towards a true partnership approach. Ensuring data sovereignty means Aboriginal community-controlled organisations have the information they need to make decision about the communities they serve. The State as an entity has historically controlled and monitored Aboriginal data. In working towards a partnership approach, Victoria recognises that ACCOs are best placed to hold control of data that relates to their own communities.

Partnership actions

The National Agreement commits all parties to work together to identify up to six locations across Australia for local data projects intended to support Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander communities to analyse and use local and regional data to drive tailored closing the gap responses.

The Victorian Government will pursue local data projects tailored to reflect Victoria’s unique jurisdictional experience. Locally relevant data will help to identify the differing needs and experiences between Aboriginal people in metropolitan and regional Victoria.

Victoria recognises the collection of data must be done in a culturally appropriate way which empowers the ACCO sector to utilise their own data to make their own decisions. This can be ensured through leveraging technical and community expertise to conduct research, whilst ensuring adequate resourcing and capacity for ACCOs to partake in data collection and reporting against closing the gap targets.

Jurisdictional actions

To advance Aboriginal ownership and control of data, the Victorian Government will:

develop modelling of the trajectories for each target alongside the anticipated year when parity will be achieved. This will include agreeing defined regions for disaggregation of data and the minimum data sets available for each region and will utilise the VACCA/AEC/SVA work on service demand modelling as a starting point
review and consider the case for more ambitious closing the gap Targets or additional targets where Victoria is on track to achieve any closing the gap Targets in advance of 2031
identify potential indicators and measures to support future reporting against VAAF/CtG, with an emphasis on exploring opportunities for the inclusion of more culturally specific indicators, for example ASQTrak
undertake longer-term work on qualitative work against VAAF Self-Determination Enablers and the closing the gap Objectives and Outcomes (National Agreement Clause 3) and Transformational Elements (National Agreement Clause 59)

Victoria will develop modelling of the trajectories for each target alongside the anticipated year when parity will be achieved. The Victorian Government will also support access to ACCO/Aboriginal led, strength-based data measures, as well as considering ways to improve local and regional control over data.

Victoria will also undertake a mid-term review of the VAAF (and by extension, the VGAAR) to ensure it is aligned with the closing the gap targets. This will allow a greater degree of aspiration to be built into Victoria’s closing the gap targets as there many instances where the VAAF measures are more ambitious than those outlined in the National Agreement. The mid-term review will also ensure more baseline data is collected for VAAF measures than those that are currently not reported on (for example, life expectancy) to inform government and community decision-making.

Aboriginal Data Sovereignty

Victoria will implement existing data sovereignty commitments agreed between the AEC/SLG including:

departments to develop sector wide data access and data sharing agreements with and for ACCOs and Traditional Owner Corporations in their sector (local, statewide and peak) with advice and input from the appropriate Aboriginal governance mechanism
departments to prioritise additional investment in ACCO data management and analytics as a core function of ACCOS and Traditional Owner Corporations and collaboratively develop options to properly resource this function through allocations from departmental funding programs and through the annual budget process.

Victoria will also actively pursue the Data and Information sharing elements specified under the National Agreement (Clause 71); including as follows:

ensuring there are partnerships in place between ACCOs and government organisations to guide the improved collection, access, management and use of data to improve shared decision making
providing ACCOs with the same data and information on which decisions are made
collecting, managing and disaggregating data in an accessible and timely way to empower ACCOs and Aboriginal communities to use data for local decision making
supporting and resourcing ACCOS and Aboriginal communities to build capacity and expertise in data collection, management, and analysis.

Targets and outcomes

The National Agreement sets out 17 national socio-economic targets across areas that have an impact on life outcomes for Aboriginal people.

Overview of targets

In addition, the VAAF, as Victoria’s overarching framework for Aboriginal affairs, includes 111 measures developed after extensive community consultation. It commits Victoria to achieving 11 key outcomes across cultural safety, service or system access and equity. The VAAF recognises that to achieve positive outcomes, we must fundamentally change the way governments work with Aboriginal people.

These existing outcomes paired with the socio-economic targets under the National Agreement bring together a comprehensive set of data that can help community hold government to account on whether our combined efforts are having an impact. These targets cut across key domains including culture, health and wellbeing, justice, learning and family.

The Victorian Government recognises that these targets set out the minimum level of ambition to be achieved through the National Agreement and commits to the achievement of equity against all measures and outcomes in the VAAF. Our actions will also embed a specific focus on cohorts facing multiple barriers to achieving equitable outcomes, including Aboriginal Elders, young people, LQBTQI+ people, and people with disability. Victoria is exploring, in partnership with our Implementation Partners and key stakeholders, options to address key gaps in the National Agreement such as disability.

While the National Agreement aims for nationally consistent outcomes, the approach and appropriate method for achieving those outcomes will depend on the unique context of each jurisdiction. The commitments under the National Agreement provide a baseline level for targets and a partnership approach. Victoria’s broader self-determination agenda seeks to move beyond partnership and towards co-ownership and a transfer of decision-making and resource control. In Victoria, we will continue to be guided by the VAAF on more ambitious targets, as these were developed through extensive consultation with community.

To ensure these socio-economic targets are monitored, and that government remains accountable throughout the lifespan of the National Agreement, each outcome and the associated targets will be allocated to existing Aboriginal governance forums for monitoring and review throughout the life of the National Agreement. Allocating targets to existing governance forums will ensure sector-specific experts can oversee issues, actions and outcomes and adapt as necessary. It also minimises governance burden, by utilising existing forums and limiting duplication.

In addition, we will continue to report on progress under the VAAF via the VGAAR, which will be integrated with reporting on the National Agreement.

Outcomes

Target 1: Close the gap in life expectancy within a generation, by 2031

Relevant VAAF measures

Goal 11: Aboriginal Victorians enjoy health and longevity.

Objective 11.1 Improve Aboriginal health status, quality of life and life expectancy.

Since the commencement of the Closing the Gap journey, data demonstrates that the disparity in the life expectancy gap between Aboriginal Australians and non-Aboriginal Australians continues to grow.

Victoria’s Aboriginal population is growing at a much faster rate than the non-Aboriginal population, increasing 12% between the 2011 and 2016 Census. However, due to the smaller number Aboriginal people in Victoria, life expectancy estimates are not able to be produced.[1] VicHealth research indicates that based on 2006 ABS data it is estimated a life expectancy gap between Aboriginal and non-Aboriginal Australians of 11.8 years for men and 10 years for women.[2] Diseases such as cancer, diabetes and circulatory diseases and the impacts of poor mental health continue to be the leading causes of death for Aboriginal people.[3]

In response to ongoing calls from the Aboriginal community and community-controlled sector, the Victorian Government is focused on measuring quality of life as an overall indicator of a long and healthy life. To capture a holistic picture of quality of life, Victoria, through the VAAF, measures life expectancy at birth, proportion reporting ‘excellent or very good’ health status and other associated outcomes.

The health and wellbeing of Aboriginal people is affected by several risk factors including the experiences of racism and discrimination, especially within the health system. As a result, Aboriginal people continue to experience poorer health outcomes and non-Aboriginal people. Victoria already measures a number of underlying factors that contribute to Aboriginal life expectancy rates including but not limited to:
- life expectancy at birth
- self-reported health status
- daily smoking rates
- rates of preventable hospitalisation
- emergency room presentations due to alcohol or other drug-related harm.
These factors will inform Victoria’s measurement of life expectancy and ensure that the gap between Aboriginal and non-Aboriginal Victorians continues to close.

A well-resourced ACCHO sector is crucial for addressing the underlying factors that contribute to Aboriginal life expectancy rates and ensuring that the Aboriginal community has access to culturally safe care that reflects their definition of health and wellbeing.

Social and cultural determinants of health including connection to Country, culture, community and family provide strong protective factors for Aboriginal people. Increased focus on preventative strategies and timely access to culturally safe services are ways the health system can contribute to improved health and wellbeing for Aboriginal people. Strong, holistic wraparound models of care that are based in Aboriginal ways of being, knowing and doing can provide additional opportunities to improve health and wellbeing for Aboriginal people and families.

Minister responsible

The lead minister responsible is Martin Foley MP, Minister for Health, with the supporting portfolio of. Gabrielle Williams MP, Minister for Aboriginal Affairs.

Partnership with Indigenous Australians

In 2019, the Victorian Government committed to the creation of a health forum led by the Aboriginal community to provide governance, oversight, and decision making on Aboriginal health priorities. The Aboriginal Health and Wellbeing Partnership Forum was established in April 2021 to meet those goals. This Partnership Forum is the lead body for the Aboriginal health sector to identify health priorities, design Aboriginal-led solutions, and advise government to achieve better health and wellbeing outcomes for Victoria’s Aboriginal community. Co-chaired by the Minister for Health and the Board Chairperson of the Victorian Aboriginal Community Controlled Health Organisation (VACCHO), the forum will lead the development of a Victorian Aboriginal health plan with agreed priorities to drive and coordinate government and Aboriginal sector action.

The Aboriginal Strategic Governance Forum, established in 2017 to provide a state-wide mechanism for Aboriginal-led decision making will work in partnership with the Aboriginal Health and Wellbeing Forum to ensure that health issues are considered across community and social services, and contribute voice towards the progression of health priorities.

To improve health and wellbeing for Aboriginal people, commitment and action is also required across the broader health service system. Through health reform activities, government will need to ensure that Aboriginal voices are included and involved in decision-making at the state and local level.

Government commitment to self-determination

The Victorian Government is committed to improving health, wellbeing and safety outcomes for Aboriginal Victorians. At the very heart of this change is self-determination, whereby Aboriginal people take ownership, carriage and responsibility for designing, delivering and evaluating policy and services on their own terms.

On July 2017, the Department of Health and Human Services launched the ‘Supporting self-determination: prioritising funding to Aboriginal organisations’ policy (the policy) with the overall objective of supporting Aboriginal self-determination and improving the health, wellbeing and safety outcomes of Aboriginal Victorians. The policy aims to prioritise Aboriginal-specific funding to Aboriginal organisations who provide services that address their communities’ health, wellbeing and safety needs and aspirations.

Actions

A full list of actions can be found at the table on the action list.
Target 2: By 2031, increase the proportion of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander babies with a healthy birthweight to 91%
Relevant VAAF measures

Goal 1: Aboriginal children are born health and thrive

Measure 1.1.1 Rate of low birth weight.

Measure 1.1.2 Rate of preterm birth.

Measure 1.1.3 Rate of perinatal mortality.

Measure 1.1.4 Smoking during pregnancy.
Being born healthy is fundamental to Aboriginal babies having a strong start to life. For Aboriginal babies to have a greater chance of being born at a healthy birthweight, their mothers must be supported and healthy before and during pregnancy.

Koori Maternity Services (KMS) are an integral part of Victoria’s maternity system. They provide flexible, holistic and culturally safe pregnancy and postnatal care for Aboriginal women, women having Aboriginal babies and their families. Provided at both Aboriginal organisations and public health services, KMS embrace a holistic Aboriginal understanding of health that extends beyond physical wellbeing to include the social, emotional, spiritual and cultural wellbeing of the individual woman, her family and her community.

To ensure that Aboriginal babies are born with a healthy birthweight, KMS aim to increase access to earlier antenatal care, reduce smoking rates during pregnancy for Aboriginal women, reduce the proportion of Aboriginal babies born early, and reduce the number of deaths of Aboriginal babies during pregnancy or soon after birth.

Efforts to improve health outcomes for vulnerable and at-risk women, babies and families must address the social determinants of health, including those that do not directly relate to the healthcare system. Achieving this requires KMS to work with early childhood family support services and the community in order to respond to the individual needs and circumstances of each woman and her family. KMS teams, like other antenatal care providers, often play a central role in identifying and providing the ‘first response’ for women and families experiencing increased vulnerability or risk. They make care and support accessible and safe, whenever needed.

KMS are delivered in line with a commitment to placing Aboriginal women, their babies and their families at the centre of care, grounded in Aboriginal ways of being, knowing and doing.

Minister responsible

The lead minister responsible is Martin Foley MP, Minister for Health, with the supporting portfolio of. Gabrielle Williams MP, Minister for Aboriginal Affairs.

Partnership with Indigenous Australians

The Department of Health has a working relationship between KMS and Maternal and Child Health to support streamlined continuum of care to ensure that Aboriginal children and mothers are heathy and have a strong start to life.

The VACCHO Koori Maternity and Early Years team coordinates peer networking and learning opportunities for the KMS workforce, including the annual Women’s Business Forum and quarterly steering committee meetings. External education and training opportunities also coordinated and promoted by the Koori Maternity and Early Years team include specialised training in sexual health, smoking (tobacco) cessation, drugs and alcohol, family violence, oral health, breastfeeding and diabetes management.

The Royal Women’s Hospital’s Maternity Services Education Program (MSEP) provides on-site workshops for maternity service providers across Victoria. MSEP works in partnership with VACCHO to provide pregnancy care education for the KMS workforce in line with current evidence and best practice.

Actions

A full list of actions can be found at the table on the action list.
Target 3: By 2025, increase the proportion of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander children enrolled in Year Before Fulltime Schooling (YBFS) early childhood education to 95%.
Relevant VAAF measures

Goal 4: Aboriginal children thrive in the early years.

Objective 4.1: Optimise early childhood development and participation in kinder.

Measure 4.1.1 Number and proportion of eligible children enrolled in a funded 4-year-old kindergarten program in the year before school.

Measure 4.1.2 Number of children funded to participate in Early Start Kindergarten.
Along with positive outcomes in language, literacy, numeracy and overall social and emotional wellbeing, culturally responsive early childhood learning provides an important foundation for future learning and development. The experience of children in the years before school and in the transition to school shapes how they go on to engage with and participate in school and education more generally during their school years.

International research on brain development and early learning environments also proves that it is paramount for young children to be engaged in high-quality early childhood education programs if later academic success is to be achieved (Early Childhood Australia, 2016). When Aboriginal children and their families are supported to access a high-quality and culturally respectful early childhood education programs, this has positive flow-on effects on learning outcomes and attendance throughout the schooling years.

Victoria is already exceeding or is well on track to meet this target. In Victoria, the 4-year-old kindergarten participation (enrolment) rate for Aboriginal children was 92.4% in 2018, on par with the rate for all Victorian children (92.1%).

In 2019, the 4-year-old kindergarten participation rate for Aboriginal children was 99.9%, above the rate for all Victorian children (91.8%).[1]

Similar increases in enrolment rates of Aboriginal children in three-year old kindergarten have been observed across Victoria. In 2018, the enrolment rate for Aboriginal children in three-year old kindergarten was 61%, increasing to 66% in 2019. With the introduction of funded three-year old kindergarten for all children in Victoria from 2022, it is important that the increases in kindergarten enrolment in both three and 4-year old kindergarten are maintained.

Minister responsible

The lead minister responsible is the Hon Ingrid Stitt MLC, Minister for Early Childhood, with the supporting portfolio of Gabrielle Williams MP, Minister for Aboriginal Affairs.

Partnership with Indigenous Australians

Action to improve learning and development outcomes for Aboriginal learners across early childhood, schools and further education and training is delivered through Marrung: Aboriginal Education Plan 2016-2026. Consistent with the guiding principles underpinning self-determination, Marrung was developed together with the Victorian Government’s principal partner in Koorie education, the Victorian Aboriginal Education Association Incorporated (VAEAI).

The Marrung Central Governance Committee was established to oversee the implementation of Marrung, monitor progress against key targets and indicators and provide strategic advice on programs and policy reform. The Marrung Central Governance Committee is co-chaired by the Secretary of the Department of Education and Training and the President of VAEAI, and includes representatives from state-wide Aboriginal peak bodies including the Victorian Aboriginal Child Care Agency (VACCA), the Victorian Community Controlled Health Organisation (VACCHO) and the Victorian Aboriginal Community Services Agency Limited (VACSAL). The Marrung Central Governance Committee membership also extends to organisations and departments across a range of sectors in Victoria who support educational and social and emotional outcomes for Aboriginal learners.

Actions

A full list of actions can be found at the table on the action list.
Target 4: By 2031, increase the proportion of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander children assessed as developmentally on track in all 5 domains of the Australian Early Development Census (AEDC) to 55%.
Relevant VAAF measures

Goal 4: Aboriginal children thrive in the early years.

Objective 4.1 Optimise early childhood development and participation in kinder.

Measure 4.1.1 Number and proportion of eligible children enrolled in a funded 4-year-old kindergarten program in the year before school.

Measure 4.1.2 Number of children funded to participate in Early Start Kindergarten.

Measure 4.1.3 Proportion of children vulnerable on one or more domain on the Australian Early Development Census.
The first 5 years of a child's life are fundamental to shaping their future. There are currently barriers in place preventing Aboriginal families from accessing culturally safe maternal child health and early childhood programs. To improve outcomes, our universal services need to better engage with Koorie families so as to promote genuine and effective relationships, as early childhood inequalities underpin the lifelong disparities in health, educational achievement and wellbeing (Marrung: Aboriginal Education Plan 2016-2026, p25).

Although Victoria has high rates of Aboriginal participation in kindergarten programs, Aboriginal children are more than twice as likely to be developmentally vulnerable in one or more domains of the Australian Early Development Census in their first year of education compared to non-Aboriginal children. This reiterates the need to ensure early childhood services are inclusive and culturally safe to ensure Aboriginal children can meaningfully participate and are able to access any additional supports as early as possible.

Within Victoria there is a vibrant and high-quality community-controlled early years’ sector that provides education and holistic support to Aboriginal and their families. Aboriginal Child and Family Centres and Multifunctional Aboriginal Children’s Services are often described as ’one-stop shops‘ for Aboriginal families, connecting them to a variety of integrated services that support wellbeing for children and their families. The services provided are often based around community needs and may include health programs such as assessments, hearing, and maternal health services; parenting programs; legal and housing supports; and outreach and transportation supports.[1] When resourced appropriately, these services have the potential to influence positive outcomes across a range of the Closing the Gap targets and VAAF measures.

Access to quality parenting information, advice and support that is culturally relevant and accessible is critical for giving Aboriginal children the best possible start in life. When parenting programs focus on the early stages of a child’s life, particularly on the quality of parent-child interaction, they can help promote the wellbeing of children and prevent problems from developing later in life.

Balert Gerrbik: Koorie Families as First Educators, an initiative under Marrung, is a culturally responsive evidence-based parenting support initiative currently delivered by ACCOs in regional and metropolitan locations. The underlying principles of the initiative continue to be early intervention/prevention and a strengths-based approach to building the capacity of parents as first educators of their young children from birth to preschool age.

Alongside access to educational services, providing an Aboriginal baby with a healthy start to life will determine their health and wellbeing outcomes into childhood and across their lifespan. To improve the health and wellbeing of Aboriginal mothers and babies, the Aboriginal Maternal and Child Health program is critical and provides choice of access of Maternal and Child Health (MCH) services at 16 local Aboriginal organisations or through universal MCH providers. This supports the delivery of services that are culturally welcoming, respectful and safe and strengthens self-determination in Aboriginal organisations.

Victoria has an over 20-year history of Aboriginal MCH programs with the first program commencing at the Victorian Aboriginal Health Service (VAHS) in 1999. This program continues to be provided under the VAHS Women’s and Children’s Program which provides MCH key ages and stages checks, immunisations for children and adults, pregnancy care, women’s health, support with parenting, child health and development, paediatric assessments and follow ups.

The Aboriginal MCH program aims to:
- embed self-determination as a core principle of MCH service delivery, recognising the importance of Aboriginal organisations in delivering services to meet the health, wellbeing, and safety aspirations of their local Aboriginal community
- offer families choice and flexibility in how they access MCH services, including place-based support tailored to their needs
- support relationships between mainstream MCH providers and Aboriginal organisations to provide integrated, coordinated support and referral pathways.
Improving the first 5 years of an Aboriginal child’s life, including through maternal and childhood health programs, early childhood development and access to family support services, remains a key focus as the critical foundation to ensuring Aboriginal children enjoy better educational engagement and achievement throughout their schooling and beyond.

Minister responsible

The lead minister responsible is Martin Foley MP, Minister for Health, with the supporting portfolio of the Hon Ingrid Stitt MLC, Minister for Early Childhood, and Gabrielle Williams MP, Minister for Aboriginal Affairs.

Partnership with Indigenous Australians

In 2016, the Victorian Government allocated $1.6 million for the Aboriginal Maternal and Child Health Initiative (AMCHI) over two years as part of Roadmap for Reform: Strong Families, Safe Children. The Aboriginal community was engaged through a co-design process to develop a MCH service delivery model to deliver more culturally responsive and high-quality services through both ACCOs and current service providers.

AMCHI was trialled in nine services across a range of local government and Aboriginal organisational service delivery settings from 2017-18 until 2019-20. The 2018/19 State Budget made a further investment of $4 million for Aboriginal MCH over 4 years.

This supported the continuation of the Aboriginal MCH program in 4 Aboriginal organisations that were part of the AMCHI trial and allowed its expansion into a further 6 Aboriginal organisations from late 2020. The department’s Korin Korin Balit Djak: Aboriginal health, wellbeing and safety strategic plan 2017-2027 informed the Aboriginal MCH program’s continuation and expansion, along with the Victorian Aboriginal Affairs Framework 2018-2023 Objective 1.2: Children thrive in their first 1000 days, which is measured by Measure 1.2.1: Participation rates for Maternal and Child Health Key Ages and Stages Consultations.

In addition to the existing Marrung Central Governance Committee, established through Marrung: Aboriginal Education Plan 2016-2026, Victoria has established the Aboriginal Families and Children Working Group.

This working group aims to strengthen collaboration and coordinate a strategic approach across the Victorian Government to improve outcomes for Aboriginal families and children, particularly those vulnerable to harm, disadvantage or social exclusion. The Working Group comprises senior leaders from state-wide Aboriginal peak bodies and senior departmental leaders.

Actions

Progress against this target is supported by the kindergarten participation initiatives identified under Target 3 above, as well as the Koorie Families as First Educators program.

A full list of actions can be found at the table on the action list.
Target 5: By 2031, increase the proportion of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people (age 20-24) attaining year 12 or equivalent qualification to 96%
Relevant VAAF measures:

Goal 6: Aboriginal learners are engaged at school.

Objective 6.1: Increase Year 12 or equivalent attainment.

Measure 6.1.1 Proportion of young people aged 20-24 with Year 12 or equivalent.

Measure 6.1.2 Apparent retention rates for students in Years 10 to 12.

Measure 6.1.3 Number of Aboriginal students who complete the VCE, VCAL or VET in Schools Certificate.
Access to high-quality education provides significant short-term and lifelong benefits, not only for academic attainment, but also for resilience, creativity, and a range of social and economic outcomes. Education and training are vital to achieving better life outcomes for all young people. Strong learning and development foundations are essential to ensuring Aboriginal students are supported to complete their schooling and access the full range of higher education and training pathways, and subsequent economic opportunities.

In Victoria in 2019, 688 Aboriginal young people completed the Victorian Certificate of Education (VCE), Victorian Certificate of Applied Learning (VCAL), or VET in Schools Certificate, an increase on the 594 Koorie students that completed in 2018. Victoria does not currently report this data as a proportion due to the lack of availability of a reliable population denominator.

The gap in Year 12 or equivalent attainment rates is trending towards parity with the proportion of Aboriginal people aged 20-24 having completed secondary school increasing from 56.4%in 2006 to 71.3% in 2016.[1] Over the same period the gap in attainment between Aboriginal and non-Aboriginal young people has also decreased from 30.0% to 19.2%.[2] More Aboriginal students are completing a Year 12 or equivalent qualification than ever before. The number of Aboriginal students who completed the VCE, VCAL or VET in the Schools Certificate more than doubled from 2011 to 2018.[3]

Over the past 5 years, the proportion of Aboriginal students achieving in the top 2 bands of NAPLAN Reading and Numeracy has increased in Years 3 and 5 Reading, and Years 3 and 9 Numeracy, while remaining stable in other Year levels. Over the same 5-year time period, the proportion of Aboriginal students performing in the bottom 2 bands for Reading and Numeracy has decreased across all Year levels, with the exception of Year 7 Reading. Together with the increases in the number of students in the top 2 bands, this indicates a general lifting across all levels of achievement. However, there remains a persistent achievement gap between Aboriginal and non-Aboriginal students.

The apparent retention rate for Aboriginal students in Years 10 to 12 is lower than for non-Aboriginal students. In 2019, the Year 10-12 apparent retention rate for Aboriginal students in Victorian government schools was 58.8%, compared to 78.2% for non-Aboriginal students.

Minister responsible

The lead minister responsible is the Hon. James Merlino, Minister for Education supporting portfolio of Hon. Gabrielle Williams, MP, Minister for Aboriginal Affairs

Partnership with Indigenous Australians

The Marrung Central Governance Committee was established to oversee the implementation of Marrung, monitor progress against key targets and indicators and provide strategic advice on programs and policy reform. Year 12 attainment rates, and associated measures are implemented, monitored, and reported against through this governance committee.

Actions

A full list of actions can be found at the table on the action list.
Target 6: By 2031, increase the proportion of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people aged 25-34 years who have completed a tertiary qualification (Certificate III and above) to 70%
Relevant VAAF measures

Goal 7: Aboriginal learners achieve their full potential after school.

Objective 7.1: Increase the proportion of Aboriginal young people in work or further education and training.

Measure 7.1.1: Destination of Year 12 completers.
The Victorian Government is committed to ensuring that Aboriginal students are supported in education to pursue and complete their desired tertiary pathways. We aspire for success for every Koorie child in education, achieving their developmental potential and their ambitions for life.

Education is the cornerstone of economic development and self-determination. Education increases a person’s opportunity and choice in life, equipping them with personal and practical skills to get the jobs they want and live healthier and more prosperous lives.

The proportion of young Aboriginal people engaged in education, training or employment has grown significantly across the last decade. Empowering Aboriginal people complete a tertiary qualification will enable economic independence and security, whilst further strengthening the skilled Aboriginal workforce for generations to come.

The 2019 ‘On-Track’ Survey of Year 12 completers suggests Victoria still has some way to go before meeting this target. This survey found 29.8% of Aboriginal Year 12 completers (who completed the survey) commenced a Bachelor degree, slightly lower than in 2018 (32.9%). 15.7% commenced a Certificate or Diploma and 17.3% went into an apprenticeship or traineeship. In 2019, 0.6% of Aboriginal Year 12 completers advised they were ‘not in the labour force, education or training,’ a decrease from 0.9% in 2018 and 2.6% in 2017.

Compared to their non-Aboriginal counterparts, young Aboriginal Year 12 leavers are more likely to go on to do an apprenticeship, traineeship, Certificate, Diploma or be employed, rather than go to university, straight after finishing Year 12.

Minister responsible

The lead minister responsible is the Hon Gayle Tierney MP, Minister for Training and Skills and Minister for Higher Education, with supporting portfolio of the Hon James Merlino MP, Minister for Education and Gabrielle Williams MP, Minister for Aboriginal Affairs.

Partnership with Indigenous Australians

Since 2000, Victorian Aboriginal learners participating in vocational education and training (VET) have been supported through the Wurreker Strategy. Wurreker was implemented in partnership with VAEAI to improve education and training delivery in the TAFE sector to achieve quality education, training and employment outcomes for Aboriginal learners. The strategy enables collaboration between TAFE and Dual Sector Institutes and local Aboriginal communities to address local vocational education and training needs.

The Toorong Marnong Higher Education Accord aims to develop ways in which the nine Victorian universities can cooperate to enhance their engagement with Koorie communities. Toorong Marnong is a collaborative initiative between VAEAI and the Victorian Vice-Chancellors’ Committee. This collaborative work is recognised in the 2017 Universities Australia Report in relation to building Indigenous participation and success (Universities Australia Indigenous Strategy, 2017 – 2020).

The Marrung Central Governance Committee was established to oversee the implementation of Marrung, monitor progress against key targets and indicators and provide strategic advice on programs and policy reform. Targets and measures relating to further education and training are implemented, monitored, and reported against through this governance committee.

Actions

A full list of actions can be found at the table on the action list.
Target 7: By 2031, increase the proportion of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander youth (15 – 24 years) who are in employment, education, or training to 67%
Relevant VAAF measures

Goal 7: Aboriginal learners achieve their full potential after school.

Objective 7.1: Increase the proportion of Aboriginal young people in work or further education and training.

Measure 7.1.1 Destinations of Year 12 completers.

Measure 7.1.2 Proportion of 17-24-year-old school leavers participating in full-time education and training and/or employment.

Measure 7.1.3 Tertiary education participation and completion

Measure 7.1.4 Proportion of 20-64 year-olds with qualifications at Certificate III level or above.

Measure 7.1.5 Proportion of 20-64-year-old government-funded and total VET graduates employed and/or in further study after training.

Measure 7.1.6 Proportion of graduates and cadets employed in VPS; retention, progression and satisfaction.
Aboriginal young people are the community leaders of tomorrow. Supporting young people to achieve their life ambitions is fundamental to achieving better outcomes for individuals, communities and the Victorian population. Supporting pathways to further education, training and employment is key to ensuring Aboriginal Victorians can navigate the future world of work. This requires communities, educators, families and industry working together to build aspirations through the provision of high-quality career education. Key to this is ensuring Aboriginal people are supported to access education and employment opportunities at all stages of life.

Between 2006 and 2016, the proportion of Aboriginal Victorians aged 20-64 with qualifications at Certificate III level or above increased by 16.5%, a faster rate increase compared with their non-Aboriginal peers.

The disparity between employment outcomes for Aboriginal young people and non-Aboriginal young people continues to persist in Victoria. The economic impacts of the coronavirus pandemic (COVID-19) have disproportionately impacted young people. While the overall unemployment rate in Victoria as at February 2021 had almost returned to parity with the February 2020 figure (5.6% and 5.2%, respectively), the unemployment rate for young people has risen significantly from 10.6% to 15.3% over the same period.

While official unemployment figures for Aboriginal Victorians are not available, government’s on-the-ground engagement reveals that Aboriginal young people have been disproportionately impacted by COVID-19. This is partly the result of concentrated employment in industries such as hospitality and events, cultural-based businesses, and trades, which have borne the brunt of the pandemic.

The Victorian Government has committed to employment initiatives that provide meaningful employment for Aboriginal young people. New initiatives like the Jobs Victoria Advocates program has a focus on ensuring Aboriginal outcomes are supported by engaging community groups and organisations to work with the Department of Jobs, Precincts and Regions (DJPR).

Aboriginal self-determination is imperative to ensuring sustainable and culturally appropriate solutions. Programs like the Jobs Victoria Advocates are ensuring DJPR is actively applying a self-determined approach to supporting Aboriginal people into networks and supports that assist them with employment participation opportunities.

Minister responsible

The Hon James Merlino MP, Minister for Education, the Hon Gayle Tierney MP, Minister for Training and Skills and Minister for Higher Education, the Hon Jaala Pulford MP, Minister for Employment, Minister for Innovation, Medical Research and the Digital Economy and Minister for Small Business, with the supporting portfolio of Gabrielle Williams MP, Minister for Aboriginal Affairs.

Partnership with Indigenous Australians

In line with self-determination, DJPR established the Victorian Aboriginal Employment and Economic Council (the Council) in 2020. The Council provides economic leadership, strategic advice and ensures all policies and programs are developed in partnership with the Victorian Aboriginal community, consistent with the self-determination approach contained in the Victorian Aboriginal Affairs Framework 2018-2023 (VAAF).

The Council’s representation comprises both DJPR Executive Board members and 20 Aboriginal community members. These community members represent broad experience in employment and economic development in the areas of business and entrepreneurship, traditional owner economic development, education and skills development, creative industries, community development, tourism and young people. The Council is co-chaired by DJPR and community representatives. The Council membership brings together:
- DJPR’s Executive Board and other relevant executives from across the department and the VPS.
- 6 Aboriginal executive representatives from the standing Aboriginal community entities.
- 14 Aboriginal community members with individual experience in a range of areas including in part: employment and economic development in the areas of business and entrepreneurship, tourism and creative industries, employment and procurement, traditional owners and community development, education and skills development.
Actions

A full list of actions can be found at the table on the action list.
Target 8: By 2031, increase the proportion of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people aged 25 – 64 who are employed to 62%
Relevant VAAF measures

Goal 9: Strong Aboriginal workforce participation, in all sectors and at all levels.

Objective 9.1 Increase Aboriginal workforce participation.

Objective 9.2 Increase workforce participation for Aboriginal women.

Objective 9.3 Increase workforce participation for Aboriginal young people, people with a disability and people living in regional areas.

Objective 9.4 Increase Aboriginal leadership and representation across all sectors and levels.
The VAAF acknowledges the centrality of economic opportunity and prosperity to improving outcomes – and commits to key principles including a principle around its approach to investment which states that “Investment to support self‑determination will be sustainable, flexible and appropriate to strengthen Aboriginal peoples’ aspirations and participation, including around economic participation, economic independence and building wealth”.

This shift to support longer term and more substantive investment in Aboriginal economic development will be intrinsically identified as part of this outcome. In so doing it is essential to focus on the investment in building and sustaining the requisite skills, expertise and leadership within the Aboriginal community to enhance capability for long term effects to Aboriginal prosperity and providing meaningful and sustaining employment opportunities.

Another element to economic prosperity is the critical element of providing and supporting jobs. Actions under this outcome focus on the facilitation of the inspirations, aspirations and initiatives of community priorities that support self‑determination of Victorian Aboriginal communities, shifting it away from delivering programs and initiatives focussed on disadvantage, and toward building capability. Self-employment is also a vital and viable alternative to traditional employment for many Aboriginal Victorians and supports sustainable economic outcomes. This is another key focus area for DJPR in working towards meeting this outcome.

One of the most important pieces of work currently underway is the development of the new Victorian Aboriginal Employment and Economic Strategy (VAEES). This strategy is scheduled to be launched in October 2021, replacing the lapsed Tharamba Bugheen: Victorian Aboriginal Business Strategy and Victorian Aboriginal Economic Strategy (VAES). The new VAEES will consider a longer term outlook that will provide a pathway for exploring how the Victorian government can support Aboriginal communities to be empowered for longer term self-sustaining and meaningful economic outcomes. This strategy will ensure a strong focus on employment that provides economic advantage to Victorian Aboriginal communities.

Other strategies such as the Victorian Public Service’s Barring Djinang, which focuses on initiates to enhance attraction, recruitment and retention of Aboriginal staff, the DJPR Aboriginal Career and Recruitment Strategy, and other government strategies identify the absolute need to invest in and adopt new practices and initiatives to support retention and attraction into employment opportunities within government agencies. Employment outcomes are a shared responsibility across government.

Aboriginal staff bring unique knowledge, skills and expertise to the workforce, including understanding the needs and aspirations of the Aboriginal community. Providing opportunities for increased workplace participation is key to building economic prosperity for Aboriginal Victorians.

Minister responsible

The Hon Jaala Pulford MP, Minister for Employment, Minister for Innovation, Medical Research and the Digital Economy and Minister for Small Business, with supporting portfolio of Gabrielle Williams MP, Minister for Aboriginal Affairs.

Partnership with Indigenous Australians

As per Outcome 7, DJPR actively engages with the community through and in partnership with the Victorian Aboriginal Employment and Economic Council (Council). This ensures a self-determined approach to our engagement, relationships, and program development. DJPR continues to support and engage with individuals, business, industry bodies and communities to advocate and support Aboriginal employment and inclusion through the roll out of funded initiatives to be outcomes focussed.

DJPR will continue to work with Aboriginal Community-Controlled Organisations, Traditional Owners, peak bodies and the community to ensure our programs are inclusive and actively addressing identified needs within communities, respecting the cultural nuances of each group. Through the forthcoming launch of the new Victorian Aboriginal Employment and Economic Strategy which will be developed in partnership with the Council, we will strengthen our commitment to drive economic participation and prosperity for Aboriginal Victorians.

Actions

A full list of actions can be found at the table on the action list.
Target 9: By 2031, increase the proportion of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people living in appropriately sized (not overcrowded) housing to 88%
Relevant VAAF measures

Goal 3: Aboriginal families and households thrive.

Objective 3.1: increase income and housing security for Aboriginal households.

Measure 3.2.5 Proportion living in overcrowded dwellings.
In February 2020, the Victorian Government helped launch the Victorian Aboriginal Housing and Homelessness Framework Mana-na worn-tyeen maar-takoort: Every Aboriginal Person Has a Home (VAHHF). The VAHHF is the first of its kind in Victoria and sets out a blueprint to improve Aboriginal housing outcomes for Aboriginal Victorians by 2031.

In 2018-19, 9,837 Aboriginal Victorians accessed homelessness services, which equates to 17.2 percent of the Victorian Aboriginal population, according to the 2020 Victorian Government Aboriginal Affairs Report. This rate is 11.6 times higher than for non-Aboriginal Victorians. The national Overcoming Indigenous Disadvantage report suggests overcrowding rates for Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people are decreasing. However, the over-representation of Aboriginal and Torres Strait islander people requiring housing support is an ongoing issue. Furthermore, the proportion of Aboriginal people living in overcrowded dwellings has steadily decreased since 2006, however it remains high, at 10.7% in 2016.

The VAHHF sets a clear direction to government on strategies to increase access to housing through both social and affordable housing, but also identifies pathways for home ownership, improved home security and reduced rates of overcrowding. Victoria is committed to reviewing and identifying opportunities to develop policy that supports increased outcomes for Aboriginal hone ownership.

The Closing the Gap target is slightly higher than the existing 87.6 percent reported for Victoria. It is likely that this target has since been met and that priority areas should be re-assessed in order to address current needs of Aboriginal Victorians. In addressing the Aboriginal social-economic disadvantage factors, housing stability is a fundamental factor to making the difference in people’s lives. Through the direction of the VAHHF governance mechanisms, Victoria’s Closing the Gap implementation plan sets out a targeted set of actions and outcomes to be achieved in addressing the housing needs of many Aboriginal Victorians.

A collective approach between government and the Aboriginal community is needed to ensure that the underlying principles set out in Closing the Gap implementation has identified the key priorities and approaches required to achieve the desired outcomes identified by community through the VAHHF.

Minister responsible

The lead minister responsible is the Hon Richard Wynne MP, Minister for Housing, with supporting portfolios from Gabrielle Williams MP, Minister for Aboriginal Affairs.

Partnership with Indigenous Australians

With the launch of the VAHHF framework in February 2020 was the establishment of a robust governance structure to oversee the VAHHF’s implementation. Three forums – Aboriginal Housing and Homeless Forum (AHHF), Implementation Action Group, and the Implementation Working Group, co-chaired between Aboriginal Housing Victoria’s CEO and Homes Victoria’s CEO – are used by Homes Victoria to make decisions with the support from the community.

Several key programs have developed as part of this arrangement, including:
- $35 million for Aboriginal maintenance and upgrades building works package that will deliver property upgrades to more than 2,000 long term social housing properties owned and managed by the Aboriginal community-controlled sector
- the More than a Landlord Program, and
- $4.2 million over 2 years for an Aboriginal Private Rental Assistance Program to support 950 households.
The announcement of the $5.3 billion Big Housing Build, 10% net social housing of the Victorian Big Housing Build allocated for Aboriginal housing presents an opportunity for Homes Victoria to deliver more housing for the Aboriginal community and to increase greater participation from Aboriginal organisations already delivering housing services.

Actions

A full list of actions can be found at the table on the action list.
Target 10: By 2031, reduce the rate of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander adults held in incarceration by at least 15%
Relevant VAAF measures

Goal 15: Aboriginal over-representation in the justice system is eliminated.

Objective 15.2 Decrease the number and eliminate the over-representation of Aboriginal women in the justice system.

Measure 15.2.1 Number and rate of unique adult female alleged offenders processed by police.

Measure 15.2.2 Average daily number and rate of Aboriginal women under corrections supervision in prison and community corrections.

Measure 15.2.3 Proportion of women who return to prison under sentence within 2 years of release.

Measure 15.2.4 Proportion of women in prison on remand.
Objective 15.3 Decrease the number and eliminate the over-representation of Aboriginal men in the justice system.
Measure 15.3.1 Number and rate of unique adult male alleged offenders processed by police.

Measure 15.3.2 Average daily number and rate of men under corrections supervision in prison and community corrections.

Measure 15.3.3 Proportion of men who return to prison under sentence within 2 years of release.

Measure 15.3.4 Proportion of men in prison on remand.
Victoria introduced Aboriginal justice targets in 2012 committing to close the gap between the rates of Aboriginal and non-Aboriginal adults under justice supervision (custodial and community-based) by 2031. Burra Lotjpa Dunguludja, Aboriginal Justice Agreement Phase 4 (AJA4) has clear milestones for how many fewer Aboriginal people need to be under justice supervision by the end of the Agreement (2023) in order to close these gaps by 2031.The Closing the Gap target is lower than the existing Victorian target committed to in 2012 and reflected in AJA4.

Victoria is currently tracking behind the AJA4 milestone which is to reduce the average daily number of Aboriginal adults under justice supervision by at least 344 between 2016-17 and 2022-23. This requires the average daily number of Aboriginal adults under justice supervision to decrease to less than 1,151 by 2022-23. In 2018-19 (the base year for the National Agreement on Closing the Gap target) the average daily number of Aboriginal adults under justice supervision was 1,682.

The majority of Aboriginal adults under justice supervision are male, but the number of Aboriginal women in contact with the justice system has increased over the past decade. On an average day in 2018-19 there were 204 Aboriginal women under corrections community-based supervision (a rate of 109.2 per 10,000) and 77 Aboriginal women in prison (41.2 per 10,000). The majority (58.4%) of Aboriginal women in prison were on remand. In 2018-19 there were 714 Aboriginal men under corrections community-based supervision (a rate of 384.6 per 10,000) and 687 in prison (370.1 per 10,000) on an average day

The over-representation of Aboriginal people in the criminal justice system is a complex and enduring issue. The VAAF explicitly recognises that the contemporary social and economic circumstances of Aboriginal people are inextricably linked to ongoing and previous generations’ experiences of European colonisation. Increasing Aboriginal over-representation in Victoria’s criminal justice institutions has the potential, in the absence of more appropriate responses, to further perpetuate social and economic exclusion, and compound losses of culture, family, and purpose, for a growing number of Aboriginal people.

The Department of Justice and Community Safety continues to work in partnership with the Aboriginal community through the Aboriginal Justice Agreement to address these issues. In addition to broader measures to reduce contact with the justice system, within the corrections system there are a range of initiatives designed to meet the needs of Aboriginal people and address the likelihood of reoffending. These initiatives are outlined in Attachment A.

Minister responsible

The lead minister responsible is the Hon. Jaclyn Symes, MP, Attorney-General, with supporting portfolios of the Hon. Gabrielle Williams, MP, Minister for Aboriginal Affairs; the Hon. Lisa Neville, MP, Minister for Police; and the Hon Natalie Hutchins, Minister for Crime Prevention, Corrections, Youth Justice, and Victim Support.

Partnership with Indigenous Australians

In Victoria, action to improve Aboriginal justice outcomes has been progressed through the Aboriginal Justice Agreement (AJA), a formal long-term partnership agreement between the Government and the Aboriginal community to work together to improve justice outcomes by addressing Aboriginal over-representation in the justice system and improving family and community safety. The AJA was developed in direct response to recommendations of the 1991 report of the Royal Commission into Aboriginal Deaths in Custody (RCIADIC) and subsequent 1997 National Ministerial Summit into Indigenous Deaths in Custody.

There have been 4phases of the AJA since 2000, with the current and fourth phase, AJA4 Burra Lotjpa Dunguludja, launched in 2018. The AJA is the longest-running agreement of its kind in Australia and has enabled the establishment of significant initiatives. Addressing over-representation is a complex problem requiring generational change – as such the AJA is a long-term strategy to be rolled out until the gap in the rate of Aboriginal and non-Aboriginal people under justice supervision is closed by 2031.

The community-government partnership structures of the AJA provide the strategic, governance and implementation mechanisms to shape and drive this change. These structures include:
- Aboriginal Justice Caucus comprises the Aboriginal community members of the Aboriginal Justice Forum. The Aboriginal Justice Caucus provides leadership, advocacy and drives continuous change to address the drivers of offending as well as system and programmatic reform across the criminal justice system.
- The Aboriginal Justice Forum brings together Aboriginal community leaders, senior government representatives, members of the judiciary and Commissioners for Victoria Police, Aboriginal Children and Young People and Equal Opportunity and Human Rights to oversee the development, implementation and direction of the Aboriginal Justice Agreement.
- Regional Aboriginal Justice Advisory Committees (RAJACs) and Local Aboriginal Justice Action Committees (LAJACs) advocate for and promote improved Aboriginal justice outcomes and initiatives by bringing together key Aboriginal community members and justice agencies in each region.
Actions included in Burra Lotjpa Dunguludja were developed in a collaborative process with Aboriginal community partners to identify initiatives to contribute to the achievement of Burra Lotjpa Dunguludja outcomes.

Actions

A full list of actions can be found at the table on the action list.
Target 11: By 2031, reduce the rate of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander young people (10-17) in detention by at least 30%
Relevant VAAF measures

Goal 15: Aboriginal over-representation in the justice system is elimination.

Objective 15.1 Decrease the number and eliminate the over-representation of Aboriginal children and young people in the justice system.

Measure 15.1.1 Number, rate and age profile of unique youth (10-17 years) alleged offenders processed by police.

Measure 15.1.2 Average daily number and rate of children and young people (10-17 years) under youth justice supervision in detention and the community.

Measure 15.1.3 Proportion of first-time youth alleged offenders (10-17 years) cautioned by police.

Measure 15.1.4 Proportion of youth (10-17 years) in detention on remand.
The number of Aboriginal children and young people under Youth Justice supervision has decreased by 40% between 2016-17 and 2019-20 and by 25% in the last year alone. Between 2008 and 2018, the number of Aboriginal young people processed by police as unique alleged offenders decreased by 31.5%.

Victoria is ahead of the more ambitious target (than the national one) set out in Burra Lotjpa Dunguludja, Aboriginal Justice Agreement Phase 4 (AJA4) to reduce the over-representation of Aboriginal children in youth justice and close the gap. The AJA4 milestone is to reduce the average daily number of Aboriginal young people aged 10-17 years under youth justice supervision by at least 43 young people from 2016-17 to 2022-23. This equates to a target decrease in the average daily number of Aboriginal young people from 134 in 2016-17 to 91 by 2022-23. There were 81 Aboriginal young people aged 10-17 under Youth Justice supervision on an average day for 2019-20, ahead of these targets.

Victoria has one of the lowest rates of Aboriginal young people under custodial or community supervision in the country. Custodial supervision rates have fallen from 21.7 Aboriginal young people per 10,000 population (aged 10-17 years) in 2016-17 to 15.3 Aboriginal young people per 10,000 in 2019-20. Community supervision rates have fallen from 115.67 Aboriginal young people per 10,000 population (aged 10-17 years) in 2016-17 to 70.7 per 10,000 in 2019-20.

The Closing the Gap target of a 30% youth detention rate reduction by 2031 is lower than the existing Victorian target committed to in 2012 and reflected in the AJA4. Victoria’s targets more accurately reflect the Victorian Aboriginal community’s aspirations for change and support the Coalitions of Peaks’ advocacy for more ambitious national targets. In 2020-21 the Minister for Youth Justice introduced a target in the 2020-21 State Budget Paper 3 to drive further reductions in the numbers of 10 to 17 year-old children in custody.

Victoria remains focused on maintaining these results and reducing these numbers further to address over-representation and achieve no gap by 2031. Several programs and services have been funded to support achievement of this goal in partnership with the Aboriginal community and underpinned by efforts to further Aboriginal self-determination. These investments and programs are set out in the tables that follow.

Minister responsible

The lead minister responsible is the Hon. Natalie Hutchins, Minister for Youth Justice, with her supporting portfolios of Crime Prevention, Corrections, and Victim Support. Other supporting portfolios which are signatories to the Aboriginal Justice Agreement are the Attorney-General, the Hon. Jaclyn Symes, MP; Minister for Aboriginal Affairs, the Hon. Gabrielle Williams, MP; and Minister for Police, the Hon. Lisa Neville, MP.

Partnership with Indigenous Australians

As with Target 10, partnership arrangements for Target 11 are enshrined in Burra Lotjpa Dunguludja, the Aboriginal Justice Agreement Phase 4 (AJA4). AJA4 is a formal long-term partnership agreement between the Government and the Aboriginal community to work together to improve justice outcomes by addressing Aboriginal over-representation in the justice system, improving family and community safety, and supporting Aboriginal self-determination.

The community-government partnership structures of the AJA provide the strategic, governance and implementation mechanisms to shape and drive progress towards targets, and include the Aboriginal Justice Forum (AJF), the Aboriginal Justice Caucus, and the Regional Aboriginal Justice Advisory Committee (RAJAC) network. The Youth Collaborative Working Group oversights implementation of relevant youth justice actions in AJA4, including the development of new initiatives. This ensures that Aboriginal leadership and partnership with government is embedded at all levels of the Agreement and provides transparency and accountability for actions back to the AJF.

DJCS funds Aboriginal organisations to deliver key services and supports for young people in the youth justice system or at risk of entering it. These Aboriginal-led services are helping to close the gap

Actions

A full list of actions can be found at the table on the action list.
Target 12: By 2031, reduce the rate of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander children in out-of-home care by 45%
Relevant VAAF measures

Goal 2: Aboriginal children are raised by Aboriginal families.

Objective 2.1 Eliminate the over-representation of Aboriginal children and young people in care.

Measure 2.1.1 Rate and number of children and young people in care.

Measure 2.1.2 Number of families engaged with family. support and intensive family support services.
Aboriginal children are significantly overrepresented in the child protection system and care systems. Victoria has the country’s second highest rate of Aboriginal children in care. In 2019-20, the rate of Aboriginal children in care services was 20 times the rate for non-Aboriginal children in care. This is the highest rate of over-representation in any jurisdiction and well above the national rate (11 times the rate of non-Aboriginal children).

Recognising the need to address this in 2018, parties to the tripartite Wungurilwil Gapgapduir: Aboriginal Children and Families Agreement (Wungurilwil Gapgapduir) agreed through the Aboriginal Children’s Forum (ACF) to a set of key performance indicators to address the over representation of children in child protection and care systems.

These key performance indicators are used to the develop the quarterly data report provided by the Department of Families, Fairness and Housing to the ACF members; they complement the existing agreed targets made through the VAAF.

All objectives and agreed key performance indicators contribute to the overall aim of Wungurilwil Gapgapduir which is, that all Aboriginal children and young people thrive and live in culturally rich and strong Aboriginal families and communities. Victoria has developed initiatives to reform the child protection system guided by the commitment to increase Aboriginal self-determination by transferring decision-making, resources and responsibility to Aboriginal organisations.

Victoria has a range of parenting and family services in place to promote children’s safety, stability and healthy development and learning from pre-birth up to 18 years and to support children to remain safely at home. This includes intensive responses aimed at preventing entries to care.

The introduction of the Victorian and Aboriginal Family Preservation and Reunification Response (the Response) in 2020, is changing the way services are delivered, providing culturally led, evidence-informed and outcomes-focused support to children and families, in partnership with child protection services to:
- keep children safely at home
- prevent children and young people entering care services
- support children and young people currently in care to safely reunify with their family.
The response aims to engage families early providing intensive family support to prevent children entering child protection or return children home.

Minister responsible

The minister responsible is the Hon Luke Donnellan, MP, Minister for Child Protection, Disability, Ageing and Carers.

Partnership with Indigenous Australians

At the 2015 Aboriginal Children’s Summit, it was agreed a quarterly ACF would be established to focus on the priorities articulated in Koorie Kids: Growing Strong in their Culture (Koorie Kids). From June 2018, the forum transferred focus from Koorie Kids to oversight and monitoring of the implementation of Wungurilwil Gapgapduir.

ACCOs are the majority members and hold the most voting rights in relation to critical decisions, which includes but is not limited to membership and changes to the structure of the ACF. The hosting of the quarterly ACF is shared between all funded ACCOs, and where possible held on the traditional lands of the hosting ACCO. A representative of the hosting ACCO co-chairs the ACF with the Secretary of the Department of Families, Fairness and Housing on the first day of the forum and the Victorian Minister for Child Protection on the second day.

An ACF working group has been established to set the agenda for the ACF, make key recommendations on membership and progress actions of the ACF. The ACF working group includes the Victorian Aboriginal Children and Young People’s Alliance (representing their ACCO membership), the Victorian Aboriginal Child Care Agency (VACCA), the Centre for Excellence in Child and Family Welfare (representing their community service organisation membership), the Commissioner for Aboriginal Children and Young People and the Victorian Government.

The ACF has advocated for a number of key initiatives in the Aboriginal children and families sector, including Aboriginal Children in Aboriginal Care, Transitioning Aboriginal Children to ACCOs and the development of Wungurilwil Gapgapduir.

Actions

A full list of actions can be found at the table on the action list.
Target 13: By 2031, the rate of all forms of family violence and abuse against Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander women and children is reduced at least by 50%, as progress towards 0
Relevant VAAF measures

Goal 3: Aboriginal families and households thrive

Objective 3.1 Reduce the incidence and impact of family violence affecting Aboriginal families.

Measure 3.1.1 Number and proportion of family incident reports involving an Aboriginal other party; and proportion who were the subject of a previous family incident report.

Measure 3.1.2 Number and proportion of family incident reports involving an Aboriginal affected family member; and proportion who were the subject of a previous family incident report.

Measure 3.1.3 Number and proportion of reports to child protection for children and young people where family violence is identified.
Family violence has a disproportionate impact on Aboriginal people in Victoria, particularly women and children, regardless of whether they live in rural, regional or urban areas. Family violence is not part of Aboriginal culture and it is also important to note that family violence against Aboriginal people is perpetrated by people from all backgrounds.

In 2020, 3,642 Aboriginal women in Victoria were victims or survivors of family violence incident attended by Victoria Police, an increase from 3, 076 in 2016. However, we know that family violence is under-reported and that based on the experience of ACCOs, is likely to be significantly higher. COVID-19 poses additional family violence concerns, and thus further challenges to progressing toward Outcome 13.

While data alone cannot provide a holistic picture of the complexities faced by Aboriginal Victorians experiencing family violence, these figures do demonstrate the importance of a an appropriately resourced, culturally safe and responsive specialist family violence service, as well as the need for a targeted approach to reducing the incidence of family violence through early intervention and prevention.

While data alone cannot provide a holistic picture of the complexities faced by Aboriginal Victorians experiencing family violence, these figures do demonstrate the importance of a culturally safe and responsive family support service, as well as the need for a targeted approach to reducing incidences of family violence through early intervention and prevention.

The Royal Commission into Family Violence reported the disproportionate impact of family violence on Aboriginal people, especially women and children, and the unique barriers that Aboriginal people face in accessing culturally appropriate service responses that meet their needs and aspirations.

The royal commission also acknowledged Dhelk Dja: Safe Our Way – Strong Culture, Strong Peoples, Strong Families 2018-2028 as foundational work in family violence policy, and it made nine recommendations specific to Aboriginal communities to increase investment in targeted prevention and early intervention initiatives, as well as culturally sensitive services.

Minister responsible

The minister responsible is Gabrielle Williams MP, Minister for Prevention of Family Violence, Minister for Women and Minister for Aboriginal Affairs.

Partnership with Indigenous Australians

Dhelk Dja is the key Aboriginal-led Victorian agreement that commits Aboriginal communities, Aboriginal services and government to work together and be accountable for ensuring that Aboriginal people, families and communities are stronger, safer, thriving and living free from family violence.

The Dhelk Dja Partnership Forum and its members are the individual and collective champions and strategic leaders that oversee the agreement. Aboriginal community leaders and the Victorian Government work closely with the community and stakeholders to refine the Aboriginal-led agenda for culturally safe responses to family violence and to advance the strategic priorities and monitor progress against the Dhelk Dja agreement.

Ensuring the principles of self-determination are at the heart of the Dhelk Dja Partnership Forum’s work, there are a number of associated Aboriginal community-led governance structures in place:
- Aboriginal Caucus comprises the Aboriginal community members of the Dhelk Dja Partnership Forum, responsible for priority setting including Aboriginal led-prevention responses for women and children, men, Elders and those who use violence.
- Eleven Dhelk Dja Action Groups across Victoria provide place-based, Aboriginal community-led approaches to drive local action to prevent and address family violence in partnership with key community stakeholders.
- Dhelk Dja Priority Sub-Working Groups track progress and outcomes against each strategic priority through the development of the Dhelk Dja Monitoring, Evaluation and Accountability Plan.
- The Aboriginal Community Controlled Organisation Family Violence Sector Forum, comprises of Chief Executive Officers of all family violence funded Aboriginal organisations and provides a formal engagement and consultation mechanism under the auspice of the Dhelk Dja Partnership Forum to support the development of culturally safe services and responses for Aboriginal people impacted by family violence.
The Dhelk Dja Three Year Action Plan articulate the critical actions and supporting activities required to progress the agreement’s 5 strategic priorities. Each of these priorities recognise the need to invest in Aboriginal culture, leadership and decision-making as the key to ending family violence in Victorian Aboriginal communities.

In addition, Family Safety Victoria are strengthening Aboriginal frontline family violence services through the design and implementation of the Dhelk Dja Fund, the Aboriginal Family Violence Industry Strategy and other key activity during 2021.

An Aboriginal Data Mapping and Data Needs project has commenced to support baseline understanding of Aboriginal family violence and build the evidence base for prevention and intervention. The defined data, indicators and measures developed will support annual reporting to the Dhelk Dja Partnership Forum and inform strategic decision-making and priority setting.

Actions

A full list of actions can be found at the table on the action list.
Target 14: Significant and sustained reduction in suicide of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people towards 0
Relevant VAAF measures

Goal 14: Aboriginal Victorians enjoy social and emotional wellbeing.

Objective 14.1 Improve Aboriginal mental health and social and emotional wellbeing.

Measure 14.1.1 Proportion reporting ‘high or very high’ levels of psychological and psychosocial distress.

Measure 14.1.2 Rate of self-harm-related emergency department presentations (by 15-24 years old, and all).

Measure 14.1.3 Proportion reporting strong social networks they can draw on in times of crisis.
Many Victorian Aboriginal people and their communities are strong and rich in their culture. However, Aboriginal people generally experience significantly poorer mental health, wellbeing and safety outcomes than non-Aboriginal people. The legacy of trans-generational trauma and experiences of systemic racism and discrimination are key drivers of these poorer outcomes. It is important that Aboriginal Victorians have access to Aboriginal-led services that are appropriately resourced and trained to respond to mental‑health care needs, as well as culturally informed mainstream services that understand Aboriginal concepts of social and emotional wellbeing.

‘Social and emotional wellbeing’ is the term preferred by many Aboriginal Australians to describe the social, emotional, spiritual, and cultural wellbeing of a person (Henderson et al. 2007). While acknowledging mental health as a critical area of wellbeing, social and emotional wellbeing emphasises the importance of individual, family and community strengths and resilience, feelings of cultural safety and connection to culture, and the importance of realising aspirations, and experiencing satisfaction and purpose in life.

This is a significant time for Aboriginal communities with the Victorian Government committed to Aboriginal self-determination. The Balit Murrup: Aboriginal social and emotional wellbeing framework 2017-2027 embeds Aboriginal self-determination as the core principle to drive actions to improve the social and emotional wellbeing, resilience and mental health of Aboriginal people, families and communities. The objective of Balit Murrup is to reduce the health gap attributed to suicide, mental illness and psychological distress between Aboriginal Victorians and the general population.

The release of the Royal Commission into Victoria's Mental Health System final report in March 2021, with its 65 recommendations, will drive many actions needed to reform Victoria’s mental health system. The Victorian Government has committed to implementing all 65 recommendations including specific recommendations to support Aboriginal social and emotional wellbeing.

By supporting Aboriginal people, families and communities to achieve and sustain the highest attainable standards of social and emotional wellbeing and mental health, the Victorian Government, Aboriginal organisations and Aboriginal communities will aim to prevent and reduce the incidence of suicide.

Minister responsible

The minister responsible is the Hon James Merlino MP, Minister for Mental Health with supporting portfolios from Gabrielle Williams MP, Minister for Women and Minister for Aboriginal Affairs.

Partnership with Indigenous Australians

Aboriginal leaders, organisations, people, families, carers, and communities were instrumental in sharing their individual and collective experiences of pain, trauma and resilience as part of the Royal Commission into Victoria's Mental Health System . The final report also acknowledged the significant contribution of the Victorian Aboriginal Community Controlled Health Organisation (VACCHO), in developing the Balit Durn Durn report, which informed the work of the royal commission.

In 2020, Mental Health Reform Victoria (MHRV) and the Victorian Aboriginal Community Controlled Health Organisation (VACCHO) formed the VACCHO-MHRV Partnership. The VACCHO-MHRV Partnership is planning co-design activities to strengthen Aboriginal social and emotional wellbeing. This partnership with its focus on supporting Aboriginal self-determination is critical to the successful delivery of all the royal commission’s Aboriginal and social and emotional wellbeing recommendations.

Actions

The Victorian Government is working with Aboriginal organisations and communities to implement key actions from Balit Murrup, including the:
- Improving mental health outcomes for Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander People with moderate to severe mental illness (Demonstration Projects) initiative.
- Aboriginal mental health traineeship program.
- Aboriginal clinical and therapeutic mental health positions.
Key actions from the Royal Commission into Victoria's Mental Health System interim report to be progressed under VACCHO-MHRV Partnership include:
- Establishing and expanding multidisciplinary social and emotional wellbeing teams in Aboriginal community-controlled health organisations.
- The delivery of scholarships to enable Aboriginal social and emotional wellbeing team members to obtain recognised clinical mental health qualifications from approved public tertiary providers, with a minimum of 30 scholarships awarded over the next 5 years.
- A Centre for Excellence in Social and Emotional Wellbeing to be developed, hosted and maintained by VACCHO.
- Resourcing Infant, Child and Youth Area Mental Health and Wellbeing Services to provide Aboriginal children and young people to access specialist mental health services and family-oriented therapeutic treatment.
- Resourcing Aboriginal community-controlled health organisations to commission the delivery of social and emotional wellbeing services for children and young people.
- Co-designing the future establishment of two healing centres
- Working with an Infant, Child and Youth Area Mental Health and Wellbeing Service to design and establish a culturally appropriate, family‑oriented service for infants and children who require intensive social and emotional wellbeing supports.
A full list of actions can be found at the table on the action list.

Target 15a: By 2030, a 15% increase in Australia’s landmass subject to Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people’s legal rights or interests

Target 15b: By 2030, a 15% increase in areas covered by Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people’s legal rights or interests in the sea

Relevant VAAF measures

Goal 18: Aboriginal land, water and cultural rights are realised.

Objective 18.1 Increase the recognition and enjoyment of Aboriginal land, water and cultural heritage rights.

Measure 18.1.1 Area of Crown land with native title determinations and/or Recognition and Settlement Agreements.
Measure 18.1.2 Work of the State in advancing the treaty process.
Measure 18.1.3 Number of Registered Aboriginal Parties that have submitted a notice of intention to enter into an Aboriginal cultural heritage land management agreement.
Measure 18.1.4 Number of Whole of Country Plans published
Measure 18.1.5 Number of Joint Management Plans and area of land covered.
Measure 18.1.6 Number of cultural burns conducted.
Measure 18.1.7 Number of formal partnership agreements for planning and management between Aboriginal communities and key water and catchment agencies.

The Victorian Government recognises that Aboriginal Victorians hold distinct cultural rights, including the right to maintain their spiritual, material and economic relationship with their traditional lands and waters. The connection to land, water and resources on Country is important to the health and wellbeing of Aboriginal Victorians, particularly Traditional Owners. Reconnecting Traditional Owners to Country will help revive culture and contribute to an improved sense of identity.

The current legislative regimes aimed at recognising and providing for these land rights and interests are based on Australian legal principles. Aboriginal Victorian concepts of rights to land and water are inherently different to the way that the Australian legal system has recognises these rights. In particular, Aboriginal concepts of Country are connected to traditional laws, culture and identity. The interdependence of land, water and identity for our Aboriginal Victorians and Traditional Owners means that notions of land and water rights are also inherently linked to aspirations for broader self-determination on country.

Whether Traditional Owner groups choose to seek a determination of native title, Traditional Owner Settlement Act agreement, or both, is for them to self-determine.

Subject to each Traditional Owner group determining their own course, it is ambitious but feasible to anticipate all of Victoria being covered by Aboriginal legal rights and interests by 2030.

The table below sets out the progress that would be required to meet that target.

			Projected increase (100% by 2030)	Projected increase (100% by 2030)
		Baseline			Target
		2021	2024	2027	2030
Victorian land and sea covered by native title / TOS Act agreements	km2	50,976	113,194	175,411	237,629
Victorian land and sea covered by native title / TOS Act agreements	%	21%	48%	74%	100%

Minister responsible

The Attorney-General, Hon Jaclyn Symes MP, is the minister responsible for this outcome, with supporting portfolios of the Hon Lisa Neville MP, Minister for Water and the Hon Lily D’Ambrosio MP, Minister for Energy, Environment and Climate Change.

Partnership with Indigenous Australians

Victoria works with First Nations Legal and Research Services, a Traditional Owner organisation with statutory responsibility to identify native title groups and act as solicitor for some of those groups. This includes work with negotiation teams nominated by native title groups and corporations nominated or appointed to represent the groups’ interests. The State’s role is to support and respond to those claims or negotiations.

For the targets and indicators set out in this outcome, the Aboriginal Justice Group in the Department of Justice and Community Safety has proposed a formal partnership with First Nations Legal and Research Services to agree the targets and process for monitoring and amending the targets.

Victoria is committed to implementation of Victoria’s modernised Regional Forest Agreements (agreed 2020) in partnership with Victoria’s Traditional Owners. Victoria’s Regional Forest Agreements now clearly recognise the relationship of Traditional Owners with Country including forests. Several new clauses that Traditional Owners were involved in drafting have been incorporated throughout the agreements and reflect Traditional Owner rights and aspirations. The modernised Regional Forest Agreements drive:

genuine and meaningful partnership with Traditional Owners to support the protection and management of Country, foster sustainable land, water and forest management practices, and maintain continuation of spiritual and cultural practices;
involvement of Traditional Owners in decision-making, and the active incorporation of Traditional Owner knowledge when making decisions regarding management of forests; and
assessment and evaluation of outcomes relating to matters of importance to Traditional Owners in 5-yearly reviews.

Across Victoria, many Traditional Owners groups have published their Whole of Country Plans as a means of expressing their people’s vision, aspirations, strategies, actions and threats for land and water management. Whole of Country Plans provide guidance for government to understand and engage with the rights and interests of Traditional Owners. The state provides support for the use and delivery of these plans through whole of government strategies such as the VAAF and the Aboriginal Self-Determination Reform Strategy 2020-2025 along with departmental policy such as the Department of Environment, Land, Water and Planning’s Pupangarli Marnmarnepu 'Owning Our Future': Self Determination Reform Strategy 2020-2025.

The ability to conduct cultural fire practice on Country is a vitally important approach to restoring the health of Country and people, particularly in a changing climate. The Victorian Government is committed to enabling Traditional Owners to implement their own cultural pathways to the establishment of this practice in Victoria by reducing legislative and procedural barriers to this cultural practice and building the capacity of Traditional Owner corporations so they can lead this practice. Many Traditional Owner corporations have natural resource management field staff available for contracted government works, which provides economic opportunity while caring for Country. Other economic benefits explored by Traditional Owner groups include renewable energy, bush foods and native plant propagation.

Victoria also provides funding to support Traditional Owner groups to capture information about their tangible and intangible cultural values and manage that information so that it can shape decisions about the management of Victoria’s state forests. Traditional Owner groups will have information sovereignty, meaning that they will control their information and knowledge, including making decisions about what is shared with the Victorian Government.

The Victorian Aboriginal Water Program is working to inform water management policy and decision-making, supporting Aboriginal access to water for economic development, and increasing Aboriginal inclusion and participation in Victoria’s water sector.

Actions

A full list of actions can be found at the table on the action list.

Target 16: By 2031, there is a sustained increase in number and strength of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander languages being spoken.
Relevant VAAF measures

Goal 19: Aboriginal culture and language are supported and celebrated.

Objective 19.1 Support the preservation, promotion and practice of culture and languages.

Measure 19.1.1 Participation in community events which celebrate Aboriginal culture.

Measure 19.1.2 Investment in Aboriginal language and culture revitalisation programs.
Past government policies of dispossession and assimilation led to loss of Aboriginal cultural practice and languages. Despite this, the strength and resilience of Aboriginal Victorians has helped to preserve cultural practices and languages, which continue to be practised and passed onto future generations. Connectedness to culture and community strengthens individual and collective identities, and promotes self-esteem, resilience and improved outcomes for Aboriginal people. While cultural identity is central to the lives of Aboriginal Victorians, all Victorians should celebrate and take pride in Aboriginal culture and language.

There are currently 38 Aboriginal languages in Victoria, all classified as reclamation languages, with extremely small numbers of, or no remaining, community speakers. Programs to support the teaching and learning of Aboriginal languages for children and adult learners is essential to increase the number of community language speakers and contributing to the language revival process.

The teaching of Aboriginal languages in schools and early childhood services is supported in Marrung: Aboriginal Education Plan 2016-2026 through action 2c. to (increase) the number of Koorie language programs in Victorian kindergartens and schools, by supporting community efforts at language learning through working with VAEAI and the Victorian Aboriginal Corporation for Languages, and providing assistance to support Koorie community members to undertake relevant language and teacher training courses (Marrung, p.18).

The number of Aboriginal language programs offered in Victorian government schools has increased from 8 in 2016, to 17 in 2019. This increase has been supported by the introduction in 2016 of the Victorian Aboriginal Languages curriculum in the Victorian Curriculum Foundation-10.

In 2019, the Early Childhood Language Program was launched which provides funding to kindergartens to provided language programs. To date, 18 kindergartens have received funding through this program to provide Aboriginal language programs.

Victoria also aims to promote and preserve First Peoples’ Languages in Victoria through engaging with Traditional Owners about place names on Country and helping promote the significance of language, place, and culture through a range of initiatives. In 2019, Victoria collaborated with Traditional Owners, organisations and communities across Victoria on a range of activities to support the use and revival of Aboriginal languages including through:
- Sponsoring the River of Language exhibition at the Melbourne Museum.
- Delivering Aboriginal Place names workshops across Victoria to promote the importance of recognising traditional place names when assigning names to roads, features and localities.
- Working with Traditional Owners to name meeting rooms across metropolitan and regional office locations.
Through embedding Aboriginal language in Victorian schools, Victoria can reclaim and preserve Aboriginal languages in the next generation of Victorians. Paired with the ongoing initiatives that promote Aboriginal language throughout the wider Victorian community, Victoria can continue to increase the number, strength and knowledge of Aboriginal languages.

Minister responsible

Supporting portfolios of the Hon Gayle Tierney MP, Minister for Training and Skills, the Hon James Merlino MP, Minister for Education, and Ingrid Stitt MLC, Minister for Early Childhood.

Partnership with Indigenous Australians

The Victorian Aboriginal Education Association Incorporated (VAEAI), the Victorian Aboriginal Corporation for Languages (VACL), the Victorian Curriculum and Assessment Authority (VCAA) and the Victorian Department of Education and Training work in close partnership to ensure the teaching of Aboriginal languages in schools and early childhood services is culturally safe and respectful of Traditional Owners.

Actions

A full list of actions can be found at the table on the action list.

Further actions

Further actions and outcome areas, local implementation and commitments in the National Agreement.

This section includes further actions that do not fall within the scope of specific targets or priority reform areas related to the overall success of the National Agreement. This includes through focussing on resourcing for the ACCO sector that will create sustainable change.

Cross-cutting outcome areas

Victoria commits to the following actions to advance cross-cutting outcomes:

Build broader public awareness of the Victorian Governments partnership on Closing the Gap, with specific actions to be developed in consultation with Victoria’s Implementation Partners.
Develop a robust communications plan developed in consultation with Victoria’s Implementation Partners, which focuses on shifting the narrative of past failures to one of progress and hope.
Establish an Aboriginal community disaster management strategy in alignment with clause 64 of the National Agreement.
Embedding shared decision making and transparency of Closing the Gap funding at both a State and Commonwealth level.
As part of accountability and transparency arrangements annual statements on outlays that support Closing the Gap will be prepared as part of the State Budget.
Proceeding with a focused review of the Financial Management Act 1994 (Vic) as recommended by the Aboriginal Funding Reform Pilot Project Report.

Further cross-cutting actions

The Victorian Aboriginal community is diverse in its needs, experiences, and life trajectories – meaning this Plan needs to capture cross-cutting areas of concern and action in our state. Through responding to and capturing cross-cutting outcome areas, Victoria can ensure that all Aboriginal people are experiencing better life outcomes across these targets.

The following goals from the VAAF have been identified as of particular importance in addressing cross-cutting issues and challenges:

Goal 9: Strong Aboriginal workforce participation, in all sectors and at all levels

Objective 9.3 Increase workforce participation for Aboriginal young people, people with a disability and people living in regional areas

Fully participating in the economy provides Aboriginal Victorians with the resources they need to determine the future they want. Economic participation is therefore key to Aboriginal self‑determination. Building work opportunities for Victorian Aboriginal young people, women, people living with a disability and those in regional areas is key to inclusive economic growth. Greater effort is needed to ensure that all Aboriginal Victorians – in all levels, across all sectors – are better represented.

Aboriginal staff bring unique knowledge, skills and expertise to the workforce and understand the needs and aspirations of the Aboriginal community. Further work is required to improve the representation of Aboriginal people in the Victorian Public Service (VPS) as well as other sectors, and to enhance the quality of the workplace and career experiences of Aboriginal staff.

Goal 11: Aboriginal Victorians enjoy health and longevity

Objective 11.1 Improve Aboriginal health status, quality of life and life expectancy

Enjoying good health and wellbeing is fundamental. While many Aboriginal Victorians report good health and there have been areas of improvement, government, services, and communities need to take significant steps to improve health outcomes and quality of life for all Aboriginal Victorians. Improving health outcomes and having a good quality of life will ensure all Victorian Aboriginal communities can thrive.

Goal 12: Aboriginal Victorians access the services they need

Objective 12.1 Improve access to health and community services for all Aboriginal Victorians

Access to primary health care is essential for supporting equitable health outcomes. Primary health care also plays an important role in prevention and early detection.

The provision of services alone does not ensure equity of access. Ensuring all Aboriginal Victorians can access the services they need means responding to the diversity of clients’ needs. This includes promoting the voice of and providing support services to older people, people with a disability and people who are lesbian, gay, bisexual, trans and gender diverse, and intersex (LGBTIQ+).

Aboriginal Elders hold a highly valued position in Aboriginal communities. Supporting Elders and older people to access health and community services can promote greater independence, cultural and social inclusion, and quality of life.

Aboriginal Victorians with a disability may face additional barriers to achieving health and wellbeing. Further work is required to transform the disability service system, including through the transition to the National Disability Insurance Scheme, so that it is culturally safe and responsive to the needs of Aboriginal people with a disability and their families.

The National Agreement does not commit parties to a disability outcome and associated target, leaving a significant gap for bettering the outcomes of First Nations people living with a disability. The Victorian Government will prioritise this work through the development of a Sector Strengthening Plan for the disability community-controlled sector as part of action under Priority reform 2. Additional consideration for how the disability sector can be strengthened will be considered through alignment with existing VAAF measures.

Local, regional implementation

Victoria has a strong history of successful localised, place-based projects and implementation. This plan will be effectively implemented across local, regional, and remote locations through existing regional governance forums.

As outlined within this Plan, socioeconomic outcomes will be allocated to relevant existing governance forums, which include local, regional and remote cohorts and organisations. These localised committees will be responsible for the effective implementation, monitoring and reporting of progress against the outcomes, targets, and existing commitments within the National Agreements.

Victoria will continue its commitments to effective implementation through:

Place-based partnerships

The National Agreement commits all parties to work together to identify up to six locations across Australia for local place-based partnerships intended to support Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander communities to achieve local outcomes under Closing the Gap. The Victorian Department of Jobs, Precincts and Regions is responsible for work to identify possible Victorian sites for local projects for possible inclusion in the six locations. Any proposed Victorian sites for inclusion in the six locations will be recommended on the advice of the AEC/Secretaries Leadership Group on Aboriginal Affairs, Victoria’s Implementation Partners, participating Aboriginal communities and local ACCOs.

Local Aboriginal COVID-19 Response Networks

The Victorian Government is worked with local Aboriginal communities to establish Local Aboriginal COVID-19 Response Networks (Networks) at the height of the pandemic. The Networks were a platform where community members and organisations could access and share information about the COVID-19 pandemic and its impacts; seek referral points; raise systemic issues and risks directly to government; and identify gaps in the mainstream and Aboriginal-specific COVID-19 response. Consideration will be given to how best utilise these networks to support local and regional engagement on Closing the Gap.

Commitments in the National Agreement

Victoria is committed to ensuring effective and meaningful implementation across local, regional, and remote communities within Victoria. This will ensure that all Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people across the state.

Victoria will also complete the follow actions, as per commitments under the National Agreement:

Data development plan

Collaborate with other parties to the National Agreement to establish a data development plan for data development actions identified in Appendix A, for endorsement by Joint Council within 2 years of this Agreement commencing

Joint communications strategy

Support Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people to take ownership of this Agreement
build awareness and ownership of the Agreement to assist Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people to talk to governments on how to apply the commitments under the Agreement to communities and organisations across the country
Ensure a central role for Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander media, in particular community-controlled media, including the promotion and distribution of material and information across a range of mediums to Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people, as well as to other Australians.

How this implementation plan will work in practice

The commitments under the National Agreement will produce real-life impacts on Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people across Victoria.

It is therefore important to ensure this document can evolve and adapt to changes happening across Victoria, Australia, or the world.

This plan is a living document, which will regularly be subject to review, adaptation and reform as we continue a journey towards equity for Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples.

Changes to this Implementation Plan

This Implementation Plan will be reviewed by 2023, as will the VAAF. Following the initial three years, it will be subject to a review and analysis of outcomes as identified in the relevant VGAAR reports. Amendments, additional actions, and priority reform sectors will be updated to reflect these changes.

This Implementation Plan may also change in the case of a significant event such as COVID-19 which may require further emergency responses or adaptation to ensure the outcome of equity is still achieved.

Any changes to this Implementation Plan will be done in partnership with the Victoria’s Implementation Partners.

Annual reporting

Each year, the Victorian Government Aboriginal Affairs Report provides a chance to consider how we've tracked against our commitment to improving outcomes for Aboriginal Victorians as measured against the VAAF. Victoria will embed the outcomes under the National Agreement through this pre-existing reporting mechanism. It’s also an important opportunity to recognise the achievements and strengths of Victorian Aboriginal communities.

In accordance with Victoria’s commitments under the National Agreement, the VGAAR complies with all relevant requirements (cl118), including:

Inclusion of data from the Closing the Gap dashboard and annual Productivity Commission data compilation report

In addition to reporting against the 111 data measures included in the VAAF, the VGAAR will also include reporting on Closing the Gap measures from 2021 onwards. This data will be drawn from the dashboard and annual Productivity Commission data compilation report to ensure consistency of measures of progress.

Reporting on the National Agreement’s 4 priority reform areas

The VGAAR already reports on existing action by the Victorian Government to reform systems, structures, and service delivery to advance Aboriginal self-determination. This includes information on departmental and whole of government action to embed the four VAAF self-determination enablers: Prioritise culture, address trauma and support healing, address racism and support cultural safety, and transfer power and resources to communities. In addition to this, from 2021, reporting will also include information on efforts to implement the four Priority Reform areas, particularly outlining how implementation aligns with the National Agreement’s principles for action.

Demonstrating alignment of efforts, investment, and actions to support achievement of Closing the Gap goals

The VGAAR currently includes a range of reporting approaches to demonstrate how efforts, investment and actions are aligned and support VAAF outcomes. This includes data presentation and analysis, case studies, information on Victorian Government investment and annual action across each of the VAAF domains. From 2021, these approaches will also be used to demonstrate efforts, investment, and actions to support achievement of Closing the Gap goals.

Information on funding to Aboriginal community-controlled organisations (ACCOs) and other Aboriginal organisations

Where appropriate, the VGAAR will include additional information on funding to ACCOs and other Aboriginal organisations from 2021 onwards. This will include information listing the number of ACCOs and other Aboriginal organisations that have been allocated for the purposes of Clause 24, 55a and 55b, and 135 of the National Agreement, and subject to confidentiality requirements, also lists the names of the organisations and amount allocated.

Accountability

Victoria’s Implementation Partners will provide oversight and sector-specific direction into the implementation of Victoria’s commitments under the National Agreement. Furthermore, existing Aboriginal partnership forums will be assigned accountability over specific National Agreement targets.

In addition, the Victorian Government commits to undertaking further engagement, in partnership with Victoria’s Implementation Partners, with the full spectrum of ACCOs in Victoria and ensuring that they are empowered with information on how they can leverage the National Agreement at the local and regional level, and provide opportunities to recommend Closing the Gap-related priorities for the annual State Budget process.

Victoria will also consider how to embed consideration of the National Agreement on Closing the Gap within state budget processes.

The AEC currently review the VGAAR and provide feedback, assessment, and priorities for the Victorian government to focus on for the following 12 months – this process will now encompass the outcomes under the National Agreement.

Victoria also established an inter-departmental working group to develop this Implementation Plan, which is chaired by both the Department of Premier and Cabinet and Implementation Partners, with membership consisting of all Victorian Government departments, Local Government representatives and the National Indigenous Australians Agency. This working group will pivot to provide a monitoring and evaluation role through which annual progress reports, feedback from Joint Council and any outcomes from the Productivity Commission and Indigenous-led reviews will be considered.

Communicating about this implementation plan

The VAAF is a community developed and owned resource, which empowers Aboriginal communities to understand their needs and outcomes. Likewise, Victoria believes that both the National Agreement and this Implementation Plan should be owned by the Victorian Aboriginal community. To ensure the Victorian Aboriginal community maintains ownership and connection to this Implementation Plan, Victoria will engage with Aboriginal-led media and communication organisations to develop an in-depth engagement and communication plan which ensures this plan, and the commitments within it, are visible and accessible to the wider Aboriginal community.

Meeting our commitments

Victoria has met, as per our commitments to the National Agreement, the following criteria:

As per the National Agreement, jurisdictional Implementation Plans will:	Checked
Be fully aligned with the National Agreement on Closing the Gap and state that their purpose is to implement the Agreement (cl96).	X
Respond to the differing needs, priorities and circumstances of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people across Australia (cl96).	X
Demonstrate a commitment to undertake all actions in a way that takes full account of, promotes, and does not diminish in any way, the cultures of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people (cl21 and cl107).	X
Be whole-of-government plans, covering government agencies and statutory bodies (cl108).	X
Be developed and delivered in partnership between governments, the Coalition of Peaks, and other Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander partners (cl108).	X
Set out how existing policies and programs will be aligned to the Agreement (cl104 and cl108).	X
Set out actions to achieve the Priority Reforms and partnership actions (cl108).	X
Set out actions to achieve the agreed outcomes and targets (cl108).	X
For transparency, include information on funding and timeframes for actions (cl108).	X
Include the approach to annual reporting, including when they will release their public report (cl108).	X
Include information on how the states and territories will work with local government to implement this Agreement (state and territory Implementation Plans only) (cl108).	X
Include data development actions identified in the Data Development Plan (cl106).	X
Be published on the jurisdiction's website (cl111).	X

Action list

The Victorian Closing the Gap Implementation Plan Appendix A

Reviewed 09 August 2021

The Victorian Closing the Gap Implementation Plan

On this page:

Introduction

Opening statement

Minister for Aboriginal Affairs and Chair of the Aboriginal Executive Council

Message from the Acting Premier

Working in partnership

Purpose of this implementation plan

Closing the gap partnership

Partnership on this implementation plan

Working with local government

Accountability, monitoring and reporting progress

Making a difference

Priority reforms

Priority reform 1: Partnership and shared decision-making

Outcome

Target

Partnership actions

Jurisdictional actions

Current initiatives

Priority reform 2: Building the community-controlled sector

Outcome

Target

Partnership actions

Jurisdictional actions

Current initiatives

Aboriginal Workforce Fund to strengthen Aboriginal workforce capacity and capability

Funding to Aboriginal community controlled organisations

COVID-19 Aboriginal Community Response and Recovery Fund

Priority Reform 3: Transforming government organisations

Partnership actions

Jurisdictional actions

Self-determination reform framework

Anti-racism strategy and taskforce

Anti-vilification inquiry and inter-departmental working group

The Social Procurement Framework (SPF)

Longer-term planning to deliver self-determination reform and improved outcomes for Aboriginal Victorians

Cultural Safety Framework

Priority reform 4: Shared access to data and information at a regional level

Partnership actions

Jurisdictional actions

Aboriginal Data Sovereignty

Targets and outcomes

Overview of targets

Outcomes

Outcome 1: People enjoy long and healthy lives

Target 1: Close the gap in life expectancy within a generation, by 2031

Relevant VAAF measures

Minister responsible

Partnership with Indigenous Australians

Government commitment to self-determination

Actions

Outcome 2: Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander children are born health and strong

Target 2: By 2031, increase the proportion of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander babies with a healthy birthweight to 91%

Relevant VAAF measures

Minister responsible

Partnership with Indigenous Australians

Actions

Outcome 3: Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander children are engaged in high quality, culturally appropriate early childhood education in their early years

Target 3: By 2025, increase the proportion of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander children enrolled in Year Before Fulltime Schooling (YBFS) early childhood education to 95%.

Relevant VAAF measures

Minister responsible

Partnership with Indigenous Australians

Actions

Outcome 4: Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander children thrive in their early years

Target 4: By 2031, increase the proportion of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander children assessed as developmentally on track in all 5 domains of the Australian Early Development Census (AEDC) to 55%.

Relevant VAAF measures

Minister responsible

Partnership with Indigenous Australians

Actions

Outcome 5: Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander students achieve their full potential

Target 5: By 2031, increase the proportion of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people (age 20-24) attaining year 12 or equivalent qualification to 96%

Relevant VAAF measures:

Minister responsible

Partnership with Indigenous Australians

Actions

Outcome 6: Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander students reach their full potential through further education pathways

Target 6: By 2031, increase the proportion of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people aged 25-34 years who have completed a tertiary qualification (Certificate III and above) to 70%

Relevant VAAF measures

Minister responsible