Closing The Gap: An Australian Government Strategy

This report explains the Australian government's strategy of Closing the Gap to improve the living standards of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people. It discusses the reasons for inequality, how the policy has achieved its objective of equality, and recommendations for further progress.

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CLOSING THE GAP
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Introduction
Closing the gap is an Australian government strategy that aims to improve the living
standards of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people by addressing the dominant issues such
as life expectancy, child mortality rate, and access to early childhood education, educational
achievement and employment outcomes. Over the years, the Aboriginal and Torres Strait, the
indigenous groups have been ignored. This inequality was a result of general location and
distribution of resources. In this report, the disparities will be explained, and the progress of the
policy towards achieving equality will also be addressed.
Reasons for inequality
Indigenous Australians, Aboriginal and Torres Strait, lives in poor rural communities.
This implies that they have to travel a long distance to seek medical attention. Compared to non-
indigenous Australians, the indigenous Australians incur an extra cost which could be the reason
for shorter expectancy rate. The extra cost is also the main reason for life expectancy gap
(Australian journal of public health, 2014).
Colonization is the source of factors contributing to low living standards of Aboriginal
and Torres Australians. The life expectancy disparities can be explained by differences in social
health determinants. Colonization destroyed the social structure of these indigenous groups. The
new contrary practices introduced by colonizers greatly undermine the health and life expectancy
of these indigenous groups (Kober, 2010).
How the policy has achieved its objective of equality
Since the policy was established ten years ago, the culture and language of the indigenous
have been appreciated. The value at which aboriginal Australian accord to their culture is now
appreciated by non-indigenous groups, government, businesses and nonprofit organizations. The

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government and larger Australian society have heard the call by the indigenous group to
maintain their culture and civilization (Holland, 2014). The government has allocated funds in a
bid to maintain and improve the native culture. The society has also been playing an important
role by involving the indigenous groups in social activities such as soccer rugby and other games
(prime minister’s report 2018).
The closing gap targets aimed at reducing the infant mortality rate and ensure early
childhood education among the indigenous children. The child mortality rate gap is aimed to be
halved by the year 2018. According to statistics the rate is on track. The latest improvements on
maternal and child health is proof that child mortality rate is declining. The government targets
to have approximately 95% indigenous children enrolment in early childhood education. In the
year 2016 witnessed 14,700 indigenous children enrolled in preschool programs. This is
approximately 91% of estimated population (Marmot, Friel, Bell, Houweling, Taylor &
Commission on Social Determinants of Health, 2008)). The outcomes are progressive and hence
the enrolment is still on track. The government has made a significant step towards achieving its
child mortality and early childhood lives targets. Education is an important aspect in ensuring
equality among Australians. The government policy targets equal enrolment for both indigenous
and non-indigenous groups. However, the enrolment rate for indigenous group has been stable
(Altman, 2009). This implies that the target to reduce the gap may not be achieved in the area of
education. For instance, in 2014, there was 83.5% enrolment of indigenous students compared to
approximately 90% enrolment of non-indigenous students. In the year 2017, the enrolment fell to
83.2%. Enrolment is not on track with the targets set.
By economically supporting the indigenous Australians will close the gap between the
native and non-indigenous citizens. The indigenous group has portrayed being very successful in

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business (Rudd, 2008). The rate at which the aboriginal and the Torres straits are engaging in
business is rapidly increasing. In the year 2016, 30% indigenous Australians were reported to be
in business. The registered indigenous businesses generated approximately 1.15 billion dollars
revenue in 2014. The revenues have been growing at an average rate of 12.5%. The Australian
government is encouraging the indigenous communities to enter into business. The economic
developments are in line with the target.
The Australian government aims at having closed the life expectancy gap by 2031. This
could be achieved only by improving health services. The study done in 2013 showed that there
exist a 10.6 years life expectancy gap between indigenous and non-indigenous people (World
Health Organization, 2011). The mortality rate of indigenous Australians has been declining
continuously especially due to improved health services. However, the rate at which life
expectancy gap is closing is not on track with the target. A lot has to be done if the target is to hit
in 2031.
Conclusion and recommendations
The closing gap policy is the guideline to ensure equality goals among all Australians are
achieved. Some areas addressed by the policy have shown encouraging progress. However, there
are areas where actions need to be taken with effect.
To boost the rate of student’s enrolment among the indigenous society, the government
needs to set up more schools in the rural areas where the indigenous people mainly live. This
should be coupled up with campaigns aimed at educating the public on the importance of
education. More health centers which are equipped and adequate workforce should be set up in
rural areas. Immunization programs also should be conducted in the rural areas to improve the
expectancy among the indigenous group.

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Reference
Altman, J. C. (2009). Beyond closing the gap: Valuing diversity in Indigenous Australia (Vol.
54). Canberra: Centre for Aboriginal Economic Policy Research, ANU retrieved from
http://caepr.cass.anu.edu.au/sites/default/files/docs/CAEPRWP54_0.pdf.
Holland, C. (2014). Close the Gap: progress and priorities report 2014. Retrieved from
http://apo.org.au/node/38110
Kober, N. (2010). It Takes More Than Testing: Closing the Achievement Gap. A Report of the
Center on Education Policy. Retrieved from http://www.ctredpol.org..
Marmot, M., Friel, S., Bell, R., Houweling, T. A., Taylor, S., & Commission on Social
Determinants of Health. (2008). Closing the gap in a generation: health equity through
action on the social determinants of health. The lancet, 372(9650), 1661-1669. Retrieved
from https://doi.org/10.1016/S0140-6736(08)61690-6.
Rudd, K. (2008). Apology to Australia's Indigenous peoples. Retrieved from
http://legacy.communitydoor.org.au/documents/events/ruddsorrytext.pdf
World Health Organization. (2011). Closing the gap: policy into practice on social determinants
of health: discussion paper. Retrieved from

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http://apps.who.int/iris/bitstream/handle/
10665/44731/9789241502405_eng.pdf;jsessionid=7FC9AC15039283FF0552A50082276
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