Priority Reform Four

Data is critical to the successful implementation of the National Agreement on Closing the Gap. The Data Development Plan (DDP, Clause 92 of the National Agreement) outlines actions towards the data development measures listed under the four Priority Reform targets and the data development socio-economic targets listed within the National Agreement.

Data provides insight into important aspects of the lives of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people and holds all Parties to the National Agreement to account in the delivery of Closing the Gap Priority Reforms and socio-economic outcomes.

While the collection of data has great benefit – providing information and helping to inform policy decisions – current practices in the collection of data about Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people have been used in a deficit manner and against the will of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people. This has led to some of the Government’s policy decisions negatively impacting Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people and their communities.

The Government’s current data collection practices compare Indigenous Australians against non-Indigenous Australians to discover the disparity and work out what needs to change for Indigenous Australian to have the same quality of life as non-Indigenous Australians. While some people believe this creates equality, many Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people believe this is another form of colonisation.

Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people want self-determination and to take control over the policy decisions that affect their communities. Indigenous Data Sovereignty is a global movement concerned with the right of Indigenous people to govern the creation, collection, ownership, and application of their data. Indigenous Data Sovereignty is outlined in the United Nations Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples (UNDRIP), which Australia supports.

In the development of the DDP, Coalition of Peaks Members provided strong feedback to include the Indigenous Data Sovereignty Principles.

The Data Development Plan was endorsed by Joint Council in-principle at their meeting in August 2022. Read it here.

Clauses 74 and 75 of the National Agreement commit Parties to establishing six locations across Australia to enable Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander communities and organisations to access and use location-specific data on the Closing the Gap outcome areas.

The data projects will:

• Support Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander communities to analyse and use regional-specific data to help drive their own development and discussions with governments on Closing the Gap.

• Enable Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander communities and organisations to collect and access other data which they consider important.

• Be covered by localised agreements, consistent with Priority Reform One, between the governments and participating Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander organisations in the region.

Currently there are three Community Data Project sites that have been established – Western Sydney, New South Wales, the Kimberley region of Western Australia, and the western suburbs of Adelaide in South Australia.

Another sites – Maningrida, Northern Territory – has been discussed, but is still in the process of being established.

The Australian Institute of Health and Welfare (AIHW) has been funded to develop and host up to six community data portals which will sit alongside the publicly accessible AIHW online platform – Regional Insights for Indigenous Communities (RIFIC). AIHW will provide participating communities with access to the RIFIC platform and will work with communities to develop and design a community-specific portal. In addition, AIHW will provide a data verification, cleansing, and upload service for community data, and provide training on the RIFIC platform to participating community end-users.

The National Indigenous Australians Agency are undertaking an evaluation on the Community Data Projects. There will be two evaluation elements:

• Element 1 – Monitoring and Evaluation Framework for Closing the Gap Priority Reform Four: The first element is the development of a Monitoring and Evaluation Framework (the framework) to inform the process of examination and assessment of future data projects under Priority Reform Four. The framework is to be used by government to inform decision-making and build capability by fostering a collaborative culture of evaluative thinking and continuous learning, with an emphasis on collaboration and ethical ways of doing high-quality evaluation.

• Element 2 – Evaluation CtG Community Data Project: The second element involves an evaluation of the CtG Community Data projects (the evaluation) to inform future funding decisions and program improvements for the CtG Community Data Projects by the Partnership Working Group.

The Closing the Gap Community Data Projects Steering Committee (the Committee) is made up of representatives from the Coalition of Peaks, the National Indigenous Australians Agency (NIAA), and the Australian Institute of Health and Welfare (AIHW). The Committee is co-chaired by the Coalition of Peaks and NIAA and meets at a minimum three times per year, however additional meetings are convened with the agreement of the members as required.

In addition to the Committee meetings, there are monthly Community Data Project Working Group meetings for each community location, and all members of the Community Data Project Working Groups attend the Committee meeting. This provides an opportunity for Community Data Project Working Groups in each community location to discuss how the work is progressing and share information.

Information from this Committee is used by the Coalition of Peaks to advise NIAA and AIHW on the data requirements of each community, and for AIHW to establish a data portal that meets these needs. At the Committee meetings each representative provides an update, Peak members from each community location provide an update, and there is discussion about new potential locations.

The Closing the Gap Modelling Steering Committee (the Committee) comprises of representatives from the Coalition of Peaks, NIAA, and other members with modelling, policy, and data expertise from across the Commonwealth, the Peaks, and academia. The Committee is co-chaired by the Coalition of Peaks and NIAA, and will provide, from May 2022 to July 2023, expert advice and guidance to NIAA on building a Proof of Concept Closing the Gap model.

The Committee will provide updates on the Proof of Concept modelling project to the Joint Working Group on Commonwealth Implementation (JWG) as required.

About the modelling project:

Each socioeconomic outcome within the National Agreement has an associated measurable target and it is these targets that the Proof of Concept will seek to understand. Given the relatively short timeframe for the project, 18 months, Cabinet agreed that the Proof of Concept model would include between four and six targets. Cabinet also agreed that life expectancy be one of those targets, and health and education related targets be among the remaining three to five.

Jointly, the Coalition of Peaks, NIAA, and AIHW developed the following list of eight targets that were considered suitable for inclusion in the Proof of Concept model. These targets were endorsed by the Data and Reporting Working Group:

• Life expectancy (target 1)

• Healthy birth weight (target 2)

• Children are developmentally on track (target 4)

• Youth are meaningfully engaged in education, training, or employment (target 7)

• People are living in appropriately sized housing (target 9)

• Reduced rate of overrepresentation in the criminal justice system (target 10)

• Reduced rate of overrepresentation in out-of-home care (target 12)

• Reduction in suicide (target 14)

In making recommendations, NIAA, the Peaks and AIHW sought to balance the desire to include a diverse range of target areas with ensuring that the data is available to support each target’s inclusion.

The choice of the final four to six targets will depend on the choices of model type and model developer. The advice of the Steering Committee will be important in the final target selection process to ensure the targets are appropriate for the selected model type and timeframe for model development.

Currently, the Committee is undertaking a tender process to evaluate and select a model developer to undertake this work.