COAG Indigenous Trials
COAG Initiative
In November 2000, the Council of Australian Governments (COAG) agreed that all governments would work together to improve the social and economic well-being of Indigenous people and communities.
It agreed on a Reconciliation framework based on three priority areas for government action:
- investing in community leadership initiatives
- reviewing and re-engineering programs and services to ensure they deliver practical measures that support families, children and young people. COAG also agreed that governments should look at measures for tackling family violence, drug and alcohol dependency and symptoms of community dysfunction
- forging greater links between the business sector and Indigenous communities to help promote economic independence.
The COAG decision recognised that the significant commitment by Commonwealth and State and Territory governments to Indigenous issues is spread across many departments and agencies and through multiple programs, and is often uncoordinated.
Consistent with the November 2000 objective, COAG later agreed (in April 2002) to trial working together with Indigenous communities in up to ten regions to provide more flexible programs and services based on priorities agreed with communities.
COAG's expectation was that the lessons learned from this initiative would be able to be applied more broadly.
Governments agreed that outcomes needed to be improved and the way to do this was through:
- governments' working together better at all levels and across all departments and agencies
- Indigenous communities' and governments' working in partnership and sharing responsibility for achieving outcomes and for building the capacity of people in communities to manage their own affairs.
This means that responsibility for the condition and well-being of Indigenous communities is shared between the community, its families and individuals, and governments – this is 'shared responsibility'.
Additional information