The Government has publicly released the Productivity Commission's first performance report on the National Indigenous Reform Agreement (NIRA).
The report shows that, at the national level, progress towards COAG's Closing the Gap targets has been mixed. Although good progress was made in reducing outcome gaps in child mortality, little progress was made in closing gaps for life expectancy and employment gaps have increased rather than narrowed.
The report called for two main changes to the approach of the NIRA and Closing the Gap work: first, a greater emphasis on policy evaluation and second, a rationalisation of the current extensive and overlapping reporting on Indigenous outcomes and disadvantage.
Access the complete report on the Productivity Commission website.