Conclusion

The commitment to close the Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander health and life expectancy gap by 2030 was a watershed moment for the nation. Politicians, the Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander and non-Indigenous health sector, and human rights organisations, made a public stand in committing to this agenda. As did the Australian public. To date almost 200,000 Australians have signed the close the gap pledge and approximately 140,000 Australians participated in last year’s National Close the Gap day. This is the generation who has taken on the responsibility to end Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander health inequality.

Because of this leadership, and the willingness to ‘draw a line in the sand’, we are seeing reductions in smoking rates and improvements in maternal and childhood health that will eventually flow into significant increases in life expectancy. This provides early positive signs that people on the ground are responding to the initiatives and demonstrates that Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander communities are taking responsibility for their health as they are being provided with increasing opportunities to do so.

Achieving health equality by 2030 is an ambitious yet achievable task. It is an agreed national priority and it is clear that the Australian public demand that government, in partnership with Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples and their representatives, build on the close the gap platform to meet this challenge.

For this reason, the Close the Gap Campaign has stressed the need for the new Australian Government to stay the course, to ensure policy continuity and to strengthen the national effort. This term of government will be critical to achieving the 2030 goal and we call on the new Australian Government to not only ensure policy continuity in critical areas of the national effort to close the gap, but to take further steps in building on and strengthening the existing platform.