Media Statement: IAHA congratulates the ACT for strengthening legislative requirements for public sector reforms
Indigenous Allied Health Australia (IAHA) welcomes the passage this week of the Public Sector (Closing the Gap) Legislation Amendment Bill 2025 (the Bill) in the ACT Legislative Assembly, with unanimous support.
As part of the ACT community, IAHA was a signatory to an open letter alongside other Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander community leaders, mainstream partners and allies, calling for the Bill to pass. This legislation is an important step to embed the principles of accountability, transparency, and cultural safety under the National Agreement on Closing the Gap into law in the ACT and provides a potential roadmap for other jurisdictions to follow.
IAHA Chief Executive Officer, Wiradyuri and Wonnarua woman Donna Murray stated: “We stand with our Canberra community and leaders in welcoming the passage of this Bill. For far too long, Commonwealth and jurisdictional accountability to the National Agreement on Closing the Gap commitments has been lacking, with some of the targets even going backwards. It has always been Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people, communities and organisations pushing for reform. Despite our leadership with governments, we are often positioned as responsible for a lack of progress, despite systemic failings. This Bill shifts the paradigm and puts responsibility back to government to create power with relationships with our people and to work differently moving forward.”
This Bill ensures that implementation of the National Agreement on Closing the Gap is core business for government and for all senior public servants. It requires all government departments to report on the steps taken to implement the National Agreement on Closing the Gap in consultation with the ACT Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Elected Body (ATSIEB). The Bill provides an opportunity for meaningful reform; creating an environment and expectation which expects the public sector to work differently with Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people. This embeds priority reform 3 of the National Agreement on Closing the Gap, requiring to transformation of government and its institutions.
Ms Murray notes: “While there is still plenty of work to do, this Bill is a step in the right direction, where we can celebrate our successes but also hold the ACT government and its agents to account. IAHA will continue to work closely with the ATSIEB and government to improve Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander outcomes in the ACT community. We are hopeful that other States, Territories and the Commonwealth will follow the ACT’s lead in enshrining these commitments into law.”
IAHA thanks Thomas Emerson MLA for his leadership and working with the local Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander community and ATSIEB to draft the Bill and introduce it in the ACT Legislative Assembly. Without Mr Emerson’s dedication, drive and support, this achievement would not exist. We also thank Minister Rachel Stephen-Smith MLA and Chief Minister Andrew Barr MLA for working with Mr Emerson to ensure this Bill was passed. As leaders of government, they now have the opportunity to oversee its meaningful implementation for the betterment of the community.
Contact
Paul Gibson, Chief Operating Officer
(02) 6285 1010
DOWNLOAD MEDIA RELEASE HERE – Closing the Gap Legislation Passed in the ACT_Final
