Introduction by Croakey: The annual report of the Close the Gap Campaign Alliance Group, titled ‘Agency, Leadership, Reform: Ensuring the Survival, Dignity and Wellbeing of First Nations Peoples’, was released today.
The report, prepared by Lowitja Institute, includes case studies that “are proud, resilient, self-governed and innovative”, and “tells a beautiful story of resistance, care, love and dedication to our peoples and to our country’s lands and waterways”, speakers told the launch.
See this summary of posts from the launch by Marie McInerney, whose full report will be published at Croakey soon.
Meanwhile, Alison Barrett reports below on Federal Budget submissions by Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander health and legal organisations.
Alison Barrett writes:
An Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander nursing and midwifery clinical placement plan, free menstrual products to all Aboriginal Community Controlled Organisations (ACCOs) across the country, and expansion of a program which supports children from birth to school age, and pregnant women, with school readiness.
They are among calls to action by Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander health and legal organisations for the Federal Government in next week’s budget.
The organisations – including the Congress of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Nurses and Midwives (CATSINaM), Victorian Aboriginal Community Controlled Health Organisation (VACCHO), National Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Legal Services (NATSILS) and SNAICC-National Voice for our Children – are urging the Government to work closely with Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander community-controlled organisations to achieve key priority reforms of the National Agreement on Closing the Gap.
They are timely and relevant calls to action on National Close the Gap Day.
Supporting children to thrive
SNAICC-National Voice for our Children calls for the Federal Government to invest in several initiatives to support Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander children to thrive in their early years in its 2025-26 pre-budget submission.
The national peak body for Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander children also calls for funding for initiatives to support safety, wellbeing, connection to family, community, culture and Country.
SNAICC urges the Federal Government to “bring to life the commitments they have made through the National Agreement of Closing the Gap by investing in the policy reform, programs and structural change needed to support Aboriginal and Torres Strait islander children and families to health and to thrive”.
Specific initiatives requiring support include (but are not limited to) the implementation of a dedicated funding model for Aboriginal Community Controlled Organisation integrated early years’ service, expansion of the Connected Beginnings program – which supports children from birth to school age, and pregnant women, with school readiness – and increasing Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander early educator workforce.
SNAICC also calls for sustainable and ongoing funding for the Office of the National Commissioner for Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Children and Young People, which was established in January 2025.
SNAICC’s pre-budget submission highlights that the 2024-25 Federal Budget committed funding for the Office of the National Commissioner for Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Children and Young People for two years (until June 2026).
“The National Commissioner must have sufficient and stable resourcing to be fully effective in protecting the oft-infringed rights of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander children and young people. This role is too important to be put at risk by short-term funding cycles,” SNAICC says.
Uplift Indigenous nurses and midwives
In its 2025-26 pre-budget submission, CATSINaM calls for funding for four projects to increase and advance the Indigenous nursing and midwifery workforce.
An Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander health workforce enables better outcomes for Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people through culturally safe and responsive care.
However, CATSINaM highlights ongoing barriers that limit the participation and advancement of Indigenous people in nursing education and practice, including racism and culturally unsafe work and education environments.
“New strategies are required to attract, retain, increase and uplift Indigenous nurses, midwives and students to strengthen their influence and roles in the promotion of culturally safe healthcare,” CATSINaM writes.
According to CATSINaM, each of the four projects proposed in its pre-budget submission complement the principles and ambitions of the National Agreement on Closing the Gap, National Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Health Workforce Strategic Framework and Implementation Plan 2021-31, Draft National Nursing Workforce Strategy.
The proposals also support the Australian Government Department of Health and Aged Care’s “agenda to improve Indigenous health and cultural safety in healthcare in partnership with Indigenous leadership and communities”.
The first project proposal is an Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander nursing and midwifery clinical placement plan, to be led by CATSINaM and the Australian Nursing and Midwifery Accreditation Council, in partnership with Aboriginal Community Controlled Health Organisations (ACCHO) partners, Council of Deans of Nursing and Midwifery, National Enrolled Nurses Advisory Council and Chief Nursing and Midwifery Officers.
The clinical placement plan will support culturally safe clinical placements for Indigenous nursing and midwifery students and acknowledge and privilege Indigenous knowledge.
CATSINaM also calls for funding to support the organisation to develop, implement and administer a Regional Clinical Placements Sponsorship Program Pilot – to provide clinical placement support to Indigenous nursing and midwifery students in ACCHOs.
This is a key opportunity to invest in student experiences and service capacity development through the co-design of a clinical placement program with ACCHOs and schools of nursing and midwifery, it says. This project also offers an opportunity to establish targeted data collection to build evidence-base for supporting course completion and retention.
The third project proposal is for a regional workforce development grants program, to be administered by CATSINaM for place-based community-led regional Indigenous nursing and midwifery workforce development initiatives.
“Enabling place-based Indigenous nursing and midwifery communities to determine and shape community-led workforce initiatives around local factors and community contexts provides an opportunity to recruit and nurture talent and match workforce skills development with community or population healthcare needs,” CATSINaM writes.
The organisation also calls for funding to develop and implement the CATSINaM Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Nursing and Midwifery Governance and Leadership Program, which will strengthen workforce capability and grow the pool of leaders available to participate in health education, practice governance and advocate for solutions for inequities experienced by Indigenous peoples.
Community-controlled solutions
Acknowledging Australia’s “tight fiscal environment”, VACCHO has prioritised five projects for funding in the Federal Budget.
These initiatives would support the Federal Government to deliver on its commitments under the National Agreement on Closing the Gap, the Royal Commission into Aged Care Quality and Safety, and the National Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Health Plan 2021-31, according to VACCHO.
VACCHO’s budget asks:
- Provide $6.083 million as a co-contribution with the Victorian State Government for fit-out costs in new interim emergency accommodation for Dandenong and Districts Aborigines Co-Operative Limited, which is currently operating out of inadequate emergency accommodation.
- Extend and expand the Indigenous Australians’ Health Programme – Closing the Gap – Major Capital Works program so that more funding rounds can be accessed equally across the sector
- Expand the community-led distribution of free menstrual products to all ACCOs across the country. In the 2024-25 financial year budget, the free menstrual product scheme was limited to regional and remote First Nations communities.
- Funding for at least two new Victorian ACCOs to scope the development of a residential aged care service and commitment for supporting the establishment of the services. Currently, only two ACCOs provide residential aged care services in Victoria.
- Funding for ACCOs to develop and implement Aboriginal-led models of custodial healthcare across the nation. This is in line with recommendations from the 1991 Royal Commission into Aboriginal Deaths in Custody and 2024 National Review of First Nations Health Care in Prisons.
Health justice partnerships
Unilateral government decisions to implement laws, policies and practices that disproportionately harm Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples undermine progress towards the Priority Reforms in the National Agreement to Close the Gap, according to NATSILS.
Its pre-budget submission, NATSILs presents a roadmap to reform legal assistance services and address the ongoing injustice faced by Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples.
It calls for investment to expand ATSILS’ capacity to collaborate with other ACCOs to support clients with disability, cognitive impairment and mental health challenges who are over-represented in the justice system.
To expand holistic wraparound services, ATSILs must be adequately funded to embed early intervention, prevention, diversion, rehabilitation and therapeutic services, and to develop health justice partnerships between ATSILS and ACCHOs.
Previous budget coverage
Croakey has previously reviewed pre-budget submissions by:
Allied Health Professions Australia
Association of Australian Medical Research Institutes (and also here)
Australian Association of Psychologists Inc
Australian College of Rural and Remote Medicine
Australian Social Prescribing Institute of Research and Evaluation
Australian College of Midwives
Australian College of Nursing (and also here)
Australian College of Rural and Remote Medicine
Australian Health Promotion Association
Australian Psychological Society
Consumers Health Forum of Australia
National Rural Health Alliance
People with Disability Australia
Pharmaceutical Society of Australia
Planetary Health Equity Hothouse
Public Health Association of Australia
Remote Food Security Research Collaborative
Royal Australasian College of Physicians (RACP)
Royal Australian and New Zealand College of Psychiatrists (RANZCP)
Royal Australian and New Zealand College of Radiologists
Bookmark this link to follow Croakey’s coverage of the 2025/2026 Budget
