First Nations-led solutions

CLOSE THE GAP
CAMPAIGN REPORT
2025

Where Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples have driven the implementation of the Priority Reform Areas in our communities, we have had success. That’s what this Report is about. The change we create when we have autonomy, lead, listen, and act in good faith, trusting what our communities tells us they want and need.

The 2025 Close the Gap Campaign Report ‘Agency, Leadership, Reform: Ensuring the survival, dignity and wellbeing of First Nations Peoples’ spotlights Blak excellence and First Nations-led initiatives working to close the gap. The Report aims to raise awareness as well as engage and mobilise the Australian public around the following:

• Health equality is a basic human right
• The urgent need for healthcare equity and equality for Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples in Australia
• Holding governments accountable for meeting Closing the Gap targets and improving outcomes for Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples
• Highlighting the strengths and successes of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples in achieving Closing the Gap objectives

REPORT THEMES

The 2025 Campaign Report uses three themes to structure a number of case studies of First Nations organisations, programs, services, networks and communities successfully working at closing the gap. This year’s themes are:

• Agency and Self-determination
• Leadership and Solidarity
• Reform and Transformation

KEY MESSAGES

• The report provides tangible solutions to Close the Gap, offering a roadmap for implementing and supporting community agency. It amplifies the voices of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples, sharing their expertise and creating change through innovation, dedication, and the ability to build partnerships;
• It is Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander agency and leadership, that is best placed to advise, build and embed critical reform across sectors to improve the health and wellbeing of our peoples and communities;
• To significantly advance progress across the socio-economic targets in the National Agreement, governments must adopt rights-based policy approaches, provide long-term funding, and engage in shared decision-making with First Nations communities;
• Governments must establish genuine, collaborative partnerships with Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples at all levels of decision-making; including co-designing policies, programs, and services that reflect the needs, aspirations, and rights of First Nations communities;
• Embedding the Priority Reform areas is crucial to reforming the structures, policies, and practices that marginalise and disenfranchise First Nations peoples;
• Where ACCOs are embedded in communities, health and social and emotional wellbeing outcomes are significantly improved. ACCOs provide high quality, affordable, culturally safe care, and improve how data is collected and used to inform local and shared decision-making.

The Close the Gap Campaign is calling on Commonwealth, state, and territory governments to:

• Prioritise fully implementing the four Priority Reform areas of the National Agreement on Closing the Gap and implement, in full, the recommendations of the Productivity Commission’s 2024 Closing the Gap Review;
• Implement all recommendations outlined in this report and empower our communities and organisations to lead in the solutions that affect our peoples and our futures.

The necessary elements are present within the National Agreement to design and deliver the critical policy reform required to drive its socio-economic targets. To activate this potential and achieve substantive progress, the exercise of political will, and focused action by government departments and agencies will both be indispensable. Governments are responsible for creating the enabling environment for Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander communities to succeed and it is our responsibility to keep holding them accountable to this.

Explore the 2025 Close the Gap Campaign Report in full on the Campaign’s website closethegap.org.au

ABOUT THE CAMPAIGN

The Close the Gap Campaign is an independent, First Nations-led campaign that calls on political leaders from all levels of government to take action on health and life expectancy equity for Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples and communities. 

The Campaign was officially launched in 2007 to address the unacceptable gap in life expectancy and other health indicators between Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples and non-Indigenous Australians; and helped influence the establishment of the Joint Council on Closing the Gap, and the formation of the National Agreement on Closing the Gap in July 2020.

The Campaign is comprised of 53 Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander and non-Indigenous health, NGO and human rights organisations. It is separate to Closing the Gap, which is an Australian Government strategy.

More than 200,000 Australians have signed a pledge supporting the Campaign.