The ACT has become the first state or territory to legislate its commitments under the National Agreement on Closing the Gap, with Independent Member for Kurrajong Thomas Emerson MLA’s Public Sector (Closing the Gap) Legislation Amendment Bill 2025 passing the ACT Legislative Assembly today with unanimous support.

Mr Emerson said the legislation had been developed in close consultation with the local First Nations community and the ACT Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Elected Body. It passed with minor government amendments developed collaboratively with Mr Emerson’s office. The amendments maintain the objective of significantly increasing action and accountability in relation to the ACT Government’s Closing the Gap commitments while clarifying the nature of the new responsibilities created by the bill.

The legislation implements two recommendations made by the Productivity Commission in its damning February 2024 review of progress under the National Agreement on Closing the Gap. It creates a new obligation for all senior public servants to play their part in implementing the provisions of the National Agreement. It also requires all government agencies to report annually on the steps they’ve taken to implement the National Agreement, and to do so in a format developed through consultation with the ACT Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Elected Body.

“This bill reframes our Closing the Gap commitments as core government business,” Mr Emerson said.

“We’re nowhere near on track to meet our targets nationally, and here in the ACT the gap has remained stagnant or even widened in multiple critical areas. 

“We’ve been talking about Closing the Gap for the past 20 years, and I really believe the ACT can be the first state or territory to actually do it.

"The Assembly’s unanimous support for this bill shows our community wants the ACT Government to act with greater urgency and ambition in improving life outcomes for Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people, at a time when other parts of the country are taking backward steps.”

Mr Emerson thanked the local First Nations community, the ACT Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Elected Body, the Minister for the Public Service Rachel Stephen-Smith MLA, Chief Minister Andrew Barr MLA, and their offices for their collaborative engagement on the bill.

Mr Emerson said his next priority will be to ensure the ACT Public Service’s implementation framework for this legislation is shaped by Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander voices, and that the ACT Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Elected Body is sufficiently resourced to ensure the new reporting and accountability mechanisms meet community expectations.

“While the Victorian Government has allocated $82 million to support their First Peoples' Assembly in its work on historic Treaty negotiations, the ACT Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Elected Body remains hugely under-resourced. We need to empower the Elected Body to fulfil its legislated function, and remunerating Members on a part-time basis clearly isn’t good enough,” Mr Emerson said.

Media Contact

Will Devine | [email protected] | 0402 183 296

Background

Mr Emerson introduced the private member’s bill in June 2025. 

In August, 38 community leaders, including two former ACT Chief Ministers and First Nations advocates, signed an open letter calling for the bill to pass.

The bill inserts into the Public Sector Management Act 1994 a new ‘closing the gap principle’ that all Senior Executive Service (SES) members and statutory office holders will be bound by. The principle requires them to:

• Implement the provisions of the National Agreement on Closing the Gap that relate to transformation or governance of government agencies, including by:
  • Continually developing and demonstrating their Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander cultural capability;
  • Continually developing the Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander cultural capability of their administrative unit;
  • Promoting cultural safety for Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples; and
  • Working to eliminate institutional racism in relation to Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples.

• For other provisions of the National Agreement on Closing the Gap that relate to the individual’s job:
  • Implement those provisions of the agreement; or
  • Provide advice to their Minister about implementing those provisions of the agreement.

The bill also amends the Annual Reports (Government Agencies) Act 2004 to require all government agencies to include in their annual reports the measures that they have taken to implement the National Agreement on Closing the Gap, including the priority reforms it contains and what they have done in response to any recommendations from reviews of the National Agreement. The reporting format must be developed in consultation with the ACT Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Elected Body.