A new report from the ACT Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Elected Body (the Elected Body) has revealed that only four of the 22 targets under the ACT Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Agreement 2019-2028 (the ACT Agreement) are on track. Four targets are not on track, eight are worsening and six have no published data for assessment.
The scathing report makes 56 recommendations, concluding that “the ACT is now in a worse position than when the ACT Agreement was signed.”
Independent Member for Kurrajong Thomas Emerson MLA said the report was yet another in a long string of reports exposing the ACT Government’s repeated failure to follow through on its commitments to Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people.
”This is a brutal report card from the Elected Body. When the Government doesn’t mark its own homework on First Nations issues, its grades are disastrous,” Mr Emerson said.
Mr Emerson called on the ACT Government to respond promptly to the Elected Body’s recommendations, and to prioritise increased resourcing for the Elected Body in alignment with its self-stated commitment to shared decision-making.
“Shared-decision making cannot be a tokenistic afterthought,” Mr Emerson said.
”We need to empower the Elected Body to operate as an equal partner with the ACT Government.
“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.
”Insufficient, part-time remuneration of Elected Body Members is disrespectful and not conducive to improved outcomes for our First Nations community.”
On Tuesday, the ACT Legislative Assembly passed Mr Emerson’s Closing the Gap Bill, which legislates clear accountability standards for senior public servants and government agencies in relation to the ACT Government’s Closing the Gap commitments.
”This report shows that accountability has been lacking, action has been limited, and change has been slow,” Mr Emerson said.
”The ACT Government cannot keep disregarding its promises to Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Canberrans while their life outcomes continue to worsen.
”It’s time to turn things around.”
The ACT Government also tabled its Phase Three Implementation Plan for the ACT Agreement yesterday, which was originally scheduled to commence in January 2024. Mr Emerson said he had asked government officials during multiple Estimates and Annual Reports hearings when the plan would be ready, and that deadlines for finalising the report had been repeatedly missed.
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Background
Find the Elected Body’s Truth Through Transparency: A Turning Point Report - From Hearings 12-14 August 2025, which was tabled in the ACT Legislative Assembly yesterday, here.
The Elected Body holds public hearings with ACT Government officials twice in each of its three-year terms. During these hearings and the reports produced from them, the Elected Body has repeatedly raised concerns about the issues reflected in its latest report.
The first recommendation in its 11th report to the ACT Government, coming out of the August 2023 hearings, was: “Know your commitments—both the National Agreement on Closing the Gap and the ACT Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Agreement have specific actions and targets that need to be reached.”
In its 12th report, coming out of the April 2024 hearings, the Elected Body again found that “the ACT Government needed to significantly uplift their understanding of the commitments in both the National and ACT Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Agreements”.