Prime Minister Anthony Albanese, Treasurer Jim Chalmers, and Indigenous Australians Minister Malarndirri McCarthy face a defining moment. It's time for them to be bold and lead courageously to close the gap.

Australia's latest Closing the Gap report delivers a sobering verdict on the state of affairs between Indigenous and non-Indigenous Australians. Only four out of 19 national socio-economic targets are on track, with critical indicators like Indigenous suicide, incarceration, and child removal worsening. This is a national crisis hiding in plain sight.

Despite countless promises, outcomes for First Nations Australians remain far behind. Behind the statistics are real lives: youth suicides tearing families apart, chronic overcrowding breeding disease, and children removed from kin at record rates. Indigenous leaders are understandably frustrated.

As Catherine Liddle of the National Voice for Children observes, instead of progress we've seen "stagnation and regression" – including an "alarming 15 per cent rise" in Aboriginal imprisonment – because governments have clung to business-as-usual approaches. Without real commitment and partnership with Indigenous communities, she warns, "the gap will persist."

Broken Promises and Urgent Needs in the Bush

The 2025 Commonwealth Closing the Gap Implementation Plan lays out priority reforms and commits to partnership with First Nations people. Yet good intentions on paper have not led to enough change on the ground. Nowhere is this more obvious than in regional and remote communities. In too many homelands, basic necessities are out of reach. People in remote areas often pay double what city residents do for groceries, and fresh food can be scarce.

Overcrowding means dozens of people crammed into a single house. As an example, the Federal Government plans to build 270 remote homes each year over the next decade in the Northern Territory, but at that pace it will take a decade just to halve overcrowding.

Violence against Indigenous women and children remains at horrifying levels – a national shame – yet frontline services are chronically under-resourced.

The Albanese government has made some welcome moves. A six-year, $842.6 million deal will fund essential services in remote Northern Territory communities in partnership with Aboriginal peak bodies. There are investments in community-led initiatives like Indigenous ranger jobs and justice reinvestment to tackle root causes of crime. New procurement rules will curb "black cladding" by requiring at least 51 per cent Indigenous ownership for companies to qualify for government contracts .

These steps are positive, but nowhere near the scale or urgency required. Current efforts, while pointed in the right direction, remain glacially slow. For communities suffering now, waiting another decade or two for results is cold comfort.

Listen to First Nations Voices – and Act

The task before the Prime Minister is not about symbolism but tangible outcomes: safe homes, quality healthcare, jobs, and educational opportunities for Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people and communities. The way to achieve these outcomes is no mystery – First Nations people have been telling governments the answers for years; many decades in fact. It starts with listening to Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander voices at every level and empowering Indigenous leadership to design and drive the solutions.

Programs work best when First Nations people are in control.

From Promises to Action: What Must Be Done Now

So what does immediate, courageous action look like? It means going beyond talk and pilot projects to make substantial, sustained investments and policy shifts that Indigenous communities have long called for. Here are some urgent steps the government should take without delay:

Supercharge Indigenous Community-Led Services: Directly fund Indigenous community-controlled organisations to deliver critical programs in health, education, housing, and justice. Shift resources from distant bureaucracies and non-Indigenous providers to those with local credibility and cultural expertise. Provide long-term funding certainty so successful Aboriginal-run services can expand their reach.

Invest in Remote Infrastructure and Essentials: Launch an urgent program to end chronic overcrowding and infrastructure shortfalls in remote areas within five years, not ten. Ensure every community has clean water, proper housing, and affordable healthy food. If people pay twice as much for basics in the bush, increase freight subsidies and support community-run stores so no family goes hungry.

Turbocharge Indigenous Economic Empowerment: Make economic opportunity a pillar of Closing the Gap. Enforce and expand procurement reforms so more government contracts go to genuine Indigenous businesses. Improve access to capital for Indigenous entrepreneurs and invest in Indigenous-owned enterprises across the country to create jobs and build self-sufficiency.

Implement Overdue Recommendations from Inquiries: After nearly 30 years, most recommendations of Bringing Them Home remain unfulfilled. The government must finally fund reparations and healing for Stolen Generations survivors, fix child protection laws to keep Indigenous kids with family and culture, and act on the myriad other longstanding calls for justice. We are drowning in reams of paper comprising hundreds of reports collecting the voices of tens of thousands of contributors. We don't need more reports or enquiries - we have libraries full of recommended solutions waiting to be implemented.

Ensure Accountability to First Nations Communities: Set up robust mechanisms for government to report successes and failures directly to Indigenous people, communities and organisations. Provide regular updates to the Coalition of Peaks, ensure regular independent monitoring by the Productivity Commission and Auditor General of government initiatives, and share information through Indigenous media. First Nations people have a right to know exactly where things stand and to hold their leaders to account.

Invest in Indigenous-Owned and Controlled Media: Strengthen Indigenous voices by investing in Indigenous-controlled media. These platforms and publications like the National Indigenous Times, play a crucial role in informing communities, raising the voices of Indigenous Australians to the national conversation, preserving culture, and holding governments accountable. Supporting Indigenous media ensures that First Nations perspectives are heard and respected, and aboriginal people are informed. Current programs of support are lacklustre at best.

Overhaul the Remote Jobs and Economic Development Program: The government's $707 million Remote Jobs and Economic Development (RJED) program aims to create 3,000 jobs over three years in remote communities. However, with only 650 jobs announced in the first grant round, the program's rollout is insufficient. There seems to be no urgency to the Government's implementation. Remote unemployment continues to rise, and the scale of the RJED program does not match the urgency of the crisis. The government must accelerate the implementation of RJED, increase funding, and ensure that job creation aligns with the actual needs and aspirations of remote Indigenous communities.

Australians pride ourselves on giving everyone a "fair go." Now is the time to prove it. This government has a strong mandate to be bold – but that will evaporate with any return to caution. Every month of delay means more preventable deaths and wasted futures.

The status quo condemns another generation to injustice, and history will judge those who shrink from this responsibility. The Prime Minister must trust Indigenous people to lead the way and back them with the resources and authority to succeed

Indigenous Australia has ample wisdom about what works – Canberra needs to listen and act.

Australia can close the gap. We need political bravery from Albanese, bold funding from Chalmers, and relentless advocacy from McCarthy.

The era of slow, safe, incremental change is over. By the next Closing the Gap report, let us say we chose justice and backed it with action. Lives are on the line – there is no time to lose.

Reece Harley is the Managing Director of National Indigenous Times.