Bureaucracy suffocating Indigenous development and "box tickers" are contributing to the gap not closing, Senator Jacinta Nampijinpa Price says.

Speaking in the Senate on the day the government tabled the Closing the Gap Annual Report and Implementation Plan and announced a range of funding initiatives to help remote communities across the country, Senator Price said the "grim" Closing the Gap report from last year showed the current approach was not working.

She said much of the data was "incomplete," firstly, because it isn't broken down by geographic area, age, or sex, and secondly, because it's "lacking on increasing box-tickers".

"That is, self-identifying Indigenous Australians whose ties to Indigeneity are tenuous at best or non-existent at worse," Senator Price said.

"The growth of box-tickers is skewing the data, but this government are too cowardly to call it out for fear of being called racist.

"Aside from causing data deficiencies, the box-tickers are skewing our policy conversations as opinions of box-ticking elites are often favoured over true Indigenous knowledge holders.

"This is a serious problem. It's contaminating the data and the policies we create, and marginalised Indigenous Australians ultimately suffer."

Her comments in the Senate came directly after those of Senator Pauline Hanson, who said it is "little wonder that more people are willing to hitch their welfare wagons to the Aboriginal gravy train".

The Queensland Senator, who was found guilty of breaching the racial discrimination act last year and was involved in a stoush over racism in the Senate with Senators Lidia Thorpe and Fatima Payman around the same time, added: "This uncertainty as to what constitutes an Aboriginal lends itself to welfare abuse, false native title claims and other such injustices."

Senator Price, who has been critical of the Albanese government's approach to Central Australia, also reiterated her position on the coalition's commitment for a royal commission into sexual abuse in remote communities.

She said in his address to Parliament on Monday, the Prime Minister "failed to even mention the rates of sexual abuse suffered by Indigenous children".

"In contrast, the Coalition has committed to holding a royal commission into sexual abuse in Indigenous communities," Senator Price said.

The coalition committed to the royal commission at a press conference in Alice Springs with Mr Dutton calling it an "absolute priority of the Government that I lead".

Nonetheless, the lack of a commitment to look at abuse of children in any other jurisdiction prompted SNAICC to argue his focus on Indigenous communities was only a "political ploy that would not make one child safe".

"We know that SNAICC is opposed to this—shamefully," Senator Price told the Senate.

"That doesn't mean it isn't needed. If we refuse to confront this, we have no hope of tackling the rising rates of youth incarceration and domestic and other forms of violence."

The 'need' for the royal commission was thrown into doubt by NT Chief Minister Lia Finocchiaro, who in response to questions about the Coalition's proposal, told ABC Radio: "It is certainly not been put to me that this is where we need to be spending our time and energy."

"So how bad is it in the Northern Territory? I've not had specific reports from police about this," she said.

There are also questions around both the cost and effectiveness of a royal commission, with a number of recommendations from previous royal commissions ignored by governments in the NT and Queensland and supported by the Coalition.

Senator Price's office has previously not responded to questions posed by National Indigenous Times on the effectiveness and efficiency of a royal commission, but she told the Senate on Monday, the data demanded one.

"There is good reason to believe that much sexual abuse in communities goes unreported," she said.

"I will not mince my words, and I'm not afraid of being offensive when it is a matter of truth. I say to Indigenous leaders who refuse to acknowledge or believe any further investigation is warranted: you are failing those children; you are the ones causing them harm.

"If this was occurring elsewhere in our society, a royal commission would be demanded."