Outspoken Senator Jacinta Nampijinpa Price has confirmed the Coalition's new Trump-like government efficiency portfolio will sit centrally within the Department of Prime Minister and Cabinet (PM&C), and comes as the Coalition has yet to announce concrete policies to help close the gap.

The NT Senator, who attracted controversy over the weekend when she said she wanted to "make Australia great again"—mirroring the infamous slogan of U.S President Donald Trump—has so far revealed little policy reforms for First Nations Australians.

However, two of her main plans—an audit of Indigenous organisations and a Royal Commission into sexual abuse in remote communities—remain front and centre.

Having been given the portfolio of "government efficiency" in January—mirroring Elon Musk's Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE) under the Trump Presidency—Senator Price told reporters on the weekend that DOGE-lite would not be a department in its own right, instead sitting under the remit of PM&C.

"The 'Department of Government Efficiency'—it's not a department, it has got nothing to do with a department in fact," she said.

"It will sit in Prime Minister and Cabinet. Just to clarify, it is not an ode to Donald Trump."

She said $34 billion being "spent annually" in Indigenous Affairs, arguing the figure "comes from a report from 2017".

"So, we don't know what the current figure is at the moment, but what we do know is that closing the gap measures are going backward and we do know that despite the fact that we spend billions of dollars in Indigenous Affairs, nothing is changing to improve the lives of marginalised Indigenous Australians," Senator Price said.

"I have always said that I would want to conduct an audit, which is what we have promised, which is the first port of call should we win government."

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Senator Price added the Coalition is ensuring "we're redirecting funds and investing to provide outcomes across portfolios for all Australians, to benefit all Australians instead of wasting money, pouring it down the drain, which is what Albanese has done for the last three years".

Speaking to NITV, Karl Briscoe, chief executive of the National Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Health Practitioner and Health Worker Association, said a "reset" shouldn't just mean "shifting the blame".

"[The 2017 report] shows $27.4 billion of the $33 billion for Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Australians actually goes to mainstream (not Aboriginal community-controlled) organisations," Kuku Yalanji man said.

"We welcome a conversation, but it must be rounded in fairness and honesty."

Senator Price has routinely criticised land councils and Aboriginal Community Controlled Organisations (ACCOs), arguing the latter shouldn't be solely tasked with helping to close the gap.

This despite the Productivity Commission last year recommending governments recognise the expertise of Aboriginal Community Controlled Organisations in what works for their communities.

Commissioner Romlie Mokak, a Djugun man and member of the Yawuru people, said at the time that, "efforts to improve outcomes are far more likely to succeed when Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people lead their design and implementation".

"Nothing will change until this model of partnership, based on genuine power sharing, becomes the rule and not the exception."

On land councils, the Senator has had a long-running feud with the Central Land Council (CLC), and is currently being sued for defamation by its chief executive.

She told reporters on Saturday: "I want to make sure that we don't have socialist enclaves in remote communities depended on welfare, but that we can allow an environment for traditional owners to become wealth creators, job creators in their own right."

"If land councils don't want to do the right thing by Traditional Owners, well we're actually going to hold an inquiry into their activities so we can hear from Traditional Owners themselves about how they are treated by these bureaucracies whose land they're supposed to manage on their behalf, but unfortunately are missing out."

On education, she argued "institutions are teaching people that Indigenous Australians are victims, and that white Australians are oppressors for starters," before also reiterating calls for a new Royal Commission, rejected by more than 100 Indigenous organisations as divisive, a waste of money, and unnecessary.

"We will establish a Royal Commission into the sexual abuse in Indigenous communities because we know that Indigenous children experience the highest rates of exposure to domestic and family violence," Senator Price said.

"And the academics, the inner city left, can't seem to fathom the idea that it's because of those rates that we see these high rates of out-of-home care, of high youth incarceration, of high Indigenous incarceration, full stop."

Earlier this year, SNAICC – National Voice for our Children, argued the focus on Indigenous communities was only a "political ploy that would not make one child safe".

"Mr Dutton first made these claims in 2023, and hundreds of organisations and individuals rejected his stance, instead calling for action on solutions backed by evidence. It is beyond disappointing we have not been heard," SNAICC chief executive Catherine Liddle said.