In 2005, I stood with Tom Calma, Black peak organisations and many others to call on governments to treat health as a human right for Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people.

This call turned into The Close the Gap campaign for Indigenous health equality.

Now that 'Close the Gap' has been a catchcry for so long, it is easy to forget the paradigm shift it represented.

'Close the Gap' sought to recognise the ways that Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people have long been impacted, often to our detriment, by national policy priorities. It was a statement that we are so much more than policy priorities. We are so much more than program recipients. We are so far beyond needy vessels to build capacity.

In 2020, with gaps not closing, an unprecedented commitment was made from governments to partner with the Coalition of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Peak Organisations under the National Agreement on Closing the Gap.

For the first time, a signatory external to Australian governments was in a national agreement. In signing, governments committed to radical changes.

In early 2024, having just finished a five-year term as the first Aboriginal or Torres Strait Islander Commissioner at the Productivity Commission – the organisation responsible for monitoring progress under the Agreement – I've been in a unique position to follow the progress to close the gap and the barriers continuing to be faced.

The most fundamental of these barriers is a failure to put Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people in the centre of policy decision-making, program design and implementation.

Put another way, it is about a failure to share power.

Sharing power means ensuring that Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people have the most say on the matters concerning them – that they have the power to set priorities, lead design and delivery, and assess outcomes.

People, locally, in their places and spaces, know best. For solutions to be successful, they must be place based with strong local ownership.

Public sector leaders have already committed to this – whether under the banner of place-based approaches, or local decision making.

Yet in it's first five-yearly review of the Agreement published in February, the Productivity Commission found that the commitment to shared decision-making, a centrepiece of the Agreement, is rarely achieved in practice.

Addressing this was at the core of the recommendations in the report. In July the Joint Council on Closing the Gap agreed to all four of these recommendations, as well as 15 of the 16 actions sitting under the recommendations.

But as history has shown us, a commitment can only get us so far. We need action. We need real change.

And we know that where this change occurs, prosperity follows.

Some in our communities may react to prosperity as a word, thinking it is only about economics, or material wealth.

But the prosperity agenda is a family-centred, community-focused agenda. It's relevant to local and regional spaces, and is firmly rooted in the daily lives of people.

The Goulburn Murray Regional Prosperity Plan, developed for a local Aboriginal think tank, the Kaiela Institute, defines prosperity as 'a state of success'.

This success can be in terms of wealth, health, peace, self-determination, cultural strength, and happiness.

And Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people are designing futures in all sorts of sophisticated and systematic ways.

I have seen growth in black businesses across the country, accelerated by Indigenous procurement policies, and the growing commercial nous of our people and organisations.

As a judge of the recent Indigenous Governance Awards, I saw the strength of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander organisations and communities who are showing the way on what excellence in governance looks like, under the stewardship of Elders who hold cultural authority

Look no further than the Wintjiri Wiru Working Group, an Anangu committee who hold cultural authority and oversight of cultural experiences at Yulara. The drone show depicting the Mala story is shared with visitors from across the globe. It is a world first cultural experience. A portion of revenue goes to the two communities that are custodians of that chapter of the story.

Another, Djarindjin community, 200 kilometres north of Broome became the first Aboriginal owned airport in Western Australia in 2018. The Djarindjin Aboriginal Corporation is largely self funded through revenue from its airport operations which supports other community priorities.

Our people's empowerment and prosperity go hand in hand, with strong spirit, strong culture and strong identity. Strong mob!

The pain associated with the outcome of the Referendum for a Voice to Parliament still sits with many of us today.

To quote the Uluru Statement: this is the torment of our powerlessness.

But Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people will have the most say in our futures.

Not just some say, or even the first say, or the last say; the most say.

A future where Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people are the designers, builders, practitioners, evaluators of our future. Where we prosper in the fullness of our talents, ingenuity and Indigeneity, in a nation where we are no longer positioned as problematic people.

And where racism is for others to understand, call out and eradicate, not for Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people to endure, educate and explain.

We must tackle the imbalance and abuse of power at all levels of decision making. And we must redefine our understanding of prosperity as a family-centred, community focused agenda that is firmly rooted in the daily lives of our people.

The wellbeing of future generations depends on it.

Romlie Mokak is a Djugun man and a member of the Yawuru people. In 2019, he was the first Aboriginal Commissioner appointed to the Productivity Commission. As Commissioner (2019–24), he led a number Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander inquiries, studies and reviews and contributed his knowledge and insights to strengthen work across the whole Commission. Prior to joining the Productivity Commission, Mr Mokak was the chief executive of the Lowitja Institute and of the Australian Indigenous Doctors' Association.