{"id":607468,"date":"2026-04-15T01:55:23","date_gmt":"2026-04-15T01:55:23","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/607468\/"},"modified":"2026-04-15T01:55:23","modified_gmt":"2026-04-15T01:55:23","slug":"nt-aboriginal-affairs-framework-released-as-territory-goes-backwards-on-closing-the-gap-targets","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/607468\/","title":{"rendered":"NT Aboriginal affairs framework released as territory goes backwards on Closing the Gap targets"},"content":{"rendered":"

The Northern Territory government has released a framework for its priorities on Aboriginal affairs for the next three years, as the territory goes backwards on several Closing the Gap targets.<\/p>\n

Launched quietly last month through a press release, the framework represents “the Country Liberal Party (CLP) government’s approach to Aboriginal affairs”, aligning six “priorities” with the CLP’s three pillars for this term of government \u2014 reducing crime, rebuilding the economy and restoring the territory lifestyle.<\/p>\n

\"A<\/p>\n

The framework sets out to guide departments on how to integrate Aboriginal affairs with their work. (ABC News: Marcus Kennedy)<\/p>\n

The framework’s release comes as the NT goes backwards on seven of 19 Closing the Gap targets \u2014 the worst performance of any jurisdiction \u2014 including imprisonment and youth detention.<\/p>\n

It has also been criticised by Indigenous leaders, who say they were not properly consulted before the 12-point plan was published.<\/p>\n

Framework to ‘guide’ departmentsLoading…<\/p>\n

The government has said the framework is a “guide” for each of its departments on “how to consider and integrate Aboriginal affairs in the delivery of its core business”.<\/p>\n

Its six priorities over the next three years, as outlined in the document, are:<\/p>\n

Creating safer communitiesEmpowering bush communitiesCreating jobs and business on countryBoosting health, wellbeing and cultureBuilding community foundationsDeveloping skills for the future<\/p>\n

Aboriginal Affairs Minister Steve Edgington said the government believed the priorities would improve outcomes for Indigenous people in the NT.<\/p>\n

“What we have is a very practical Aboriginal affairs strategy,” he said.<\/p>\n

“By delivering those key focus areas, we believe that will get better outcomes right across the Closing the Gap framework.”<\/p>\n

Plan to restore community councils<\/p>\n

After coming to government in 2024, the CLP discontinued the NT’s treaty process<\/a> following Labor’s 2023 closure of the Treaty Commission office.<\/p>\n

The CLP also stopped negotiations for any future Local Decision Making agreements<\/a> with Indigenous communities, effectively shelving a long-held Labor policy.<\/p>\n

\"Blurred<\/p>\n

The Anindilyakwa Healing Centre rehab program, on Groote Eylandt, was established under a Local Decision Making (LDM) agreement, but negotiations on future agreements have been scrapped by the CLP.\u00a0 (ABC News: Marcus Kennedy)<\/p>\n

It has instead proposed restoring community councils, which were disbanded in 2008 as regional shire councils were created.<\/p>\n

Mr Edgington said the government’s local government policy would be key to achieving the framework’s goals.<\/p>\n

“At the moment, we have large regional councils that have gradually covered a number of communities, but the communities themselves are often isolated and feel that some of the decision-making has been taken away,” Mr Edgington said.<\/p>\n

“What local people are telling us is that they’re best-placed to deliver those [council] services. By returning those services, this will help create jobs and greater participation by local people in their community.”\"The<\/p>\n

The government’s Aboriginal affairs framework was quietly released last month. (ABC News: Marcus Kennedy)<\/p>\n

Mr Edgington said the government had already acted by creating wards within the Groote Archipelago Regional Council.<\/p>\n

He also said the government’s “main focus” for local government changes was now the Barkly region, with “a team on the ground in the Barkly \u2026 engaging and communicating with remote communities”.<\/p>\n

Government criticised for ‘top-to-bottom approach’<\/p>\n

Despite the framework highlighting the importance of shared decision-making, Indigenous leaders say they were not properly consulted.<\/p>\n

Northern Land Council (NLC) chair Matthew Ryan said he heard about it “at the last minute”.<\/p>\n

“It’s a top-to-bottom approach,” he said.<\/p>\n

“We want to see a community-led and community-driven [framework].<\/p>\n

“There needs to be better consultation, and I need to present [the framework], as the chair, to my [NLC] council, the full council. We need to be familiar with the framework.”<\/p>\n

\"A<\/p>\n

Matt Ryan says the framework should be “community-led and community-driven”. (ABC News: Marcus Kennedy)<\/p>\n

Leeanne Caton, a director of the Aboriginal Peak Organisations of the Northern Territory, said the framework was “disappointing” and lacked detail.<\/p>\n

“But this is what you get when you have a document that is written by people who don’t have the lived experience or don’t want to consult with Aboriginal people,” she said.<\/p>\n

Although critical of the framework, Ms Caton said restoring community councils could be positive.<\/p>\n

\"A<\/p>\n

Leeanne Caton says the framework is “disappointing” but notes bringing back community councils could be beneficial. (ABC News: Dane Hirst)<\/p>\n

She said their abolition in 2008 “took away any kind of economic development” in remote communities.<\/p>\n

“Jobs and equipment that would assist [communities] to generate their own income was lost,” Ms Caton said.<\/p>\n

“But the issue is, with all those revenue-raising assets being moved over to regional councils [in 2008] \u2014 they’re not going to be any use now, and the [regional councils] may not even give them back [to community councils].”<\/p>\n

\"A<\/p>\n

Leeanne Caton is a director of the Aboriginal Peak Organisations of the Northern Territory. (ABC News: Dane Hirst)<\/p>\n

Mr Ryan said some, but not all, communities wanted community councils restored.<\/p>\n

“There needs to be better investment, [a] better funding model to support that,” he said.<\/p>\n

In response to criticism about a lack of consultation, Mr Edgington said the government had taken the framework to the NT Executive Council on Aboriginal Affairs.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The Northern Territory government has released a framework for its priorities on Aboriginal affairs for the next three…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":361658,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5],"tags":[12365,288144,295516,64,63,99,295519,4398,9967,8867,1098,295517,295518,239403],"class_list":["post-607468","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-business","tag-aboriginal","tag-aboriginal-affairs","tag-aboriginal-affairs-framework","tag-au","tag-australia","tag-business","tag-clp-indigenous-policy","tag-first-nations","tag-indigenous","tag-northern-territory","tag-nt","tag-nt-aboriginal-affairs-framework","tag-nt-indigenous-policy","tag-nt-politics"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/607468","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=607468"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/607468\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/361658"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=607468"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=607468"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=607468"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}