The Federal Government will spend over $420 million to provide clean water, food security and housing to Indigenous Australians.

The next step in the government’s Closing the Gap implementation plan accompanies the Coalition of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Peak Organisations (Coalition of Peaks) annual implementation plan.

Minister for Indigenous Australians, Linda Burney, says that “foundational work” has been completed over the past two years, and “now we can really turn our efforts towards real action and real change”.

“We saw the outcomes in the 2022 Closing the Gap Annual Report and know that we need to be doing more as a government,” Ms Burney said.

“Our measures are going to be more specific and more targeted, making real impacts that complement work underway in states and territories, and back-in Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander community-controlled organisations to lead work in their communities.”

The Coalition of Peaks lead convenor and chief executive of the National Aboriginal Community Controlled Health Organisation, Pat Turner, says the funding will help accelerate reforms. 

“We have decades of underinvestment in our communities and organisations to be addressed and this funding will go some way to overturning that,” she said.

The funding is set to be delivered through formal partnerships with Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander organisations and communities, with support from state, territory and local governments.