Role of the Coordinator General

Vision

Facilitating a positive change for Indigenous Australians in the Remote Service Delivery National Partnership priority communities by changing the way government works with them.
 

Mission

To monitor, assess, report and advise on implementation of the National Partnership Agreement on Remote Service Delivery, and to drive necessary reforms to close the gap on health, education and employment outcomes for Indigenous Australians in the Remote Service Delivery priority communities.
We will do this through building strong and effective working relationships with key stakeholders including government agencies, service providers and Indigenous communities to influence policies, programs and services and provide agencies with guidance on good practice.
 

Role and function
 

The Coordinator General for Remote Indigenous Services is a statutory officer, established under the Coordinator-General for Remote Indigenous Services Act 2009.
The functions of the Coordinator General for Remote Indigenous Services are set out in section 8 of the Act. These are to:

…monitor, assess, advise in relation to, and drive:

a) The development and delivery of government services and facilities in each of the specified remote communities to a standard broadly comparable with that in non-Indigenous communities of similar size, location and needs elsewhere in Australia, including through:
 

     (i) improvements to the coordination of the development and delivery of such services and facilities;and
 

     (ii) reforms to the development and delivery of such services and facilities; and
 

b) progress towards achieving the Closing the Gap targets in the specified remote communities.
 

Under the Act, the Coordinator General is required to:
 

• produce a report to the Minister twice yearly on these issues (s. 15)
• produce an annual report as soon as practicable after 30 June each year on the operations of the    Coordinator General and the Coordinator General’s staff during the year (s. 28)
• report to the Minister on failures to comply with requests made under sections 9 and 9A of the Act (s. 16)
• monitor the implementation of local implementation plans (s. 14).
The Office also works with agencies to ensure that policies and programs are delivered in a way that improves the overall functioning and cohesiveness of the priority communities.

Finally, the Office seeks to balance its overseeing and reporting functions against its function of driving the remote service delivery agenda by engaging with departments and other stakeholders. A key engagement mechanism is the Coordinators General Network which meets every two months. This has proved to be an effective forum to exchange views and information between Coordinators General and Australian Government agencies on issues of national and strategic importance.
 

Further information about the Office is in the strategic plan and strategic priorities.