Six Monthly Reports

Introduction

This is my fourth report under s15 of the Coordinator-General for Remote Indigenous Services Act 2009 (see table below).

Report	Period	Main focus
1	July – November 2009	Describe the context we are all working within – profiling the communities, providing information on the Council of Australian Governments (COAG) Indigenous Reform Agenda and suggesting some critical areas of focus for initial reform.
2	December 2009 – August 2010	Review the process for developing Local Implementation Plans and examine some of the issues that arose in the course of the initial work with communities.
3	September 2010 – February 2011	Describe implementation of the place based approach at the community level, with a focus on Local Implementation Plans.

This fourth report focuses on the implementation by governments of a number of key elements of the Remote Service Delivery reforms. In addition, the report examines government responses to previous recommendations.

In this report I provide a brief overview (Appendix 1) for readers who are unfamiliar with the Remote Service Delivery approach.

I greatly appreciate the considerable assistance provided by all government service agencies in compiling this report.

The approach of the Coordinator General for Remote Indigenous Services

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:

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:
1. improvements to the coordination of the development and delivery of such services and facilities; and
2. reforms to the development and delivery of such services and facilities; and
progress towards achieving the Closing the Gap targets in the specified remote communities.

To achieve this, my Office:

drives the Remote Service Delivery approach;
oversees the planning and delivery of services and strategic investment in communities;
assesses the implementation of Local Implementation Plans and Closing the Gap initiatives in the priority communities;
provides governments with guidance on good practice; and
assesses progress and advises governments where there are gaps or slow progress, or where improvements need to be made to ensure that governments meet their commitments under the Remote Service Delivery partnership.

The following sets out some of the principles underpinning my approach.

Place-based approach

While the Remote Service Delivery approach has a broader focus on coordination across and within jurisdictions, in my view, a place-based approach is a fundamental aspect of the new way of working. Key elements of a place-based approach are that, beyond existing coordination efforts, it requires governments to ensure that the usual program structures are more responsive to the specific needs of a particular place and facilitates community-driven development.

The literature, relevant international evidence and recent experiences show that successful place-based development interventions require:

evidence base – objectives that are based on empirical evidence and a good understanding by the community of the types and causes of disadvantage, the needs and resources available;
community ownership – objectives that integrate local preferences and knowledge obtained through community development and participatory planning processes;
integrated approaches – approaches that are collaborative, integrated and holistic, and designed to address the complex socio-economic issues of the particular place;
effective governance supporting local leadership and higher level governance support from outside the community – arrangements that allow for collaboration and the transfer of funding to the appropriate level of government, and address systemic issues that may impede integrated approaches; and
sustainability – a focus on long-term and sustainable benefits, with a firm commitment to fully implement the initiative (and not discontinue prematurely).

A fully functional place-based approach allows for local people to drive change and have the power and authority to do so by:

decentralising policy and administration;
ensuring that funding is predictable and reasonable;
behaving in a way that assists people to have a sense of control over their own destiny; and
building on successes and strengths rather than failures and deficits.

The place-based approach assists governments in implementing the three key components of the Remote Service Delivery approach (engagement, service systems and stronger communities). However, as highlighted in my previous reports, implementing the new approaches required under the National Partnership Agreement on Remote Service Delivery presents considerable capacity challenges – both at the community and government levels.

For the approach to work, State, Territory and Australian governments will need to work collaboratively with key stakeholders to facilitate the capacity-development of communities, ensure that they have the information to make informed decisions and ensure that they have effective community governance in place to make decisions and hold governments and service providers accountable.

On the part of government, developing the capacity of government officers needs ongoing support and continuous improvement. The Remote Service Delivery partnership recognises the need for cultural competence training and funding for interpreters. However there is a need to develop the capacities other than cultural competence for government officers working in this complex environment. Government officers require training and supportive environments to develop the skills involved in community development work, capacity building, partnerships and community change.

Approach to reporting

It is my strong view that reporting must be strategic and drive change in line with the overarching Closing the Gap agenda and the new way that governments work under the National Partnership. I attempt to minimise additional reporting burdens and so far as possible align my Office's reporting with existing requirements.

Thematic approach

As there are around 3,000 individual actions in the 29 Local Implementation Plans, detailed analysis is not possible within my reports. Therefore, I am adopting a frame of analysis that allows me to track progress at the community level, and to assess whether the Remote Service Delivery partnership is resulting in a different way of working and delivering real outcomes on the ground.

I have adopted a thematic approach. Themes were chosen that have any or all of the following characteristics, they:

reflect a priority in the Remote Service Delivery partnership and/or a strong community priority;
reflect evidence base (where available);
enable us to assess whether governments are working in a different way, and to monitor progress; and
cut across programs and building blocks.

The current themes are:

governance and developing capacity – both within governments and communities;
addressing land reform and infrastructure gaps;
school attendance and education strategies;
youth; and
safe communities (including child-safe communities).

The themes have been canvassed with Boards of Management, State and Northern Territory Coordinators General and Australian Government agencies. These themes are strategic priorities for the Office and are reviewed at Office planning days and following stakeholder engagement. We also focus attention on:

structural impediments;
integrated approaches, including whole-of-government collaboration and planning and new ways of working;
basing decisions on evidence and assisting communities to make informed decisions;
inflexible funding and program focus, including use of the flexible funding pool; and
early intervention and prevention.

Key new policy developments and significant reports

There have been a number of policy developments since my last report that inform our ongoing work. In this section I highlight only the key reports and developments that are of direct relevance to the Remote Service Delivery approach.

It should be noted that the Remote Service Delivery approach builds on a number of significant existing policy reforms and programs such as:

Cape York Welfare Reform trial in Queensland;
Regional Partnership Agreements in New South Wales and Groote Eylandt in the Northern Territory; and
the Strategic Indigenous Housing and Infrastructure Program.

It can be difficult to separate the influence brought to bear by existing initiatives, the Remote Service Delivery approach, or indeed this Office, in achieving improvements in community wellbeing. The key benefit of the Remote Service Delivery approach is, in my view, the capacity to build on existing activity to develop integrated responses to the complex issues in many of the communities and to do so in partnership with community members. The key benefit of my Office is in drawing attention to issues, facilitating action and ensuring accountability.

The National Congress of Australia's First People held its first annual meeting in June 2011. The initial priorities include constitutional recognition, the Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous People and Closing the Gap. The preliminary priority themes are education, health, sovereignty and country and culture. I look forward to working with Congress to ensure an appropriate focus on remote issues.

Central Australia Renal Study

In my second report I noted that the Central Australia Renal Study would be conducted to inform governments in the cross-jurisdictional region to make evidence-based policy decisions, in order to better meet the health needs of Aboriginal dialysis patients in the region, in affordable and sustainable ways. The study report was released in June 2011, and included a number of issues of relevance to priority communities in the region:

the Substance Misuse Centre at Amata was identified for a possible service centre;
the need for development of protocols for services closer to home;
the need for development of a service delivery agreement with primary health care services; and
the report also outlined a prevention focus, which could be something reflected in Local Implementation Plans.

Safe communities

As noted in my first report, in November 2009 the Australian Government convened an Indigenous Community Safety Roundtable in response to increased reports of violence and abuse in Indigenous communities. The Roundtable brought together Attorneys-General and Police and Indigenous Affairs Ministers from all jurisdictions. Flowing from the Roundtable discussion, a set of proposals on increasing community safety in Indigenous communities were developed. The proposals cover five key community safety issues: community engagement, community policing, alcohol management, information sharing and support for victims of family violence. These proposals were endorsed by the Standing Committee of Attorneys –General in May 2010. The Australian Government Attorney-General has written to all Ministers seeking their endorsement of the proposals and assistance in their implementation.

While the proposals are awaiting final endorsement, progress has been made in a number of the areas. In particular, the National Partnership Agreement on Remote Service Delivery has been progressed, including a focus on increased information sharing and community safety planning. The Australian Government's Family Safety Agenda focuses grant funding in the areas highlighted in the proposals. The National Plan to Reduce Violence Against Women and their Children, released in 2011, provides the vehicle to implement a number of the proposals.

The Doing time – Time for doing report of the House of Representatives Standing Committee on Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Affairs was released in June 2011. It makes a number of recommendations which are discussed in more detail on page 60.

In July 2011, I hosted a workshop on community safety in Darwin, involving key Australian Government agencies, Northern Territory Police, the Northern Territory Department of Justice and Coordinators General. It was noted that community safety has many inter-related components that contribute to sustainable development. The discussion of areas of focus highlighted:

reaching a common understanding between governments and communities on the key issues and using influential community people to drive change (for example, the Family Responsibilities Commission model in Queensland);
developing community capacity for planning and leadership;
strengthening police presence and community policing models;
recognising the role of community safety in underpinning factors such as employment, education;
taking time pressure off, starting when communities are ready, embedding engagement, and tailoring conversations to the level of community confidence;
embracing hard issues;
recognising the need for integration and coordination of services, and for early intervention and prevention;
starting a new conversation around children's safety; and
addressing alcohol misuse and violence.

The Strategic review of Indigenous expenditure

The Australian Government Strategic review of Indigenous expenditure was released in August 2011. Several of the recommendations reinforce issues raised in previous reports, including:

developing an Indigenous youth policy strategy to better coordinate efforts with the States and Territories;
coordinating a whole-of-government approach to the provision of staff housing, office accommodation and service infrastructure in remote Australia, with specific reference to Remote Service Delivery communities;
progressing a national Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander safe communities strategy and consider a National Partnership Agreement on community safety; and
establishing a whole-of-government program to provide training services to build governance and leadership capabilities.

Other evaluations and monitoring reports

A number of important evaluations and monitoring reports appeared, including the:

Northern Territory Emergency Response (NTER) monitoring report (March 2011);
Closing the Gap in the Northern Territory monitoring report (June 2011);
Indigenous expenditure report (Productivity Commission, February 2011);
Northern Territory Night Patrols (Australian National Audit Office, March 2011);
Talking in Language: Indigenous language interpreters and government communication (Commonwealth Ombudsman, April 2011);
Overcoming Indigenous Disadvantage (Productivity Commission, August 2011);
National Indigenous Reform Agreement: Performance report for 2009–10 (COAG Reform Council, June 2011); and
National Partnership Agreement on Essential Vaccines: Performance report for April 2010–March 2011 (COAG Reform Council, September 2011).

The Australian National Audit Office is conducting an audit of Remote Service Delivery, and a report is due in April 2012. The audit will examine whether:

planning processes enabled effective establishment of the Remote Service Delivery model;
implementation of the key elements of the Remote Service Delivery model effectively address the quality and timing requirements of the National Partnership Agreement on Remote Service Delivery; and
performance measurement systems have been developed to enable the parties to the agreement to assess whether the National Partnership Agreement on Remote Service Delivery objectives are being met.

Jurisdictional developments

New South Wales:

An audit of 'Two Ways Together' was conducted in May 2011.

Northern Territory:

additional powers given to the NT Children's Commissioner and progress report in April;
additional alcohol reforms were introduced in May;
reforms to the Education Act in March aimed at boosting school attendance were introduced in March;
the Stronger Futures in the Northern Territory discussion paper was released in June 2011, identifying the key priorities as school attendance and educational achievement; economic development and employment; and tackling alcohol abuse; and
housing leases were agreed for Ntaria (Hermannsburg) and Lajamanu.

The Northern Territory Coordinator-General released his fourth report in May 2011 The report focussed on leasing, welfare, jobs and training, school attendance and attainment and homelands and outstations.

Queensland:

the Cape York Welfare Reform trial was extended to the end of 2012.

South Australia:

community consultations were held for the Anangu Pitjantjatjara Yankunytjatjara (APY) Lands Food Security Strategic Plan;
the Amata community outlined its priorities for government action as part of a review of its Local Implementation Plan;
the responsibility for essential services (electricity and water) transferred from the Department of the Premier and Cabinet to mainstream service providers (that is the Department for Transport, Energy and Infrastructure and SA Water); and
funds for priority community infrastructure projects have been included in the State budget for 2011-12.

Western Australia:

the Income Management Trial in the Kimberley has been extended to June 2012; and
activity surrounding the gas hub development at James Price Point on the Dampier Peninsular continues to be a matter of interest and substantial activity for all concerned, including the Western Australian Government, the Australian Government, and regional stakeholders.

The structure of this report

The next section, Progress with issues raised in previous reports, provides a progress report on issues raised in my third report and an assessment of the adequacy of government responses to previous recommendations and highlights those areas requiring further work. Tables providing a brief status report on progress with recommendations and detailing progress with community-specific recommendations are available on my website (cgris.gov.au). The tables will be updated every six months.

The next section, Key focus areas in the coming months, examines in more detail the areas highlighted in the previous section. This section examines issues relating to the capacity of government staff, youth, land reform, safe communities and flexible funding approaches.

The final section, Ways forward, summarises the issues raised and the recommendations made throughout the report to ensure that momentum is not lost.

As with previous reports, an extensive consultative process was adopted to produce this report. Specifically, the Key focus areas in the coming months section was workshopped in July with government stakeholders including Coordinators General and Australian Government agencies to ensure that the advice provided is comprehensive, relevant and the recommendations are achievable.

Future reports

I am conscious of the need for these reports to be drivers of change that do not add to the already substantial reporting burden under the COAG agenda. As we are now half way through the term of the National Partnership Agreement on Remote Service Delivery, I have been reviewing the operations of my Office. As part of this, the reporting arrangements have been revisited with a view to improving their efficiency and to positioning these reports to be more effective tools to drive change.

Therefore, my next report in March 2012 will be a brief update to the Minister, noting only significant developments since the last report and supplemented by web updates about:

community input, output and outcome information;
progress with recommendations and community issues raised in previous reports; and
high level progress with Local Implementation Plan Actions.

A more substantial report will be produced in September 2012, covering progress at both the community level and within governments. In addition, I propose to canvass key policy issues throughout the year through issues papers, Board of Management (or similar) papers and other mechanisms as appropriate.

These arrangements are consistent with the requirements under the Coordinator-General for Remote Indigenous Services Act 2009, and I am confident that they will result in a more strategic focus driving real change on the ground.

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