Efforts to reduce the gap in health and life expectancy between Indigenous and non-Indigenous people need a target to lower Aboriginal imprisonment rates, an ACT Indigenous community leader says.
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Chairperson of the Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Elected Body in the ACT Ross Fowler warned a goal to reduce the over-representation of Indigenous people in prison should be added to seven others listed in the annual Closing the Gap report.
"Or we're going to have a community incarcerated," he said.
"In Canberra, the over-representation of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander in the Alexander Maconochie Centre is atrocious.
"While justice is not a target, it will be over-representation to the hills."
His comments came after the ninth annual measurement of progress in reaching targets to reduce gaps in health, education and employment showed on Tuesday the nation was not on track to meet six out of seven goals, including one to lower differences in life expectancy.
Mr Fowler said a rethink of imprisonment levels was needed.
"We need to be looking at why we're incarcerating, and the amount of time we're incarcerating."
Young Indigenous people were vastly over-represented in the ACT's youth justice system, a Productivity Commission report on government services released in January showed.
Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people were 19 times more likely to be locked up or subject to a supervision order in the ACT than non-Indigenous youths, at a rate of 294 per 100,000 people aged 10-17.
Indigenous Affairs Minister Nigel Scullion previously changed his stance on justice targets after strongly resisting calls for them to be included in the annual Closing the Gap report card.
Last September Senator Scullion said he would push states to adopt the justice targets.
On Wednesday a spokesman said while Senator Scullion wanted to see the ACT's Indigenous incarceration rate reduced, establishing a new national justice target would have little bearing on this as the ACT government was responsible for running its criminal justice system.
The Australian Medical Association has previously urged the Turnbull government to set a national target for closing the gap between Indigenous and non-Indigenous imprisonment rates.
ACT Minister for Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Affairs Rachel Stephen-Smith said the territory government had advocated for Closing the Gap justice targets for some time, and would continue to lobby the federal government to get an agreement from all jurisdictions.
In the ACT, the Closing the Gap report showed gains in education, but Aboriginal employment fell nearly 10 per cent to 62.9 per cent between 2008 and 2014-2015.
Mr Fowler said the report failed Indigenous communities across the country, including the ACT.
Indigenous representation in the public service at 2.4 per cent was also behind a 3 per cent target, showing employment action plans needed a rethink, Mr Fowler said.
Ms Stephen-Smith said while she was concerned about the fall in employment, in the most recent reporting period the ACT job market was affected by the federal government's public service job cuts.
The gains in education for Indigenous people in the ACT, including higher numbers of Aboriginal students finishing year 12, showed the efforts schools had made to reduce the gap with non-Indigenous students, Mr Fowler said.
However involving Aboriginal elders and community leaders in education programs, and increasing Indigenous language and culture classes would improve attendance rates and participation, he said.
