A drop in employment for Canberra's Aboriginal people has the ACT joining a national struggle to reduce the jobs gap between Indigenous and non-Indigenous people, the latest Closing the Gap report revealed.
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The ninth annual measure of progress in reaching targets to reduce gaps in health, education and employment showed the nation was not on track to meet six out of seven goals, including one to lower differences in life expectancy.
In the ACT the report showed gains in education, but Aboriginal employment fell nearly 10 per cent to 62.9 per cent between 2008 and 2014-2015. Nationally, the Indigenous employment rate fell 5.4 per cent to 48.4, while the gap with non-Indigenous people grew 3 per cent to 24.2.
Indigenous employment rates improved only in NSW, where the gap with non-Indigenous people on the measure narrowed.
The ACT mirrored national success in improving year 12 attainment rates, one of the few bright spots in the yearly measure of progress. It had the second-highest increase in young Indigenous people reaching a year 12 or equivalent level of education, rising 26.1 per cent to 82.7 per cent in the six years to 2014-2015.
Nationally, the target to halve the gap in year 12 attainment by 2020 was the only one of seven goals state and territory governments were on track to meet.
The ACT out performed other states and territories in NAPLAN measures, and was the only jurisdiction on track to meet a goal of improving the gap in numeracy and literacy for all tested school grades.
School attendance rates improved marginally by 0.2 per cent to 85.4 between 2014 and 2016 in the ACT for years 1-10, above the national average of 83.4 but below the national non-Indigenous rate of 93.1.
ACT-based co-chair of the National Congress of Australia's First Peoples Rod Little said Canberra's level of community involvement in achieving Closing the Gap targets was needed at a federal level.
"You've got the voice for people and the way to engage and discuss strategy," he said.
Closing the Gap priorities needed to be linked better with the budget cycle, Mr Little said.
"Governments have to make sure that the whole parliament is responsible for this shift and take it on board, and really invest some time and resources in making significant change in the short term."
He warned against extending deadlines and urged a reassessment of government approaches to meeting targets.
"There's the claim to successes, but the evidence shows it's not there. It's not significant enough to say, 'we really made a difference'."
