Review of the National Agreement on Closing the Gap 2026
Submission Date: 26 October 2026
The Law Council of Australia provided a submission to the Productivity Commission’s (PC) second review of the National Agreement on Closing the Gap (Agreement).
The PC is seeking views on:
- progress against commitments made in the Agreement;
- how actions to achieve progress could be improved; and
- the proposed approach to the review.1
As the peak national representative body for the Australian legal profession, the Law Council of Australia has primarily focused its advocacy on the Agreement’s justice targets: Target 10 (adult incarceration) and Target 11 (young people in detention). the lack of progress, and indeed backsliding, on those targets as documented by the PC has been of acute concern to the Law Council and its Indigenous Legal Issues Committee. For example, the Productivity Commission’s update on Closing the Gap targets of 30 June 20262 notes the following in relation to Targets 10 and 11:
- The national First Nations imprisonment rate per 100,000 adults as of 30 June 2025 is 2500.2, compared to 149.1 for non-First Nations adults.
- The highest First Nations imprisonment rate is in Western Australia at 4305.9 per 100,000 adults, compared to 215.9 for non-First Nations adults. The second highest rate is the Northern Territory at 4166.7, compared to 225.4 for non-First Nations people).
- The national imprisonment rate for First Nations adults has been constantly rising since 2023.
- On an “average day” in 2024-5, 25.7 First Nations young people, per 10,000 First Nations young people, were in detention. This compares to the non-First Nations rate of 1.1.
- On an “average day” in 2024-5, 47.3 First Nations young people aged between 14 and 17 years, per 10,000 young people of that age, were in detention. The equivalent rate for non-First Nations young people was 2.1.
The lack of progress on meeting targets under the Agreement has also drawn criticism from United Nations human rights bodies.3
The Law Council has consistently emphasised the need for action both within and outside the justice system to improve Agreement outcomes consistent with Australia’s international human rights law obligations and the United Nations Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples, in particular the principle of self-determination.4 Since the last review, the Law Council has advocated the PC’s recommendation for whole-of-government transformation in order to meet the Agreement’s targets. For example, in its 2025 Federal Election Call to Parties, the Law Council observed that:
The over-incarceration of First Nations peoples remains an indictment upon our nation. So, too, is the disproportionately large number of First Nations children in the care and protection system …
As identified by the Productivity Commission, fundamental changes that disrupt the “business-as-usual” approaches regularly adopted by Australian governments are required if progress is to be made towards meeting the Closing the Gap targets. These approaches mean that Governments too often contradict their own commitments as set out in the Agreement, fail to reflect the priorities and perspectives of First Nations people, and exacerbate disadvantage and discrimination. The Law Council joins the Productivity Commission in calling for whole-of-government, whole-of-organisation strategies for driving and delivering transformation.5
This submission addresses each of the PC’s three themes in turn and concludes with six recommendations.
1 Productivity Commission, Review of the National Agreement on Closing the Gap 2026: Call for Submissions (August 2026), 3.
2 Productivity Commission, Closing the Gap Information Repository (Web page, 29 July 2026)
3 See for example United Nations Committee on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights, Concluding Observations on the Sixth Periodic Report of Australia, UN Doc E/C.12/AUS/CO/6 (25 February 2026), [14]-[15]; Committee on the Elimination of Racial Discrimination, Statement 1 (2026): Overrepresentation of Indigenous Children in Australia’s Criminal Justice System (Advance unedited version, 29 April 2026).
4 See for example Law Council of Australia, Oral Statement in the Interactive Dialogue with the Special Rapporteur on the Human Rights of Indigenous Peoples (24 September 2025); Law Council of Australia, Submission to the UN Committee on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights, Australia’s Sixth Periodic Report: Parallel Report (9 January 2026); Law Council of Australia, Submission to the Special Rapporteur on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples, Call for Input – Country Visit to Australia (23 March 2026).
5 Law Council of Australia, 2025 Federal Election Call to Parties (March 2025), 20
Last Updated on 29/10/2026