Regardless of how much time or money you have to share with ANTaR, there will be ways that you can help us continue the fight for justice for Indigenous Australians.

Before you do anything else, subscribe to our email bulletin (see the khaki box on the right) so you can get updates on ways you can help and the effect you're having.

Urgent actions

Please take action on these urgent issues right now. You will help us put pressure on people who have the power to effect positive change for Indigenous Australians.

• Become a Close The Gap buddy — if you're confident about meeting a politician face to face, let us team you up with a buddy to visit politicians.
• Racism makes me sick — resolve to tackle racism: start by signing the pledge.
• "Sorry" was the first step, reparations is the second — send an email to your politicians asking for compensation for the stolen generations.

Ongoing actions

How your actions are having an impact

Indigenous health equality - fulfilling the Government's funding commitments

At the Council of Australian Governments (COAG) meeting on 29 November, Australia’s state and federal heads announced they will invest significant new funds into Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander health.

The federal government will contribute $806 million and the states will collectively contribute $772 million over the next four years. This is the biggest single injection of Indigenous health spending in decades.

COAG has made a real commitment towards Closing The Gap between Indigenous and non-Indigenous Australians by committing funding to back up the promises they made earlier in the year.

Congratulations to everybody who has participated in the Close The Gap campaign – and its forerunner, ANTaR's Healing Hands campaign. Collectively we have achieved this outstanding result.

The Secret 7 are off the hook (for now), but a comprehensive plan to tackle disadvantage is still needed.

Help ANTaR continue its campaigning efforts by donating today.

Seven steps campaign

Prior to the federal election last November, ANTaR promised that we would seek meetings with both the Prime Minister and the Leader of the Opposition, to urge them to adopt a cross-party approach to the rights of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Australians.

Thank you for helping us to do this by making a donation and signing the Seven Steps for Justice pledge.

So ... how is the government going?

Close The Gap campaign

Since the Close the Gap campaign was launched in April 2007, over 100,000 people have signed the pledge calling for government action to close the 17-year life expectancy gap between Indigenous and non-Indigenous Australians within a generation.

A month after the historic parliamentary apology to the Stolen Generations, Prime Minister Kevin Rudd and then-Opposition Leader Dr Brendan Nelson signed a statement of intent with Indigenous health leaders committing both sides of politics to the major long-term task of closing the gap.

Now, these good intentions need to be followed by action.

The Close The Gap steering committee, lead by Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Social Justice Commissioner Tom Calma, and including ANTaR, have presented the government with a detailed plan of the targets needed to close the gap.

In order to work, this plan must be funded. You can help close the gap by taking part in our campaign to ensure a decent allocation of funds to Aboriginal health in the 2009-10 budget.

For the first phase of the campaign, we're looking for volunteers based in Brisbane, Sydney and Melbourne who feel confident about visiting a politician face to face. We'll buddy you up with a like-minded activist, so you don't need to be an expert in Indigenous issues. Get in touch with us ... we promise it will give you a buzz!