In the Social Justice Report 2005, the Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Social Justice Commissioner, Tom Calma, called for Australian governments to commit to achieving Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander health and life expectation equality within 25-years. From the Social Justice Report, the Close The Gap campaign was born.

The Close The Gap campaign calls on federal, state and territory governments to commit to closing the life expectancy gap between Indigenous and non-Indigenous Australians within a generation.

The campaign is supported by more than 40 Indigenous and non-Indigenous organisations, and seventy-five thousand Australians have already pledged their support to Close the Gap.

The Close The Gap campaign was launched on 4 April 2007 at Sydney's Telstra Stadium by Olympic champions Catherine Freeman and Ian Thorpe.

Campaign update

At the National Indigenous Health Summit that ANTaR helped organise in late March, the Prime Minister and Opposition Leader signed an historic Statement of Intent with Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Health leaders signaling a new partnership to closing the 17 year life expectancy gap.

However, funding in the recent budget fell short of what is required to achieve this. For that reason, ANTaR recently ran a campaign calling on the Government to allocate a significant portion of its new $10 billion Nation Building Health Fund to Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander health (the Secret 7 campaign).

COAG announced in late November additional funding for Indigenous health. ANTaR is very pleased with the result, and released a public statement congratulating supporters and COAG alike.

COAG has announced it will hold a special Close The Gap meeting sometime in 2009. ANTaR will be lobbying the five federal ministers responsible for the key social determinates of health in the lead-up to the meeting. We will also be contacting each Premier and their Ministers in relation to their approach in implementing the funding and expanding their commitments to the Close the Gap targets.

Stay tuned for more actions in the lead-up to the COAG meeting!

ANTaR has played a critical role in the Close the Gap campaign from its inception. ANTaR's efforts were quick to see the opportunity presented by the findings of the Social Justice Report 2005 and were critical in garnering public support and awareness for the campaign.
The involvement of Ian Thorpe, Jeff McMullen and Catherine Freeman was the result of the efforts of ANTAR National Director Gary Highland and research such as the 'success stories' report and 'racism makes me sick' have kept the campaign and its message of change in the public eye.
- Tom Calma, Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Social Justice Commissioner