CANBERRA
3 MAY 2002
Mr Gary Banks
Chairman
Steering Committee for the Review of Commonwealth/State Service Provision
C/- Productivity Commission
Locked Bag 2,
Collins Street East Post Office
MELBOURNE VIC 8003
Dear Mr Banks
I am writing in my capacity as Chairman of the Council of Australian Governments (COAG). As you would be aware, COAG met on 5 April 2002 and agreed to undertake further work to advance reconciliation. A copy of the communiqué from the recent COAG meeting is attached for your information.
COAG agreed to commission the Steering Committee for the Review of Commonwealth/State Service Provision (SCRCSSP) to produce a regular report to COAG against key indicators of indigenous disadvantage. The key task will be to identify indicators that are of relevance to all governments and indigenous stakeholders and that can demonstrate the impact of programme and policy interventions.
The development of the indicators will be progressed in the first instance through discussions at officials level between COAG, the Ministerial Council for Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Affairs (MCATSIA) and the SCRCSSP. I understand that the SCRCSSP proposed at its recent meeting to progress this matter through a working group that will include representatives of the COAG senior officials working group on reconciliation and MCATSIA officials. Such an approach is consistent with the COAG decision.
In May 1997, I wrote to your predecessor, Mr Bill Scales, requesting that the SCRCSSP give particular attention to improving indigenous data. The development of the new COAG reconciliation report should not reduce the emphasis on indigenous data that is now a feature of the annual Report on Government Services. This emphasis has helped ensure that indigenous data in mainstream and targeted programmes are as comprehensive and comparable as possible.
I would appreciate further advice from you when the SCRCSSP has completed its work in developing a proposal for the report against indicators of indigenous disadvantage so that COAG members may consider the detail of the proposed approach.
I have copied this letter to the Chairman of MCATSIA and New South Wales Minister for Aboriginal Affairs, the Hon Dr Andrew Refshauge, and to the Minister for Immigration and Multicultural and Indigenous Affairs, the Hon Philip Ruddock MP.
Yours sincerely
(John Howard)