Background

In January 2008 the Ministerial Council for Federal Financial Relations commissioned research on Indigenous Expenditure across Australia to report transparently on services to Indigenous Australians.

This research has been released as a report prepared by the Productivity Commission using nationally consistent methodology guided by a steering committee of State, Territory and Commonwealth Representatives.

The Expenditure Report provides estimates of expenditure for 2008-09 on:

• programs specifically targeted at Indigenous Australians;
• indigenous people’s use of mainstream services such as hospitals and schools; and
• other services that provide an indirect benefit to Indigenous people according to their proportion in jurisdictions.

The Report estimates in 2008-09 state and territory and Commonwealth expenditure was $22 billion.

A copy of the report is available on the Productivity Commission website.

ACT Performance

In 2008-09 estimated ACT Government expenditure on Indigenous Canberrans was $112 million, comprising of $94.2 million on mainstream services and $17.7 million on targeted Indigenous services and programs.  Indigenous Expenditure Report - Questions and Answers provides more detailed information on how much the ACT Government spends on Indigenous Canberrans, and its comparative performance against other jurisdictions.

Indigenous Expenditure Report - Questions and Answers [DOC  52.5KB]
Indigenous Expenditure Report - Questions and Answers [PDF  129.9KB]

Further general information on the ACT Government’s Indigenous programs and activities in the ACT be found on the Office of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islanders website.

Next Steps

The Report will be used to provide:

• better information on government expenditure on services related to Indigenous Australians; and
• an additional tool to help governments with the development of Indigenous policies.

The Indigenous Expenditure Report will be released every two years starting from 2012.