Half of NSW’s $222 million spend had no ‘tangible output’, audit finds

NSW taxpayers spent $222 million on measures to close the gap between Indigenous and non-Indigenous Australians but less than half led to tangible outcomes for First Nations people, a damning audit has found.

The report, released on Thursday by NSW Auditor-General Bola Oyetunji, found the premier’s department had inadequate oversight and a “passive approach” to monitoring how state funding for Closing the Gap measures were being spent.

A report released by NSW Auditor-General Bola Oyetunji found the state government did not have adequate oversight of more than $200 million spent on Closing the Gap measures. Credit: SMH/Monique Westermann

The 2022 NSW budget included $222 million to deliver programs and initiatives under the Closing the Gap national agreement signed in 2020, to cover four years until 2024.

But only 38 per cent of the 142 initiatives funded had a “tangible output” in the form of grants or direct funding to improve outcomes for Indigenous people. A further 49 per cent delivered reviews or frameworks “without clarity on how this would contribute to an outcome”, the audit found.

“Some individual projects conducted under the National Agreement have established effective partnerships and are beginning to demonstrate positive results,” Oyetunji concluded. “However … governance arrangements do not provide adequate oversight of delivery.”

The auditor-general questioned a $9 million government grant given to the NSW Coalition of Aboriginal Peak Organisations (NSW CAPO) to hire 22 full-time staff across the eight peak bodies it represents.

When Oyetunji’s office requested an update on the funding, neither the government nor NSW CAPO could say how many of the positions had been filled.

NSW CAPO did not respond to specific questions about the grant. Co-chair Charles Lynch welcomed the report’s recommendations as “a chance to strengthen how we work – both internally and in partnership”.

Minister for Aboriginal Affairs David Harris said he was committed to working with the peak bodies to “deliver real change for Aboriginal people across NSW”.

The revamped Closing the Gap agreement, signed off by federal and state governments in 2020, was intended to set new and ambitious targets in areas including education, health and housing.

But five years on, the audit found the state government and peak bodies remain at loggerheads on key measures for achieving those 19 targets, of which only seven are on track to be met by 2031.

Oyetunji said the government had made several policy decisions affecting Aboriginal people and communities without consulting them, despite the agreement requiring them to consult “fully and transparently”.

This included their failure to consult Indigenous peak bodies on changes to the state’s bail laws in early 2024.

The premier’s department was responsible for $98 million of the $222 million spent on closing the gap, with the Department of Communities and Justice ($42 million) and NSW Health ($30 million) also receiving large pools of funding.

The audit comes after staff at Dubbo Aboriginal Medical Service, operated by CTG Aboriginal Health, raised concerns about a lack of oversight over spending at the organisation, which receives more than $10 million in state and federal funding each year.

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