NSW budget: Indigenous leaders to get a voice on $1.5bn closing-the-gap spending

NSW Indigenous communities are set to play a significant role in shaping a ‘First Nations Budget Model’ for future state budgets.

NSW Premier Chris Minns campaigning for the Indigenous voice to parliament with Indigenous Australians Minister Linda Burney. Picture: X

NSW will move on involving the state’s Indigenous leaders in directing and assessing its $1.5bn worth of spending on Aboriginal affairs, as state Labor prepares to kick-start a treaty process.

In a first in the national push, Indigenous communities are set to play a significant role in shaping a “First Nations Budget Model” that will give impact statements to future closing-the-gap spending.

Treasurer Daniel Mookhey on Tuesday unveiled $131.4m in new closing-the-gap measures, including increased spending on Aboriginal mental health and cancer treatments and fresh initiatives to keep Indigenous people out of jail and out-of-home care.

Mr Mookhey used the opening of his budget speech to press for a Yes vote at Anthony Albanese’s Indigenous voice referendum and put forward $5m to begin consultations on a NSW treaty.

“Allow me to pledge my ally-ship to all First Nations people presently campaigning for Australia to take the next step forward in perfecting this dem­ocracy,” the NSW Treasurer told state parliament. “By enshrining a voice to First Nations people in the national Constitution … we all can partake in this nation’s future equally; and we do indeed advance Australia fair.”

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NSW Treasury will begin consultations with Aboriginal leaders in coming months on the new budget model, which will include a budget impact statement on Indigenous citizens and a process to “ensure resources are allocated to priority areas as determined by Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander communities.”

It comes as Premier Chris Minns puts $5m towards his election promise to consult Indigenous leaders in the state on a treaty after the voice referendum on October 14.

Treaty negotiators have been given 12 months to wrap up the consultation with Indigenous leaders.

Mr Minns has also said in recent days that he was open to a state Aboriginal voice, even if the federal campaign for a national, constitutionally enshrined advisory body failed.

The 2023-24 budget allocates $1.5bn to existing NSW closing-the-gap policies, including $377m to boost housing and increase land rights and $375m for early ­intervention crime prevention programs.