Is 'Close the Gap' a useful approach?

Abstract

There is widespread enthusiasm for the Australian government\u27s commitment to \u27Close the Gap\u27 in Indigenous disadvantage, health status and life expectancy. Yet despite the rhetoric, the pursuit of statistical equality for Indigenous Australians is not a novel or particularly promising approach.{C} It is also an approach that reduces Indigenous Australians to a range of indicators of deficit, to be monitored and rectified towards government-set targets. This illustrates a substantial imbalance in power and control over the Indigenous affairs agenda in Australia, which is the \u27gap\u27 that must be addressed for the health and wellbeing of Indigenous Australians to improve