Abstract: Achieving improvements in indigenous health and education and reducing the incidence of crime and domestic violence in indigenous communities has proved heartbreakingly difficult. A large part of the problem (certainly as perceived by many indigenous Australians) is that governments see themselves as doing things ‘for’ indigenous communities, rather than working with them to achieve change. The Murdi Paaki COAG Trial in western NSW aimed to break this pattern by tailoring flexible Commonwealth and State government support to indigenous communities, working within a framework of shared responsibility and community-initiated planning.

In this paper, we assess the Trial as a policy strategy by comparing outcomes and patterns of outcomes across the 16 communities. We found that communities that could formulate ‘good enough’ governance were able to benefit from the strategy, and that ‘whole of government’ worked best where it was aligned with flexible funding and responsive communication, rather than with control. This way of working is difficult for governments as it can be a slow process, and requires stability in the policy and engagement framework to deliver results.

Wendy Jarvie and Jenny Stewart are researchers at the School of Business, UNSW@ADFA.