The Empowered Communities reforms were initially funded by the Commonwealth government in 2016 – for 3 years. We have been granted an additional 3 years (2019 -2022) to continue implementation. We have achieved much. Our Regional Indigenous Leaders are implementing our reforms. They have established robust governance structures and set up Backbone organisations. They are talking to their communities and surfacing priorities that families, individuals and community say are important to them. This is driving our development and investment planning.

We are working in partnership with the Commonwealth government as a key partner in our regions. We are seeking partnership with State and Territory governments. We are continuing to work with corporates through our Jawun partnerships.

We are bringing our reforms to life. We are consulting with Indigenous people and organisations in our regions. We are analysing data and building our baselines. We are looking at existing services provided in our regions to understand service delivery gaps – we want to ensure that all available resources and opportunities are used as productively as possible.  Based on this data, and the knowledge and experience of Indigenous people in our communities and regions, we are working on our-long term Regional Development Agendas for each of our regions. We are co-designing with government and stakeholders.

This implementation work is key to help achieve our vision that our children will have the same opportunities and choices that other Australians expect for their children.