MEDIA RELEASE: Productivity Commission report proof of pressing need for more and better evaluations of Indigenous programs

The Productivity Commission’s latest Overcoming Indigenous Disadvantage (OID) report is consistent with Centre for Independent Studies research that found only 8% (88) of 1,082 programs had been evaluated,” CIS Indigenous Research Program Manager Sara Hudson says.

The Productivity Commission was unable to find many examples of successful Indigenous programs due to the lack of rigorous evaluations. Of the thousands of Indigenous programs funded by government only 24 were found to have been rigorously evaluated and to display sufficient evidence to prove their success.

According to the report, “there is a pressing need for more and better evaluation of Indigenous policies and programs nationally if we are to see improvements in outcomes for Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Australians.”

“The fact that evaluations of programs are not mandatory has contributed to significant gaps in evidence,” Ms Hudson says.

“It is pleasing to see the Productivity Report noting the importance of measuring outcomes, not just inputs and outputs, but for this to occur the right data needs to be collected.

“Seven of the government’s strategic areas of actions under the COAG targets are unable to be tracked due to the lack of data to map trends.

“Such evidence is vital if Australia is ever to close the gaps between Indigenous and non-Indigenous Australians.

“Not only are programs continuing to receive funding without any evidence of success – several successful programs included as cases studies of ‘Things That Work’ in previous editions of the OID report are no longer funded and have ceased to exist.

“So long as Indigenous Australian are reliant on government to pick “winning programs” without any priori evidence of what works, they will continue to be short-changed and Indigenous funding will continue to be wasted,” Ms Hudson says.

“Currently nearly $6 billion in government funding is spent on Indigenous specific programs, without any evidence of outcomes. This latest OID report proves Australia is going backwards when it comes to closing the gap on Indigenous disadvantage, with figures for mental health, suicide and drug and other substance use going up since 2014.

“Indigenous Australians deserve better,” Ms Hudson says.

Sara Hudson is Manager of the Indigenous Research Program at The Centre for Independent Studies and author of the report Mapping the Indigenous Program and Funding Maze, published in August this year.