Commonwealth Engagement and Partnership Framework

The Commonwealth will develop a partnership and shared decision-making framework to support best practice across all portfolios in establishing and strengthening partnerships and shared decision-making with Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people. The NIAA, in partnership with Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander representatives, will develop guidance and a suite of support materials to enable agencies to develop partnerships and shared decision-making arrangements in a culturally safe way. This will help embed transformation across the Commonwealth by setting a standard about what good partnerships and shared decision-making arrangements are and providing support to enable these to be implemented in the context of policy and program development, implementation, and evaluation activities.
As required by the National Agreement, the Commonwealth will undertake a stocktake of partnerships in place including reviewing and strengthening existing partnerships. The Commonwealth will work with the Coalition of Peaks around the scope of this stocktake and the review, with a report to be provided to Joint Council in 2022. The partnership and shared decision-making framework will be informed by the stocktake and review of partnerships, which will help set a baseline to track and report on the number and strength of partnerships into the future.