Data Policy Partnership
Preamble to the Data Policy Partnership Agreement to Implement
Our people carry the stories of our Ancestors. These stories hold more than sixty thousand years of knowledge: of the seasons, the stars, the movement of waters and winds, and the ways we live with each other and with Country. They tell us where we have been and guide us towards where we need to go.
For Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples, data is more than numbers or reports. It is our knowledge, our stories, and our aspirations for the future. Data is layered, interconnected, and intrinsically linked to every element of our lives and being. Yet governments have traditionally used our data to tell stories about us, stories that are not ours.
Through this Partnership, we will share our knowledge so governments can better understand how we see data, and how it connects to the needs of our communities. We will continue to tell our stories in ways that celebrate our strengths and empower our people to shape the path ahead.
At the heart of this work is our drive to uphold the principles of Indigenous Data Sovereignty and Indigenous Data Governance. By placing our people at the centre of how data is governed, we ensure it becomes a foundation for truth-telling and better outcomes.
Together with our government agency partners, we will work to build what is needed to make this work real, so that data has a positive impact for Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples and communities. In this Partnership, we will walk forward together, with trust and respect.
About the Data Policy Partnership
The Data Policy Partnership brings together representatives from Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander communities and organisations and Australian, state and territory governments.
Together, we are working to progress Priority Reform Four and strengthening data under the National Agreement on Closing the Gap (the National Agreement).
The Joint Council on Closing the Gap (Joint Council) agreed to the establishment documents of the Data Policy Partnership in June 2025. The Data Policy Partnership is co-chaired by the Coalition of Peaks and the ABS.
The Australian Government has committed up to $12 million over four years from 2025-26 to support the Data Policy Partnership.
Purpose
The Data Policy Partnership is an opportunity for Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander representatives and government partners to share expertise, experiences and decision-making to achieve better data outcomes for Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people and communities under the National Agreement.
The purpose of the Data Policy Partnership is to establish a mechanism to develop a joined-up approach to data policies relevant to Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples with a focus on progressing Priority Reform Four of the National Agreement.
The primary function of the Data Policy Partnership is to make recommendations to the Joint Council to progress Priority Reform Four (including addressing systems-wide barriers to shared data access and exercises of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Data Sovereignty and Governance), and to improve data on Priority Reforms and socioeconomic outcomes, targets and indicators under the National Agreement.
Priority Reform Four focuses on providing Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people access to, and the capability to use, locally-relevant data and information to set and monitor the implementation of efforts to close the gap including setting their own priorities and drive development of those priorities.
Read more in the Agreement to Implement the Data Policy Partnership.
Agreement to Implement the Data Policy Partnership
Priorities
Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples and organisations have been raising data priorities and barriers for many years. These community priorities have been brought to Closing the Gap forums through the Coalition of Peaks and are at the heart of Priority Reform Four – Shared Access to Data and Information at a Regional Level. Based on what communities have brought forward through Closing the Gap forums, the DPP developed a set of policy priorities to focus on for the next four years. The six agreed policy priorities are:
- Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander data governance: provide options on implementing action 2.2 of the Review of the National Agreement on Closing the Gap (the National Agreement) by the Productivity Commission on a Bureau of Indigenous Data.
- Priority Reform measurement: provide options on implementing the Priority Reform measurement recommendations in the Closing the Gap Priority Reforms Performance Measurement Project 2023-24 by the Australia and New Zealand School of Government.
- Community Data Projects: support action and accountability through progress reporting and provide a forum for advice and sharing of learnings from individual projects to improve outcomes across projects.
- Data sharing, access and capability: identify gaps and opportunities to improve existing data access pathways through increased visibility of existing data services, across governments for Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander communities and organisations.
- Embedding Priority Reform Four: contribute to the development of the Commonwealth Priority Reform Strategy to guide holistic government implementation of Priority Reform Four, reflective of the other three Priority Reforms.
Addressing data gaps: work with, and provide advice to, the other Policy Partnerships to close priority data gaps and measure progress across outcomes, targets (especially those without data) and indicators under the National Agreement.
In addition, capacity will be retained to respond to emerging opportunities identified by DPP members and Joint Council.
Membership
Membership of the Data Policy Partnership includes:
- one representative from Australian and each State and Territory government
- five representatives from the Coalition of Peaks
- five independent Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander representatives.
Quorum requires that representation is at least equal between Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander parties and government parties.
Meetings
The Data Policy Partnership will meet four times a year.
- Meeting 1 was held on 16 October 2025 on Kaurna Country, Adelaide.
- Meeting 2 was held on 24-25 February 2026 on Gadigal Country, Sydney.
Meeting outcomes are published following each meeting.
Data Policy Partnership - Meeting One Communique
Summary of the outcomes from the Data Policy Partnership meeting on 16 October 2025.
Data Policy Partnership - Meeting Two Communique
Summary of the outcomes from the Data Policy Partnership meeting on 24-25 February 2026.
Engaging with the DPP
The Data Policy Partnership welcomes requests for engagement from government and non-government organisations developing data policies or initiatives that will impact the lives of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples.
To contact the Data Policy Partnership Co-Secretariat please email datapolicypartnership@abs.gov.au or dppsecretariat@coalitionofpeaks.org.au
Resources
DPP Data Definitions and Terminology Reference Document
A shared foundational understanding of key data terms and concepts is important for enabling the DPP to achieve its desired outcomes. The DPP Data Definitions and Terminology Reference Document has been compiled as a living document from existing work and resources to support consistent understanding.
About the Policy Partnerships
The National Agreement makes provision for the establishment of Policy Partnerships under Priority Reform One (formal partnerships and shared decision-making).
The National Agreement proposed that the Joint Council on Closing the Gap establish a joined-up approach to five policy priority areas, between the Australian, state and territory governments and Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander representatives. The five policy priority areas are:
- justice
- social and emotional wellbeing
- housing
- early childhood care and development
- Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander languages.
After the Productivity Commission’s Review of the National Agreement on Closing the Gap, the Joint Council agreed to do further work before deciding how to progress Action 2.2 recommending the establishment of a Bureau of Indigenous Data, including establishing a Data Policy Partnership to accelerate progress on data and report back to Joint Council.
The Data Policy Partnership is the first Policy Partnership to be focused on progressing a Priority Reform rather than Socio-Economic Outcome under the National Agreement. In this way, its work intersects with the other Policy Partnerships.
Visit the Closing the Gap website to:
- find more information about the Joint Council on Closing the Gap
- read the National Agreement on Closing the Gap
- learn more about the Information Repository.