CANBERRA, Feb. 8 (Xinhua) -- The Australian government has been accused of abandoning its Closing the Gap policy, a strategy to reduce disadvantages faced by the nation's indigenous population.
The policy, which was created in 2008 with the aim of delivering health parity between indigenous and non-indigenous Australians by 2030, delivers a report card every year assessing the government's performance on key measures relating to indigenous people including life expectancy, child mortality, employment outcomes and educational achievement.
The 2017 report indicated that six of the seven measures were not on track.
With the next report due on Monday, a review from the Closing the Gap Campaign Steering Committee has accused the government of giving up on the policy after just ten years.
"A revolving door of prime ministers, indigenous affairs minister and senior bureaucrats have all but halted the steady progress hoped for by First Peoples," the review said.
The report was released on Thursday as Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull prepared to meet with 60 indigenous leaders for talks on how to refresh the policy.
