Australian states and territories have been urged to allow UN human rights investigators into government-operated detention facilities after the Northern Territory and Queensland governments blocked access to youth detention centres.
Indigenous Australians Minister Malarndirri McCarthy said UN Special Rapporteur on the rights of Indigenous Peoples Albert K Barume should be allowed to visit the facilities during his trip to Australia this month.
Dr Barume raised the issue in a statement in late October, ahead of his visit to examine human rights concerns affecting Indigenous Australians.
Speaking at a Closing the Gap council meeting in Canberra on Friday, Senator McCarthy said she had raised the matter with all Indigenous affairs ministers before the meeting.
“It is important, in my view, that the special rapporteur does get to visit those facilities, but also has the conversation,” she said.
The Northern Territory has now twice barred UN investigators from inspecting prisons, according to Senator McCarthy.
Closing the Gap progress under scrutiny
Senator McCarthy also said the federal government was “seriously looking” at funding agreements with states and territories in relation to the national Closing the Gap targets.
A report released in July found that only one of the 19 targets had been achieved more than halfway through the agreement period, which runs until 2031. The Productivity Commission said only three targets focused on socio-economic disadvantage were likely to be met on time.
“It is important to acknowledge that one target has been met,” Senator McCarthy said, adding that there was still a “long way to go”.
Employment is among the areas considered on track, with the proportion of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people aged between 25 and 64 in work expected to reach the 62 per cent target by 2031.
Five targets are improving but remain off track, including those covering year 12 completion, tertiary qualifications and the number of young people in work, education or training, as well as education and housing.
Justice remains a major concern. The rate of First Nations prisoners rose to more than 2,500 per 100,000 adults in 2025, up from more than 2,300 the previous year and more than 550 in 2019.
Imprisonment rates have increased in most jurisdictions since 2019. The Northern Territory recorded the largest rise, while Victoria was the only state to show a clear fall.
First Nations children also remain heavily over-represented in detention, with 25.7 children aged between 10 and 17 in custody on an average day during 2024-25.
