Darren Plezina's local Aboriginal Medical Service has been his lifeline for the past 35 years.
"Diabetes, blood pressure, coupla issues with me ol' body," he said of his chronic illness.
The Gamilaraay man lives in the regional New South Wales town of Walgett – where medical staff are often in short supply.
"There's issues, we need more doctors, there's always doctors flying in and out. We'd like to have one doctor available to us for at least five years, unfortunately we can’t get that," he said.
"They look after me the best way they can."
Now the Productivity Commission's first review of the National Agreement on Closing the Gap has found it's unclear how much funding states and territories have allocated to Aboriginal-controlled organisations.
"We did see examples where funding was given to external bodies outside of the Aboriginal-community controlled sector in the face of commitments by governments to prioritise ACCO (Aboriginal Community Controlled Organisations)," Commissioner Natalie Siegel-Brown said.
"And that was often to the detriment of communities."
The report said most state and territory governments have not undertaken or published expenditure reviews - meaning spending has not been made public.
Ms Siegel-Brown said the final report of the first three-year review found state and federal governments' engagement with Indigenous communities was "tokenistic".
"If governments continue to put money towards programs that don't align with what the community is saying will work... then governments will continue to allocate public money ineffectively," Ms Siegel-Brown said.
"[The government] would only engage with Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people at the 11th hour right before something was about to go to cabinet."
Arrente man, William Tilmouth, works for an Indigenous-led organisation in Alice Springs.
He said that billions of dollars have been wasted.
"I think there’s value in Closing the Gap but more value if it’s done properly," he said.
"And at the moment, it's just copious amounts of funds being sucked up into nowhere and getting nowhere."
15 years of 'failure'
Closing the gap targets have been around for 15 years, but data continuously shows strategies aren't working.
In 2020 governments signed up for a radical overhaul and a new national agreement was formed.
The review found that state and federal governments are "failing" to implement what has been promised, and have provided recommendations:
- Power needs to be shared, recognising the right that Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people have control over the decisions that affect their lives.
- Recognise and support Indigenous data sovereignty.
- Fundamentally rethink mainstream government systems and culture.
- Implement stronger accountability.
Ms Siegel-Brown says the government must undertake these changes.
"The task facing governments under the agreement, what they have promised, is to make structural and cultural changes that embed shared decision making, building the Aboriginal community-controlled sector and to achieve that by being completely transparent,"
"To ensure governments actually make progress towards the agreement and things don't look the same when we review again in three years."
Prime Minister Anthony Albanese said all governments need to do better.
"We'll continue to put forward practical measures in order to close the gap and we'll be making our statements when the Closing the Gap report is tabelled shortly," he said.
The Commonwealth's Closing the Gap Implementation Plan for 2024 is expect to be tabled in parliament next week.
Not a surprise
For acting lead convener of the Coalition of Peaks, Catherine Liddle, the findings don't come as a surprise.
"It reinforces what we have been saying all along, and that is that governments aren't trying hard enough to implement the radical change needed for Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people to thrive," she said.
She wants to see secure funding for Indigenous-run organisations to support self-determination.
"One of the things that the coalition would like to call for is a dedicated Closing the Gap fund, and [have] that fund enshrined in legislation and directed to the Aboriginal Community Controlled Organisations."
Without a fundamental shift in the outcomes for First Nations people, Ms Liddle said people like Darren will continue to suffer.
"The only people who are ever held accountable are our own communities," she said.
"The only people that ever suffer for the government's failure to act in the way that it should is Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people."