Name Course Instructor Date of Submission The Great Divide Indigenous Health and Federal Government Policy Closing the Gap The ‘closing the gap’ is a strategy whose aims are to give a boost to the indigenous people life expectancy rates. This policy was made in reference to the sensitive areas of child mortality, life expectancy, early childhood education, achievements in education and the employment opportunities of the indigenous communities of Australia. It was endorsed by the Australian government in 2008 to close the formal gap between the indigenous communities of Australia and the ‘white’ communities and bring a sense of social justice to all communities in Australia; most especially boost the health system of the indigenous. The Council of Australian Governments (COAG), in the Closing the Gap initiative has set certain targets that seek to improve the healthcare system of the indigenous population. The targets of the ‘Closing the Gap’ initiative include: education, economic participation, early childhood, housing, health and remote service delivery. The subsequent achievement of this particular set system to cope with the problems facing the indigenous will hugely depend on an effective implementation of the set policy targets. This is because the set targets are as of today some of the common disadvantages that the indigenous people face (Ryan 2009). The government clearly understands the enormous task that faces it and has rolled out the project over a number of years. The set policies of integrated comprehensive strategies could take longer than expected, change in this case, and cannot happen on a short-term basis. In 2008, the Indigenous summit held that year was concluded by the them Prime Minister Rudd who issued a statement exclaiming how intent he was on bringing more quality and value to the