National Close the Gap Day (Australia)

National Close the Gap Day is the biggest Indigenous health event on the Australian calendar, this event mobilises people across Australia to raise their awareness and take action for equality in health and life expectancy between Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people and other Australians. The day is steered by a committee (the Close the Gap Campaign Steering Committee) made up of Australia’s peak Indigenous and non-Indigenous health bodies, NGOs, human rights organisations and more. The Close the Gap campaign launched in 2006 in the wake of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Social Justice Commissioner Tom Calma’s Social Justice Report 2005. The report identified the following targets: child mortality rates; early childhood education, secondary school education; overall life expectancy; academic achievement and employment outcomes. Of these targets, the first three have shown considerable improvement in the intervening years but the final three have not. It is not a public holiday.