Co-op leaders in Australia have made a submission to the government highlighting the potential of community ownership to drive the Closng the Gap policy, which was launched in 2020 to tackle inequalities facing Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people.
Tranby Aboriginal Co-operative and the Business Council of Co-operatives and Mutuals (BCCM) make the case in their joint submission to the Productivity Commission’s 2026 review of the National Agreement on Closing the Gap.
The submission, From community control to community ownership, focuses on the role of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander co-operatives and mutuals in delivering Priority Reform 2, which is concerned with strengthening the community-controlled sector.
Tranby and BCCM urge the Productivity Commission to extend Priority Reform 2 from community control of services to community ownership of assets. The submission calls for Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander co-operatives to be recognised, funded and measured as part of the community-controlled sector.
The Closing the Gap policy was launched in 2020, with a partnership between the Australian governments at Commonwealth, state, territory, and local level, and the Coalition of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Peak Organisations (Coalition of Peaks).
Community ownership is key to this, and was developed alongside community control, argue Tranby and BCCM. They give the example of the Aboriginal Medical Service in Redfern, Australia’s first Aboriginal community-controlled health service, which was established as a co-operative in 1971.
Tranby had been training Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people to operate their own co-operatives since 1957 – and today, at least 222 Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander co-operatives and mutuals hold AU$1.75bn in assets, carry $1.31bn in equity, have 22,000 members and employ 12,468 people.
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Despite this existing economic base, the National Agreement has no target or indicator measuring the assets owned collectively by Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander communities, the submission warns. The agreement measures areas including land and employment, but not who owns the homes, power systems, stores and enterprises developed on that land or through that work.
The submission distinguishes between control of a service and ownership of the institution delivering it.
A community may manage a clinic, housing service or store without owning the underlying asset. That control may depend on the continuation of a funding agreement or contract. Community ownership means members collectively hold the asset, decide how any surplus is used and determine how the institution is passed to future generations.
One recommendation addresses the treatment of co-ops under the Indigenous Advancement Strategy funding guidelines. Under current requirements, an Indigenous organisation receiving $500,000 or more in agency funding in a financial year is generally required to incorporate under the Corporations (Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander) Act 2006.
A registered co-operative must seek a ministerial exemption to retain its co-operative structure once it reaches that funding threshold. The submission recommends removing this requirement for registered co-operatives and allowing communities equitable access to funding regardless of the model they choose.
The submission does not argue that one legal structure should be imposed on communities. Its position is that Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander communities should have the same freedom as other Australians to select the structure that is most appropriate to their circumstances and objectives.
The joint submission makes six recommendations:
- Recognise co-operatives in the community-controlled sector by confirming how First Nations co-operatives qualify under the National Agreement and removing the $500,000 incorporation requirement for registered co-operatives.
- Measure community ownership through a Priority Reform 2 indicator covering community-owned enterprises, members and assets, governed according to Indigenous Data Sovereignty principles.
- Invest in co-operative development through a ten-year First Nations Co-operative Development Program providing education, incubation, legal and registration support and access to patient capital.
- Build ownership into funded infrastructure by making community-owned co-operatives eligible for relevant housing, energy, food, care and enterprise programs and supporting five demonstration co-operatives.
- Protect community ownership over time by allowing co-operatives to adopt a permanent asset lock and improving provisions governing Co-operative Capital Units.
- Embed collective ownership in national policy by making it a pillar of the First Nations Economic Framework and carrying that recognition into the agreement that follows the 2031 Closing the Gap targets.
With half of all Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people aged 24 or younger, the submission argues that decisions made during the current review will help determine whether the next generation collectively owns the institutions and infrastructure built under Closing the Gap or remains dependent on assets owned by others.
Co-operatives offer one established means of holding assets collectively while protecting democratic community control. Members own the enterprise, govern it on a one-member, one-vote basis and decide how its surplus is reinvested or returned.
The joint submission asks governments to recognise that community control is strengthened when communities can also own the institutions, assets and enterprises created through that control.
