Dr Lisa J. Griffiths, Chief Executive Officer, OzChild
Why growth is not the answer to closing the gap
As the Chief Executive Officer of OzChild, a leading child welfare organisation in Australia, I often have growth targets in my strategies, as do all Non-Government Organisations (NGOs) and Community Service Organisations (CSOs).
I want to expand our reach, increase our impact, and diversify our funding. I want to do more for more children, young people, and families. But is this the right approach when it comes to closing the gap between First Nations People and non-Indigenous Australians?
The latest Closing the Gap report, released on 1 August by the Productivity Commission, shows that most of the targets need to be on track to be met by 2031. The report reveals “deeply troubling” trends in areas such as life expectancy, child mortality, education, employment, and incarceration. It also highlights the lack of progress in addressing the systemic and structural barriers that prevent First Nations people from exercising their rights and achieving their aspirations.
The report is the first one since the referendum for a constitutionally enshrined First Nations voice to parliament when 60 per cent of Australians voted against constitutional change. This was the key recommendation of the Uluru Statement from the Heart in 2017. The voice was seen as a crucial step towards empowering First Nations people to have a say in the policies and programs that affect them and to ensure that they are designed and delivered in a culturally appropriate and respectful way.
Without the voice, the Closing the Gap framework remains a top-down and paternalistic approach that fails to recognise the diversity, complexity, and agency of First Nations communities. It also fails to acknowledge the historical and ongoing impacts of colonisation, dispossession, and discrimination that have created and maintained the gap in the first place.
As NGOs and CSOs we have a responsibility to challenge this approach and to support the self-determination of First Nations people. This means that I need to rethink my growth targets and adopt a reductionist view instead. I need to ask myself: how can I reduce my footprint, use my influence, and my power, and make space for Aboriginal Community Controlled Organisations (ACCOs) and their communities to take the lead?
This call to action is not OzChild’s alone. Encouragingly, we are not the only ones making this shift. The Allies for Children — of which OzChild is a founding member— recently announced a joint commitment to supporting self-determination. By formally recognising the need to transfer power, authority, and resourcing to Aboriginal Community Controlled Organisations, the group’s position strengthens the momentum toward a more equitable sector. It signals that real leadership means not expanding at the expense of Aboriginal-led solutions but actively stepping back to elevate them.
This year’s National Reconciliation Week theme, Bridging Now to Next, challenges all Australians to reflect on how we carry the legacy of the past into meaningful action for the future. It calls for leadership that does more than acknowledge injustice—it demands bold, structural change. For OzChild, bridging now to next means moving beyond performative allyship and embracing systemic rebalancing—where self-determination for Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples becomes a lived reality, not just a stated ideal.
ACCOs are organisations that are initiated, owned, and governed by Aboriginal people, and that deliver culturally appropriate and locally responsive services to their communities. They have been shown to achieve better outcomes than mainstream organisations, as they have the trust, legitimacy, and accountability that comes from being embedded in the communities they serve.
However, ACCOs face many challenges in accessing and sustaining adequate and equitable funding, as they have to compete with larger and more established organisations like OzChild that have more resources, networks, and influence.
While there are a growing number of ACCOs and growth in those ACCOs, you won’t find any to rival the size of our larger CSOs and NGOs. Some have an operating turnover of nearly a billion dollars (yes, I said a billion).
It’s clear that a significant power imbalance has been created here, which undermines the autonomy and effectiveness of ACCOs and limits their ability to address the needs and priorities of their communities.
In my role as Chief Executive Officer, I can play my role in history by ensuring that ACCOs get the lion’s share of resources, and we contract in size. I can do this by:
By doing these things, I can help to shift the power and resources to where they belong: to Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people who have the right, the knowledge, and the capability to close the gap. I can also help to create a more just and equitable society for all Australians, where First Nations cultures, languages, and histories are valued and celebrated.
This is how we bridge now to next—not with good intentions alone, but with meaningful shifts in power, investment, and voice. OzChild’s role in this is not to lead, but to support, to yield space, and to stand in solidarity with ACCOs as they lead the way forward.
This is the side of history that I want my leadership to rest. The side that respects and supports the self-determination of First Nations Peoples. The side that recognises that growth is not the answer for closing the gap, but rather a part of the problem.
Dr Lisa J. Griffiths, Chief Executive Officer, OzChild
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OzChild recently cemented their commitment to supporting the self-determination of First Nations people announcing a plan to work with governments, peak bodies, and other stakeholders to facilitate the transfer of funding and referrals of children, young people and families to ACCOs where possible and appropriate, and to provide support and assistance when requested.
Read more about the organisation’s commitment to recognising the rights and aspirations of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people and communities to determine their own futures and to have access to services that are designed and delivered by them.
Dr Griffiths is the Chief Executive Officer at OzChild, Victoria’s longest-running child welfare organisation and Australia’s largest provider of evidence-based programs in child protection, family violence and youth justice.
Lisa is a Professor and Senior Fellow at the Australian Graduate School of Leadership and holds a Doctorate in Business Leadership and focuses on evidence-based ethical leadership.
A Fellow of the Australian Institute of Company Directors and the Centre for Evidence-Based Management, Lisa is a passionate advocate for children’s issues and strongly advocates for utilising effective strategies that benefit Australian children, young people, and families.
As Chair of the National Foster Care Sustainability Group and a founding member of Allies for Children, Lisa is committed to transforming the Child and Family Welfare sector, advocating for the essential support that carers, children, and young people deserve.
Families Australia has announced the appointment of Dr Lisa J. Griffiths as its new Chair of the Board, following the transition of outgoing Chair Deb Tsorbaris to the role of Australia’s National Children’s Commissioner.
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