Romlie Mokak 

Better policy and evaluation through centring Aboriginal and Torre Strait Islander peoples

Policy and evaluation aimed at improving the lives of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people will fall short if Indigenous people are not centred in the very work that matters to them most.

Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples, governments, non-government, and business sectors are negotiating new ways of working against a history of oppression and exclusion. Changing mindsets, new architecture, and firmer accountabilities hold promise for tackling policy problems in new and real ways.

In this Senate lecture Romlie Mokak—the Productivity Commission’s first Indigenous Commissioner, will explore these issues by drawing on his current role and almost 30 years of work in Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander policy and programs.

Romlie Mokak is a Commissioner with the Productivity Commission and is a Djugun man and a member of the Yawuru people. Prior to the Commission he was the CEO of the Lowitja Institute, and also CEO at the Australian Indigenous Doctors’ Association. Romlie was the first Aboriginal policy officer in the New South Wales government Ageing and Disability Department.

Romlie has chaired and has been a member for a range of policy, research and evaluation bodies at the national and state government levels and is currently a member of the Board of the Australian Institute of Health and Welfare.

Romlie is currently working on the Productivity Commission’s Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Visual Arts and Craft study; Housing and Homelessness Agreement Review; and Closing the Gap Review.