Indigenous leaders have declared it's time for the "rubber to hit the road" as a plan to reduce First Nations' disadvantage continues to fall short of its goals.
Delivering the Closing the Gap statement at Parliament House, Anthony Albanese on Monday confirmed just five of 19 targets outlined in the strategy are on track to be met by 2031.
A government plan to improve wellbeing will include capping the cost of essential groceries for people living in remote Indigenous communities.
The price cap will apply to 30 products including milk, bread, rice, chicken, toothpaste and toilet paper across 76 remote stores.
Laundries will also be rolled out or upgraded in 12 rural areas to improve the health of residents.
The prime minister said the road ahead was not easy, and the nation couldn't "turn our back" to entrenched disadvantage and violence affecting Indigenous people.
"To close the gap would ultimately erase the gulf that lies between us and our true potential as a nation," he said.
"It is about ensuring that all Australians get the same chance in life."
The Indigenous Business Australia's Home Loan Capital Fund will receive a boost to increase opportunities for First Nations people to buy their own homes and build intergenerational wealth for their families.
Scholarships will be provided for up to 150 Indigenous psychology students to increase the availability of culturally safe mental health support.
Establishing a First Nations children's commissioner was a "critical step" to addressing the disproportionate representation of young people in the justice system, Indigenous Australians Minister Malarndirri McCarthy said
"It is not just the role of Indigenous affairs ministers across the country, it is the role collectively of all cabinets across the country," she told reporters.
Pat Turner, the lead convenor for a coalition of peak Indigenous bodies, said the full impact of the changes would take time to materialise.
"Now is the time for the rubber to hit the road and for all governments to invest the money at the community level," she said.
Ms Turner said she was worried about the issue of youth crime becoming election issues.
Politicians had the opportunity to do "what's right and effective" which was owed to disadvantaged Indigenous Australians and taxpayers, Opposition Leader Peter Dutton said.
"There's little that we can do if safety and housing and health and education and employment are not there for Indigenous Australians and in too many parts of the country today, those basics are missing," he said.
"We have to make sure that as a national parliament, we can work together in a bipartisan way to achieve better outcomes."
Successive Labor and coalition governments had failed to address structural issues, Greens senator and Indigenous woman Dorinda Cox said.
"What’s not written here is that the lack of action on these targets are continuing to keep First Nations people out of schools, out of hospitals, out of workplaces, and in detention centres and putting our people in early graves," she said.
The government last week announced more than $800 million towards services including policing, women's safety, education and alcohol harm reduction in remote communities.
Opposition Indigenous health spokeswoman Kerrynne Liddle said the pricing of essential grocery items in remote areas was "outrageous", but would not say if the coalition would back a similar policy to the price cap.
