Big year ahead: what 2026 could mean for First Nations communities

As 2026 begins, several long‑promised reforms for Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples are reaching crunch time – from digital access, to caring for Country, to treaty.

Under the National Agreement on Closing the Gap, governments committed that by 2026 First Nations people would have “equal levels of digital inclusion” with other Australians (Target 17). The First Nations Digital Inclusion Plan 2023-26 sets out actions on three fronts (access, affordability and digital ability) while a national advisory group has produced a Roadmap “to 2026 and beyond” to guide government and industry.

Despite that, new research for the Australian Digital Inclusion Index finds First Nations Australians are still about twice as likely to be digitally excluded as other Australians, with gaps widest in remote areas. A companion study reported that while digital skills in very remote communities have improved, access and affordability remain major barriers.

On Country, 2026 sits inside a major expansion of Indigenous land and sea management. The Albanese Government is investing $1.3 billion in the Indigenous Rangers Program to 2028, aiming to double the ranger workforce from 1,900 to 3,800 jobs by 2030. Round two of the expansion, announced in late 2025, will fund more than 900 new ranger positions through 82 projects nationwide, with a strong focus on women’s employment.

Indigenous Protected Areas, which Traditional Owners manage for conservation, are also growing. Between June 2024 and November 2025, the federal government recognised nine new IPAs and one expansion, adding about 17.8 million hectares and lifting protected land to nearly 25 per cent of Australia.

On the political front, Victoria made history in late 2025 by passing Australia’s first formal treaty between a government and Indigenous Traditional Owners and introducing a Statewide Treaty Bill to embed a permanent First Peoples’ Assembly, Gellung Warl, in law. The treaty includes commitments on truth‑telling, education and place names, but its long‑term future is uncertain, with the state Coalition promising to repeal key elements if it wins the 2026 election.

All of this will shape life for a young and fast‑growing population. ABS estimates show there were about 983,700 Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people at 30 June 2021 – roughly 3.8 per cent of Australians – with a median age of 24.