Australian Prime Minister Tony Abbott has launched an Indigenous Advisory Council with a remit to reverse the chronic disadvantages suffered by Australia's first peoples.
The council will focus on creating jobs and reforming the welfare system.
Mr Abbott promised during his recent election campaign to make Aboriginal affairs a priority, and plans to continue his practice of living in a remote indigenous community for at least one week each year.
It allows him to see at first hand the crushing impact of disproportionately high rates of unemployment, alcohol abuse and ill health.
In 2008, then Prime Minister Kevin Rudd formally apologised to the indigenous population for laws and policies that "inflicted profound grief, suffering and loss".
The council formed by Mr Abbott will be led by Walter Mundine, a member of the opposition Australian Labor Party, who says addressing indigenous disadvantage is bigger than politics.
New MP under scrutiny
Meanwhile, the Aboriginal community in Australia's top end is waiting anxiously to see what the first indigenous woman MP will do to tackle the high rates of incarceration and unemployment in the Northern Territory.
Darwin-born Nova Peris was recently elected Senator for the territory representing the Australian Labor Party in the federal parliament.
National Indigenous Television political correspondent Brooke Boney told Te Manu Korihi news there is a sense of nervousness in the Aboriginal community about what Ms Peris can do to address some major issues.
She says she can understand why there is anxiety around a new government.
Ms Boney, who comes from the Gamilaroi Aboriginal Nation, says the Northern Territory faces some of the worst health outcomes in Australia as a result of its significant indigenous population. Other concerns centre around a high Aboriginal imprisonment rate and poor education.
