CAPE YORK Agenda
From the first Cape York Summits and the vision of our Elders, the Cape York Agenda has carried one enduring purpose: to empower the people of Cape York to choose lives of value, freedom and prosperity.
For more than three decades, this agenda has guided Indigenous-led reform in our region. Its foundation has not changed: responsibility must be matched with real opportunity, so families and communities can build lasting capability.
Cape York Partnership has advanced this agenda through Cape York Welfare Reform, Cape York Agenda 2.0 and the Pama Futures Agenda. This work continues today through Pama Futures, Cape York's regional initiative within the national Empowered Communities movement, supporting local people to shape decisions affecting their communities and build the 18 capabilities needed to prosper.
The Personal Responsibility and Opportunity (PRO) Agenda, including the proposed PRO Act, builds on this foundation. It represents the next evolution of our reform agenda – seeking to turn opportunity from a promise into a guarantee, while continuing the work of strengthening responsibility, empowering communities and building capability across Cape York.
From Agenda to Action
The Cape York Agenda empowers people to 'choose a life they have reason to value' by working with local communities to:
1. Restore social and cultural norms
2. Build capability
3. Deliver opportunity
This agenda was developed from the belief that the more effective we are in achieving the above three objectives the more empowered the Cape York Pama will be.
Social and cultural norms
For Cape York people to be strong, our communities need to have strong social and cultural norms.
Communities that live by an agreed set of values and practice positive behaviours are stronger than those where social norms are eroded.
The Cape York Agenda is about rebuilding these strong social and cultural norms and embedding them deeply into community practice and behaviour. These norms include respect for both the rule of law and cultural lore, freedom from violence and conflict, a right to an education, parental responsibility to care for their children, and respect for private property.
Building capabilities
For decades, policies and programs designed without Cape York people have undermined local decision-making and contributed to dependency. The Cape York Agenda focuses on building the 18 core capabilities our people and communities need to prosper. Strengthening these capabilities remains central to our work through Pama Futures, Cape York's regional Empowered Communities initiative, and continues to inform the development of the PRO Agenda.
1. Lifelong health
2. Effective education
3. Strong families
4. Safe homes
5. Boys' empowerment
6. Girls' empowerment
7. Social norms and justice
8. Social and cultural capital.
9. Work
10. Enterprise and industry
11. Markets
12. Infrastructure
13. Tribal wealth
14. Land and sea rights
15. Stewardship of Land
16. Ancestral languages
17. Leadership and governance
18. Recognition
Deliver opportunities
To help people build their capabilities we need to provide real, guaranteed opportunities rather than offer perverse incentives that encourage people towards welfare and away from education, study and real employment.
If real opportunities are provided and individuals are supported to exercise responsibility in taking that opportunity, then capability will grow – both individually and collectively.
Responsibility + opportunity = capability.
The Journey
