Aboriginal people and communities

Creating culturally safe, inclusive and responsive services is critical to making sure we are delivering for Aboriginal people and communities.

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How are Aboriginal people and communities experiencing government services in NSW?

We asked Aboriginal people in NSW about their experiences interacting with different government services, including how easy they found their interaction with the service, how satisfied they were with their service experience, and to what extent they trusted the service to be working in their best interests.

Here's what Aboriginal people told us

72%
of Aboriginal people find it easy to interact with NSW Government services.
73%
of Aboriginal people are satisfied with their experience with NSW Government services.
69%
of Aboriginal people trust NSW Government services are working in their best interests.

About Aboriginal people and communities in NSW

For more than 50,000 years Aboriginal people have been caretakers of this land, the oldest continuous living culture in the world. Understanding the demographic makeup of Aboriginal communities allows us to better respond and work alongside community to create services that communities need. We remain committed to working in partnership with Aboriginal people and communities to close the gap and co-create a better future.

There are

278,043

Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people living in NSW, representing over 3% of the NSW population.1

This represents a

+29%

increase in people identifying as Aboriginal or Torres Strait Islander since 2016 (216,176 people).1,2

NSW is home to

34%

of Australia’s Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people.1

2 in 3

Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people (or 68%) live in regional NSW (compared to 35% of the total NSW population).1

How well are we delivering on our Customer Commitments to Aboriginal people and communities?

The NSW Customer Commitments are our promise to customers on what to expect when interacting with our services. These commitments help us to put customers at the heart of our services and everything we do.  

There are 6 Commitments that our services seek to deliver on for customers: easy to access, act with empathy, respect my time, explain what to expect, resolve the situation, and engage the community.

Here’s what Aboriginal people told us based on their experience

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72% of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people surveyed found government services easy to access.

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68% of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people surveyed agreed that services delivered on our commitment to act with empathy.

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65% of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people surveyed agreed that their time was respected throughout their service experience.

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70% of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people surveyed agreed that services explained what to expect.

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74% of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people surveyed agreed that their situation was resolved.

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60% of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people surveyed agreed that the government is engaging with customers to ask for feedback and how they want services to be delivered.

Case study

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Supporting Aboriginal students to attain the HSC

Aboriginal Learning and Engagement Centres are helping to improve educational outcomes for Aboriginal students.

Find out more about the report

Case studies

See examples of how we embed a customer focused approach to services, programs and initiatives.

Customers

Find out how our customers are experiencing our services. They include the people, communities and businesses of NSW.

Customer Commitments

Read about our promise to customers on what to expect when interacting with our services.

Key metrics

Find how State of the Customer reports on our goal to deliver easy, effective, and trustworthy services.

Services

See a range of services we deliver that cater to customers with different needs and circumstances.

Home

Return to the State of the Customer homepage. 

About the Aboriginal people and communities data

Source:
1 Australian Bureau of Statistics (ABS): 2021 Census of Population and Housing. Persons: Aboriginal & Torres Strait Islander - New South Wales.
2 Australian Bureau of Statistics (ABS): 2016 Census of Population and Housing. Persons: Aboriginal & Torres Strait Islander - New South Wales.

CXS Source: NSW Government Customer Experience Survey (CXS). About the survey methodology.

Fieldwork: January to June 2022.
Questions: Thinking about your experience with the government service…

  • How easy or difficult was it to do this?
  • How satisfied or dissatisfied were you with this experience?
  • To what extent do you trust the government service to be working in your best interests?
  • We would like your opinion on [CUSTOMER COMMITMENT]. Please indicate how strongly you agree or disagree with each of the statements below.

Base: Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people who have interacted with government services in the last 12 months.
Sample sizes: Ease and Satisfaction (n=453), Trust (n=457), Customer Commitments (various n=405 to 457).
Definitions and notes:

  • Ease of service is calculated as the percentage of customers that selected ‘Very easy’ or ‘Somewhat easy’.
  • Satisfaction with service is calculated as the percentage of customers that selected ‘Very satisfied’ or ‘Somewhat satisfied’.
  • Trust in service is calculated as the percentage of customers that selected ‘Trust a great deal’ or ‘Somewhat trust’.
  • Responses to the Customer Commitment questions are calculated as the percentage of customers that selected ‘Strongly agree’ or ‘Somewhat agree’ and it excludes ‘Not applicable’ responses.
  • The NSW Government Customer Experience Survey (CXS) is conducted online and as such may not provide a full representation of the Aboriginal population.
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