The Turnbull Government will push the states to introduce targets aimed at reducing spiraling Indigenous incarceration levels in a clear demonstration of willingness to improve relations with Aboriginal leaders.
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The issue was one of many discussed at what Indigenous Affairs Minister Nigel Scullion later described as a "cracker of a meeting" with around 20 Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander leaders in Melbourne on Wednesday.
Senator Scullion agreed that incarceration levels and other key issues would be the subject of separate day-long discussions and be high on the agenda of the next meeting of state and federal leaders.
While the former prime minister, Tony Abbott, strongly resisted justice targets, Malcolm Turnbull expressed a willingness to revisit the issue after toppling Mr Abbott last year.
Like Mr Abbott, Senator Scullion has strongly resisted calls for justice targets to be included in the annual Closing the Gap report card, despite Indigenous leaders, the Labor Party and the Greens strongly supporting them, but the minister has shifted his position.
Senator Scullion said after the meeting he still believed targets aimed at reducing imprisonment rates were meaningless if embraced by the Commonwealth alone.
"The Commonwealth can't have a justice target because we have none of the levers to effect he outcomes in terms of incarceration or the justice system, but the states and territories do," he told the ABC.
"We believe a target at a state and territory level, where they have all the levers, can make real inroads. We want to work with the states in ensuring that we use whatever levers we can and whatever persuasion we can for them to adopt the justice targets."
After a sustained period of strained relations, Senator Scullion said the meeting was characterised by "goodwill, lots of new information and lots of determination to work better together".
Rod Little, co-chairman of National Congress of Australia's First Peoples, agreed, telling Fairfax Media he believed Senator Scullion had heard the message from Indigenous leaders "loud and clear" and would be taking it to ministerial colleagues at all levels of government.
"This is the first step in a journey of engagement about how we can do things better to get the outcomes we need," Mr Little said.
At the meeting were representatives of 18 bodies that released the Redfern Statement during the federal election calling for "a more just approach to to Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Affairs".
The statement lamented a quarter of a century of policy failure, characterised by broken promises and a failure to act on a host of reports by experts or to listen to Indigenous voices.
Mr Little said the meeting provided an opportunity to develop a greater degree of understanding and mutual appreciation of the complexity of a policy areas that required a whole of government approach.
He said next steps must include a meeting between the Prime Minister and the leading signatories of the Redfern Statement and at least an annual national summit with the Prime Minister and his cabinet "to share knowledge between Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander and Government representatives".
Senator Scullion said he had listened closely to the views of a range of Indigenous leaders and acknowledged the significant areas "where we share common ground".
"The Coalition Government is deeply committed to working with Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people to bring about the changes necessary to deliver better outcomes for Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people," he said.
