The prime minister, Malcolm Turnbull, has brushed off claims the federal government has ditched the Closing the Gap strategy to improve the lives of Indigenous Australians, saying it is expanding the program and devoting more money to the cause.

A damning report by the Close the Gap campaign accused successive governments of poorly implementing and “effectively abandoning” the 25-year strategy to achieve health parity by 2030, highlighting in particular the Abbott government’s $530m cut to Indigenous affairs in the 2014 budget.

The campaign, which was the push behind the formation of the Closing the Gap strategy 10 years ago, held its annual breakfast in Canberra on Thursday.

It said the gap in life expectancy between Indigenous and non-Indigenous Australians had widened in the 10 years since the policy was introduced and that without a dramatic overhaul to address structural issues underlying health inequality in Australia, the Closing the Gap targets would “measure nothing but the collective failure of Australian governments to work together and to stay the course”.

Turnbull attended the breakfast but was criticised for leaving shortly after Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander commissioner June Oscar’s speech, even though his early exit had been prearranged.

Speaking in parliament later, he defended his government’s handling of Indigenous affairs.

“The proposition that the government is cutting funding for Indigenous affairs is simply wrong,” he said. “We are putting more resources into Indigenous advancement all the time.”

Labor senator Pat Dodson condemned Turnbull’s decision to leave the meeting early, saying he hoped it drew international criticism.

“This is the leader of our country, and this is a major event, this is an international event,” Dodson said. “This will go overseas, and if anyone focused on the leader of this nation walking out on a major report by reputable Aboriginal leaders, they’d have to think, well, we really do feel for the Indigenous people.”

The federal government is in the process of “refreshing” the Closing the Gap strategy, with four of the seven targets due to expire this year.

Only one target – to halve the gap in year 12 attainment rates by 2020 – is currently on track.

More than 60 Indigenous delegates from every state and territory met in Canberra this week to discuss the proposed changes, with delegates telling Guardian Australia that attempts to broaden the discussion to look at structural issues both with the policy and in society had been hemmed in by members of the Department of Prime Minister and Cabinet, who narrowed the conversation to focus on what additional targets might be added.

The refresh is a key item on the agenda of the Council of Australian Governments meeting on Friday.

Dodson and fellow Labor senator Malarndirri McCarthy criticised the government for not including Labor or the crossbenchers in the refresh discussions, saying: “We don’t know what we’re going to be committing to.”

“Bipartisanship is always what Close the Gap was all about,” McCarthy said. “The one day of the parliamentary year where our country and all representatives in the parliament would focus on First Nations issues in this country … it’s an absolute disgrace that you have Indigenous members in this parliament who were not included, who were not invited, who have not been briefed on anything to do with Close the Gap.”