Prime Minister Tony Abbott has told Parliament that the nation is failing to meet the "more important and the more meaningful targets" in Indigenous disadvantage, and has announced a new target to close the gap on school attendance.

Mr Abbott has delivered this year's Closing the Gap report, which covers areas such as life expectancy, education and unemployment, and aims to breach the divide between Indigenous and non-Indigenous Australians by 2030.

He told MPs that the targets to halve the gap in child mortality within a decade and to have 95 per cent of remote children enrolled in preschool are on track.

However, he revealed the "bad news" that there has been almost no progress in closing the life expectancy gap and very little improvement in literacy.

"And Indigenous employment, I deeply regret to say, has, if anything, slipped backwards over the past few years," he said.

"So we are not on track to achieve the more important and the more meaningful targets.

"Because it's hard to be literate and numerate without attending school.

"It's hard to find work without a basic education and it's hard to live well without a job."

The report states that non-Indigenous Australians live about 10 years longer than Aboriginal Australians, that the progress in closing the gap in literacy has improved in only Year 3 and Year 5 Reading (based on NAPLAN results) and that only 30 per cent of Indigenous adults in remote areas were employed in a mainstream job.

See how Australia is faring in meeting its goals to overcome Indigenous disadvantage.

Abbott sets new target for school attendance

As part of his first Closing the Gap report, Mr Abbott, who is also the minister responsible for Indigenous affairs, announced he wants to set a new target to close the gap between Indigenous and non-Indigenous school attendance within five years.

"We are all passionate to close the gap," he said.

"We may be doomed to fail, I fear, until we achieve the most basic target of all: the expectation that every child will attend school every day."

Mr Abbott said that in remote areas, only 31 per cent of Indigenous students met the national standards for reading skills.

"Yet it's being demonstrated in places like Aurukun that a strong education in traditional culture is actually helped by a good education in English," he said.

"Right around our country, it should be possible to be proudly Aboriginal and a full participant in modern Australia.

"That doesn't just mean access to a good education in cities, towns and remote settlements - it means actually going to school.

"One of the worst forms of neglect is failing to give children the education they need for a decent life."

The Prime Minister said when school attendance is above 90 per cent for all schools, regardless of the number of Aboriginal students enrolled, the gap will have been closed.

Opposition Leader Bill Shorten has said the ALP will support Mr Abbott's move.

Sorry, this video has expired Warren Mundine says action needed to Close the Gap ( Joe O'Brien )

"And we hope that the 44th Parliament will build upon the progress of the 42nd and the 43rd," he said.

"But the challenge of Closing The Gap does not belong to the Parliament alone. It belongs to the nation and the work of our generation.

"Success will only come when Aboriginal people are central to the political process, not just subject to it.

"Let us empower Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander families, teachers, nurses, not-for-profits and business to tell us what works - rather than demanding policies that fit the rhetoric of the moment - an approach that empowers, not directives from the top-down.

"Aboriginal people deserve better than being told it's as simple as: 'go to school, go to work' and 'obey the law'.

In his reply to the report, Mr Shorten focused on the bipartisan support for Indigenous recognition in the Constitution and the damage caused by alcohol abuse.

'Canberra-centric policy'

"The rivers of grog are flowing again - and violence is being borne along in their current," he said.

Warren Mundine, who chairs the Government's Indigenous advisory council, says the speeches were heartening but action is now needed.

He is pushing to get a 100 per cent school attendance rate by the end of the year.

"That's a personal commitment I have given to myself. If I have to personally go out in these communities and work with those parents and work with those community leadership and those kids, I will do that," he said.

"The Minister's also made a commitment to that as well because you can't get an education if you're not at school.

"From there we need the work on what they have been taught and how to make the schools more attractive, but unless the kids are going to school we're wasting our time."

Indigenous parliamentarians say there is still much work to be done

Earlier today, the first female Indigenous federal parliamentarian, NT Labor Senator Nova Peris, said women in the Territory were 80 times more likely to be hospitalised due to assault than non-Indigenous Territorians.

"As of right now, life is not a bed of roses for Aboriginal people," she said.

"This is a horrific statistic that no Australian should accept.

"Whilst the Northern Territory has made more progress towards closing the gap targets than any other jurisdiction, I fear that our gains may be lost."

The nation's first Indigenous MP, the Liberal member for Hasluck, Ken Wyatt, said: "We've still got a lot of work to do."

"I think the issues of incarceration rates, certainly employment and long-term [school] attendance, are important measures that we have to achieve," he told ABC News 24's Capital Hill program.

"Education is the way in which we acquire knowledge, make discernible choices and then pick opportunities and take opportunities that give us a better pathway."

Northern Territory Health Minister Robyn Lamley welcomes the Federal Government's focus on Indigenous school attendance.

"I think education, getting kids to school, is an obvious area that we need to work on," she said.

"We are closing the gap in lots of respects in health, in fact we are leading the way in lots of measures.

"We've got to keep working on this, obviously a large proportion of our population is Indigenous so the emphasis is on us to continue to provide top quality services throughout the Territory.

"It is a huge challenge."

Indigenous affairs close to PM's heart

Mr Abbott has emphasised how "personal" the issue is to him and, in a speech he wrote himself, has spoken of his visits to Indigenous communities and the time he spent, while an MP, as a teacher's aide and a truancy helper.

"Many of us have been on a long journey. I can't say that I have always been where I am now," he said.

Tony Abbott speaking at a morning tea after he delivered the report to Parliament ( AAP: Alan Porritt )

"The further this journey has gone, the more, for me, Aboriginal policy has become personal rather than just political.

"It has become a personal mission to help my fellow Australians, to open their hearts as much as to change their minds on Aboriginal policy."

Mr Abbott said that he will spend a week in East Arnhem Land later this year and will make Indigenous affairs "if only for a few days, the focus of our national Government".

"There is probably no aspect of public policy on which there is more unity of purpose and readiness to give others the benefit of the doubt," he told federal MPs.

"On this subject at least, our Parliament is at its best and our duty is to make the most of this precious moment."

This is the sixth annual Closing the Gap report.