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The National Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Education Policy (AEP) was launched in 1989. Its primary objective is to bring about equity in education and training for Aboriginal Australians. The Commonwealth provides funding through the Indigenous Education Strategic Initiatives Program (IESIP) to support the AEP, which is administered on a quadrennial basis. IESIP is an “equity” program that supplements existing efforts by education authorities. The year 2005 is the first year of the new Commonwealth IESIP funding quadrennium 2005-2008.

One of the key objectives of the AEP is to ensure that Aboriginal people are able to be involved in decision making relating to their education and training. This has been formally achieved by the Commonwealth government seeking advice at a national level, the States and Territories supporting state based independent advisory groups, education and training authorities seeking advice at a local and district level, and also at a system level as in the case of the Catholic Education Office.

The Western Australian Aboriginal Education and Training Council (AETC) is an independent body that was established in 1995 in response to Recommendation 139 of the Report of the Western Australian Task Force on Aboriginal Social Justice. This recommendation is closely linked to the objectives of the AEP, and also to the 8 priority areas established by the Ministerial Council on Education, Employment, Training and Youth Affairs (MCEETYA) in 1995 for Indigenous education and training.