In December 2007 the Council of Australian Governments (COAG) committed to inter-jurisdictional cooperation in the reform of Indigenous Australians’ health and wellbeing – the ‘Closing the Gap’ initiative in Indigenous disadvantage. This involves setting targets to close the life expectancy gap within a generation (by 2030) and to halve the gap in mortality rates for Indigenous children under five years of age within a decade (by 2018). Ensuring optimal uptake of these new measures will require improving identification of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people at mainstream general practices.