Targets set for improvements in Australia's health, housing and education are not being met, a report has found.
Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull will sit down with premiers and chief ministers for the Council of Australian Governments (COAG) meeting in Sydney on December 11.
Ahead of the meeting, a new report card shows federal and state governments are falling well short of benchmarks in key policy areas where they are co-operating.
The COAG Report on Performance 2015, published on the COAG website, found three areas going backwards.
They were the proportion of vocational education and training graduates with improved employment status after training, the proportion of people with disabilities participating in community activities and young people taking part in post-school education, training or jobs.
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Steps to lift indigenous home ownership and cut the number of low-income renter households in rental stress were "not on track".
Goals to reduce smoking rates and obesity were also not on track.
No improvement was being made on increasing the number of aged care places per 1000 older people.
And on indigenous matters, the report card marked down efforts in closing the life expectancy gap, providing access to early childhood education, improving literacy and numeracy and trying to halve the gap in employment outcomes.
However, there were some improvements in waiting times for emergency hospital care, life expectancy and work towards halving the mortality rate for indigenous children.
The 62-page report - the first of its kind since the scrapping of the independent COAG Reform Council - will make grim reading for the leaders, who are meeting with Mr Turnbull to discuss a new economic reform agenda.
The day before COAG meeting, state and territory treasurers will meet with their federal counterpart, Scott Morrison, to discuss options for tax reform.
