Policy approaches to addressing Aboriginal social inclusion in South Australia

The concept of social inclusion has been influential in shaping many aspects of social policy in Australia over the past decade. In SA the Rann Labor government established a Social Inclusion Board in 2002, which made an important contribution to development of the SA Strategic Plan that framed SA policy directions under that government. This article considers the relevance of the concept of social inclusion for addressing the disadvantage experienced by Aboriginal South Australians. It examines the SA Social Inclusion initiative and some national measures such as the Overcoming Indigenous Disadvantage and Closing the Gap initiatives and discusses the appropriateness of the methodology adopted. A number of issues are addressed: the extent of Indigenous involvement in setting targets and devising programs to achieve improved social outcomes, the relevance of the targets identified, and the problem of overlapping policy initiatives at state and national level obscuring the measurement of change against specific indicators. A particular concern is that the social inclusion approach embedded in these policies pays too little attention to the priorities and preferences of Aboriginal people and interprets ‘inclusion’ in ways that assert the cultural paradigm of non‐Indigenous Australians.     

The Good Life: what about the children?

This paper is a reflective historical survey of how Australia, despite its affluence, has not delivered ‘the good life’ to poor Australians, both indigenous and non‐indigenous. It argues that, contrary to our national mythology, this country was founded on institutionalised social inequality and on the exclusion of Indigenous people from land rights, property and equal citizenship. As one of the world's twenty richest countries, we perform poorly across a wide range of social and health indicators because we suffer from entrenched, systemic and growing inequality. If we are to survive the challenges that face us from climate change and the global financial crisis, we need to shape policies that mitigate income and social inequality and that promote inclusion and better social cohesion.     

Anti-Racism and Indigenous Australians

Indigenous Australians constitute approximately 2.4% of the Australian population and suffer from disadvantage across a range of social, economic, and health indicators compared to other Australians, including exposure to racism across all domains of contemporary Australian society. However, there has been relatively little research conducted on anti-racism in relation to Indigenous Australians. This article begins with an overview of theoretical issues pertinent to the empirical study and public policy of anti-racism. Empirical findings, from social psychology, on effective approaches to anti-racism at the cognitive, individual, interpersonal, and societal level as well as for the targets of racism are detailed with a particular focus on Indigenous Australians. Recommendations for improving and expanding institutional and legal policies to implement these approaches in relation to education and child-rearing, public service, law enforcement and media, as well as monitoring racism and promoting anti-racism in civil society, are then presented. To conclude, strategies for engendering political will to combat racism in the current neoliberal capitalist climate are explored.     

Financial Literacy and Superannuation Awareness of Indigenous Australians: Pilot Study Results

Financial literacy in the general Australian population and how to improve it is now firmly on the national agenda, partly as a result of compulsory superannuation. This paper reports the results of a pilot study which explored the financial literacy levels and superannuation knowledge of Indigenous Australians living in an urban environment. Previous studies have indicated that social disadvantage has a strong correlation with poor financial literacy but previous surveys of financial literacy in Australia have not reported specifically on the Indigenous population. Findings suggest that in some areas financial literacy is significantly weaker than that in the general population. Several of the areas of comparative weakness relate to an over belief in the role of government and the extent to which financial matters are regulated. There is also a high level of desire for financial education and information but a lower level of usage of potential sources of financial information. The findings suggest that a closing of the financial literacy gap is required.     

Perceptions of Reconciliation and related Indigenous Issues among Young Residents of Shepparton

It has been argued that reconciliation between Indigenous and non‐Indigenous Australians requires non‐Indigenous Australians to change their attitudes. Some suggest that this process is occurring and that younger people hold more positive attitudes towards Indigenous Australians. This paper explored the perspectives of 86 young people from Shepparton, Victoria in relation to reconciliation and related Indigenous issues. The study found that young participants' views of reconciliation varied, and while some supported reconciliation, many opposed a national apology and indicated that they were not very informed about or interested in Aboriginal issues. Many distinguished between ‘good’ and ‘bad’ Aboriginals based on behaviour. Their talk was embedded with notions of special privilege, ‘sameness’ and social hierarchy but excluded attention to cultural difference. Findings suggest that these young people have embraced discourses of sameness, individualism and ‘practical reconciliation’ and that they are reluctant to reflect on their position of White privilege.     

Disability poverty and ageing in regional Australia: The impact of disability income reforms for indigenous Australians

Australian disability policy has undergone considerable reform since the early 2000s. While recent research and scholarship has largely focused on the new National Disability Insurance Scheme, there is a dearth of research that examines the impact of reform to the Disability Support Pension, and even less so the effects on Indigenous Australians living with disability. This is surprising as a higher proportion of Indigenous Australians live with disability than the non‐Indigenous population. This article pays particular attention to the experiences of Aboriginal Australians who have acquired a disability after extensive years of working (25–40 years), yet are still of workforce age (less than 65 years of age). Because of tightened eligibility criteria for the Disability Support Pension, people in this group are placed onto the lower paid Newstart Allowance (general unemployment benefit). The article illustrates the high levels of poverty that Aboriginal Australians with disabilities experience daily, and the ongoing costs they incur in managing Newstart conditionality to maintain continued access to the general unemployment benefit.     

Evidence for the use of an algorithm in resolving inconsistent and missing Indigenous status in administrative data collections

Measures of the gap in living standards, life expectancy, education, health and employment between Indigenous and non‐Indigenous Australians are primarily derived from administrative data sources. However, Indigenous identification in these data sources is affected by administrative practices, missing data, inconsistency, and error. As these factors have changed over time, assessing whether the gap between Indigenous and non‐Indigenous Australians has changed over time, based on data unadjusted for these sources of error can potentially lead to misguided conclusions. Combining administrative data on the same individuals collected from different sources provides a method by which a more consistent derived Indigenous status can be applied across all records for an individual within a linked data environment. We used the Western Australian Data Linkage system to produce derived Indigenous statuses for individuals using a range of algorithms. We found that these algorithms reduced the amount of missing data and improved within‐individual consistency. Based on these findings, we recommend our Multi‐Stage Median algorithm be used as the standard indicator of Indigenous status for any reporting based on administrative datasets when multiple datasets are available for linkage, and that algorithmic approaches also be considered for improving the quality of other demographic variables from administrative data sources.     

Indigenous Australians and Impaired Decision‐Making Capacity

This article explores issues associated with impaired decision‐making capacity for Indigenous Australians. There is very little published on the subject of impaired decision‐making capacity in Australia, particularly in relation to Indigenous people. To gain some insight into this subject, this article looks at some indicators of impaired decision‐making capacity for Indigenous Australians such as rates of intellectual disability and mental illness. The Australian state‐based Guardianship and Administration system—the legislative framework designed to provide for decision‐making for people with impaired capacity—is briefly described before looking at the cultural relevance of this Western system and its constructs for Indigenous Australians. Future investigation should be directed at exploring existing and alternative strategies to support Indigenous Australians with impaired capacity and their carers.     

Interrogating the hybrid economy approach to Indigenous development

In the contemporary debate about remote Indigenous economic development, Jon Altman's hybrid economy approach is the major alternative to the dominant neo‐liberal perspective. Altman's approach emphasises the continuing customary economic activity of remote‐living Indigenous Australians and their legitimate aspirations to live and work on their ancestral lands. Based on a close reading of Altman's writings, this paper analyses the hybrid economy model – which is grounded in Altman's observations of outstation life in Arnhem Land – and the approach to economic development Altman derives from it. It makes explicit the numerous assumptions underpinning the hybrid economy approach to Indigenous development. Some of these assumptions are more controversial than others. It is argued that while Altman's approach celebrates the unique skills and contributions of culturally‐connected Indigenous people, it is predicated on a pessimistic assessment of the likelihood of mainstream education and employment ‘closing the gap‘.     

Good Practice in the Education of Children in Residential Care

Correspondence to The Directors, New Horizons (Child Care) Ltd., Unit B, Silkmoor, New Street, Frankwell, Shrewsbury, Shropshire SY3 8LN, UK. E-mail info{at}new-horizonschildcare.co.uk Summary Research shows that the education of children in residentialcare is generally poor, in terms of both process and outcome.This has highlighted the uncertainty over how best to educatethese children and a pessimism over what they can achieve. Drawingupon the findings of an evaluation of a children’s home,this paper argues that children in residential care can havegood educational outcomes. It also shows that it is possibleto identify the processes by which these outcomes can be broughtabout. However, this largely positive assessment is predicatedupon education being defined broadly in respect of ‘process’and ‘outcome’. Moreover, it is important not tounderestimate the formidable challenges inherent in this work.While the multi-agency nature of this work gives rise to oneof the most significant, it has to be recognized that responsibilityfor the education of children in residential care falls primarilyto children’s homes. If children’s homes are tomeet the increasing expectations that are being made of them,national and local government will have to undertake a radicaltransformation of residential childcare, especially in termsof attitudes towards, and resources invested in, this sector.Central to this is the establishment of a qualified and properlysupported workforce.     

Statistical equality and cultural difference in Indigenous wellbeing frameworks: A new expression of an enduring debate

Recent years have seen a burgeoning interest in developing indicator frameworks for ‘Indigenous wellbeing’. Implicit in each of the frameworks are particular conceptions of what constitutes the ‘good life’ for Indigenous peoples and what ‘Indigenous development’ should entail. In developing these frameworks, then, certain judgements must be made about whether statistical equality should be prioritised as a ‘development’ goal. This issue has generated long‐standing debate and in this context must be broached anew. In this paper we briefly examine the growing interest in Indigenous wellbeing and outline three prominent indicator frameworks: the Productivity Commission's indicators for ‘Overcoming Indigenous Disadvantage’; the ‘capability indicators’ developed by the Cape York Institute for Policy and Leadership; and the indicators of wellbeing developed by the United Nations Permanent Forum on Indigenous Issues. The first prioritises statistical equality between Indigenous and non‐Indigenous Australians; the second adds a concern with ‘capabilities’; and the last emphasises the importance of distinct cultural preferences. We offer an assessment of these approaches, drawing in part on Amartya Sen's work. We argue that in seeking to improve the wellbeing of Indigenous Australians, policy‐makers should not only make their own normative assumptions clear, but also be aware of the implications of their decisions for constituents with different worldviews.     

Reimagining the Northern Territory Intervention: Institutional and cultural interventions into the Anglo‐Australian imaginary

This paper draws on the example of the Northern Territory Intervention to examine the role of Australia's broader socio‐cultural context in maintaining racist policies concerning Indigenous self‐governance. Central to this paper is the claim that legislative, constitutional, and other structural reforms are limited on their own to prevent institutional practices of violence and exclusion that are bound up with popular ways of imagining Indigenous and non‐Indigenous identities. In light of the potential limitations of top‐down reforms to prevent the perpetuation of discriminatory policymaking in relation to Australia's First Peoples, this paper explores the value of bottom‐up initiatives that constructively engage the imaginative, affective, and reflective capacities of individuals to facilitate a ‘critical re‐imagining’ (The Epistemology of Resistance: Gender and Racial Oppression, Epistemic Injustice, and Resistant Imaginations, Oxford University Press, 2013) of Indigenous Australians as social and political actors. Developing and supporting such initiatives, on this view, is integral to the wider task of promoting and protecting Indigenous rights, interests, and entitlements.     

The vexed link between social capital and social mobility for Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people

Overcoming the socio‐economic disparity between Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander and non‐Indigenous Australians is a long‐standing social policy objective: one largely shared by Indigenous people. Achievement will require Indigenous individuals and households to be socially mobile, a process integrally involved with social capital, existing and requisite. The lack of research on Indigenous social mobility or its attendant social capital connections is addressed in this paper through an exploratory analysis of this interaction across three dimensions: distinctive patterns of Indigenous social capital; the transferability of Indigenous social capital; and traversing the social capital divide. The implications drawn, while tentative, indicate that for Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people the intersection of the processes of social mobility and social capital is vexed, and contains hazards and costs not fully shared by socially mobile non‐Indigenous households. The Indigenous‐specific factors of a gendered professional class, the identity–social capital link, and Indigenous labour market circumstances all indicate that more research and a more nuanced understanding of Indigenous social mobility is necessary. Social policy recommendations include broadening the concept of cultural leave to include bonding social capital obligations, especially for women, and re‐evaluation of how to support Indigenous career trajectories and transferable skill sets.     

Can increased educational attainment explain declining Indigenous fertility?

Prior research shows that Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander women are more likely to have children and have more children, on average, than non-Indigenous women. However, like those of the total Australian population, fertility rates of Indigenous women have been declining since the 1970s. The decline has been more significant in recent years. Between 2006 and 2016, an increasing proportion of Indigenous women postponed childbirth from their teens into their 20s and 30s, leading women to have fewer children over their lifetimes. During the same period, there was a rapid increase in educational attainment among the Indigenous population. This paper examines educational gradients in fertility among Indigenous women and whether the observed fertility decline is linked with the increased educational attainment. Using data from the 2006, 2011 and 2016 Australian Census of Population and Housing and applying a shift-share decomposition analysis, we find that education has been a big driver of falling fertility rates in non-remote areas. In remote areas, education has had a much smaller effect (except for youngest women).     

“DEREGULATING POVERTY”: LIBERAL-NATIONAL COALITION GOVERNMENT POLICIES AND YOUNG PEOPLE

It has come to be almost cliché to say that young people are among those Australians most deeply affected by the restructuring and globalisation which have reshaped the Australian experience since the early 1980s. Youth unemployment and a dramatic decline in the quantity of full-time employment available to 16–24 year olds, and especially to 16–19 year olds, have been accompanied by declining incomes and increasing dependency on parents and social security benefits by young Australians. Winning office in March 1996 after 13 years of Labor government, and with a mandate to implement a reform agenda directed in part at improving employment prospects for young Australians, the Howard Liberal-National Coalition government has pursued policies which impact heavily on the lives of many young Australians.     

Government support for Indigenous cultural and natural resource management in Australia: The role of the Working on Country program

In Australia national concerns about climate change, biodiversity loss, water quantity and quality and land degradation have high priority on the government's environment agenda. With this comes the opportunity to strategically integrate Indigenous land and sea management into plans for tackling these challenges, not least because the Indigenous estate—which includes some of the most biodiverse lands in Australia—continues to increase as a result of successful land and native title claims and the declaration of more Indigenous Protected Areas. This paper explores government support for Indigenous land and sea management focusing on the Commonwealth government's Working on Country program. The paper outlines the development of formalised Indigenous cultural and natural resource management, and the emergence of the Working on Country program is discussed in the past and current policy context. The opportunities and challenges for the future of the program, and formalised Indigenous land and sea management in Australia more broadly, are outlined. To finish, a note of cautious optimism: while an expanded Working on Country program underpinned by community‐led priorities and aspirations has the potential to simultaneously ameliorate Indigenous poverty and ensure natural resource management occurs, this will require targeted investment and a more holistic and less sectoral approach from government.     

Public Opinion On Taxes And Government Spending

This article analyses egalitarian attitudes as well as opinions concerning taxation and government spending. Australians would prefer to have their taxes reduced than to increase government spending on social services, if faced with such an alternative. Typical welfare programs have a low priority, but the public would like to see increased spending on education and science, health services, roads improvements, military defence, and fighting against drug addiction. An individual's opinions about government spending are influenced by his or her socio-economic characteristics, with unemployed people and urban dwellers being more supportive of government spending on social programs.     

Social Insurance and Older Adults in China: Effect of Education and Household Income on Coverage Following the 2009 Health Reform

Abstract

Education and income have been considered two primary determinants to affect individuals’ health outcomes. China initiated a comprehensive health reform in 2009, with the goals to provide equal access yet sufficient healthcare to all residents. However, social disparities continue to persist following this large reform. This research hypothesized that older adults’ years of education and income are determinants of participation in each social insurance scheme following the 2009 health reform. Multilevel logistic regression models were used with a nationally representative sample (n?=?5,274) to investigate the education and income disparities in each social insurance scheme for older adults, with random effects among provinces at the national level. The analyses show that years of education was not associated with enrollment in three social insurances, with the exception of the association between 11?years of formal education or above and the rural coverage. Participants with higher levels of household income had greater odds of having urban social insurances, but had lower odds of having the rural scheme. Further research should continue to investigate the disparities of enrollment of each social insurance. Chinese policy makers should consider these social factors carefully to reach a true universal coverage.     

Government perspectives on housing,technology and support design within Australia's National Disability Strategy

Australia's National Disability Insurance Scheme (NDIS) is a significant disability reform and part of a 10‐year National Disability Strategy that aims to build well‐being and inclusion of Australians with disability. Housing is recognised as a key determinant of health. Transition of state‐funded supported accommodation to an NDIS, within the new Specialist Disability Accommodation framework, aims to deliver housing responses that positively influence NDIS participant outcomes. This study aimed to gather perspectives of government disability and housing representatives on current opportunities and issues for Australians with disability. The study investigated four key research questions, relating to built design; integrated technologies; the relationship between housing and support provision; and community precinct design. Nineteen government representatives from seven of the eight Australian states and territories participated in a roundtable focus group in Melbourne, Australia (March 2017). Focus group data were audiotaped, transcribed verbatim and thematically analysed. Twelve themes were identified in response to the research questions identified. Key policy and practice implications were highlighted. This research offers insights from government that can contribute to strategic housing, technology, support and community design decisions and Australia's National Disability Strategy, to deliver improved outcomes for people with disability.     

PUBLIC ATTITUDES TOWARDS GOVERNMENT SPENDING ON HEALTH CARE

One of the most vigorously debated topics in the area of health care is the proportion of health care costs that should be borne by the government, rather than by the individual. Using nationally representative data, the views of Australian citizens on this issue are explored. The findings suggest that the majority of Australians favour increased spending on health by the government. Multiple regression analyses indicate that in addition to various sociodemographic factors, political partisanship and political efficacy are strong, significant predictors of attitudes towards health spending by the government. The policy implications of these findings are discussed.