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.     

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.     

Nexus between drinking patterns,gender and life satisfaction: Some evidence from Indigenous Australians

Excessive alcohol consumption results in a broad range of health problems and other social issues, such as violence, social disorder and family breakdown. As such, alcohol consumption is considered as a critical social policy issue in Australia. In this study, we have used ordered logit models to estimate the probability of an Indigenous person consuming alcohol and to assess the impact of alcohol consumption on self-perceived life satisfaction. A heteroscedasticity-corrected ordered logit model is used to identify the gender difference in such effects. For this purpose, we use the latest National Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Social Survey (NATSISS) 2014/2015 data collected by the Australian Bureau of Statistics. The estimation results reveal that age, gender, employment status, income and the experience of unfair treatments significantly affect Indigenous people's (level of) alcohol consumption. The results also reveal that any level of alcohol consumption is linked with reduced overall life satisfaction, which is another reason why prevention of alcohol misuse should be a priority. A significant gender differences in the medium-risk-level alcohol consumption were also observed. These findings could be used as an alcohol prevention message in developing and implementing alcohol prevention strategies and policies.     

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.     

Between Decentralized Planning and Neo-liberalism: Challenges for the Survival of the Indigenous People of Kerala, India

This paper examines the experiences of decentralization under successive political regimes in Kerala in the context of neo‐liberal policies, with reference to the impact on the lives of adivasi (indigenous) communities. The Communist Party‐led government had been implementing a home‐grown programme of decentralized planning since 1996 until it lost power to the Congress Party‐led conservative coalition in 2001. In the context of the accelerated structural adjustment and liberalization of the national government, the new government amended its predecessor's programme with a reduced role for the state bureaucratic and political actors in mobilizing people for planning and implementing projects at the local level. Based on a comparative analysis, the authors argue that the new programme has so far not been successful as regards enabling marginalized groups such as the indigenous communities to resist exclusion and move out of their states of deprivation. The study also shows that the withdrawal of the state from the social and economic sectors has adversely affected these groups.     

Gambling in Australian Indigenous communities: the state of play

Gambling has both positive aspects and negative effects for Australian Indigenous gamblers and families. While traditional card games organised by the communities themselves have been found to have important social value, there is increasing evidence that commercial gambling such as gaming machines (‘pokies‘), casinos and TAB betting has a range of far‐reaching negative social and economic consequences for Indigenous population groups. However an understanding of participation by Indigenous people in contemporary gambling is still undeveloped and is dominated by western concepts. The cultural distinctiveness and complexity of Indigenous Australia create profound conceptual and methodological difficulties with the potential to distort the research process and outcomes, as well as policy solutions. The current lack of understanding also impacts on the cultural relevance and effectiveness of service provision for Indigenous gamblers, their families and communities.     

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.     

Ideology,Evidence and Competing Principles in Australian Indigenous Affairs: From Brough to Rudd via Pearson and the NTER

This paper tracks the recent rise of an ‘ideology vs evidence’ discourse as a way of describing good and bad Indigenous affairs policy. It suggests that a more useful way of thinking about Indigenous affairs is the analytic of three competing principles: equality, choice and guardianship. The paper suggests that dominant debates in Indigenous affairs balance these principles and move between them over time. Using a fourfold categorisation of ideological tendencies, it also suggests that different tendencies of thought about settler society and its relations with Indigenous societies occupy different positions in relation to the three competing principles. Finally, using the work of the Northern Territory Emergency Response Review Board as an example, the paper examines the role of evidence in Indigenous affairs. Evidence, it argues, always needs to be contextualised: it is always a part of arguments or debates and needs to be understood in relation to the much larger issue of balancing competing principles.     

Indigenous family life in Australia: A history of difference and deficit

Indigenous family life has been a key target of family and child policies in Australia since colonisation. In this paper, we identify four main policy eras that have shaped the national and state policy frameworks that have impacted Indigenous families: the protectionism, assimilation, self-determination and neoliberalism eras. Our analysis of these national and state policy frameworks reveals an enduring and negative conceptualisation of Indigenous family life. This conceptualisation continues to position Indigenous families as deficient and dysfunctional compared with a white, Anglo-Australian family ideal. This contributes to the reproduction of paternalistic policy settings and the racialised hierarchies within them that entrench Indigenous disempowerment and reproduce Indigenous disadvantage. Further, it maintains a deficit paradigm that continues to obfuscate the positive aspects of Indigenous family life that are protective of Indigenous well-being.     

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.     

Yarning about gambling in Indigenous communities: an Aboriginal and Islander Mental Health Initiative

Gambling impacts upon the health, wellbeing and finances of many people throughout Australia. This study aimed to explore the socioeconomic and cultural factors linked with gambling in urban and remote Indigenous settings in the Northern Territory to inform the development of a gambling public health strategy. The Aboriginal and Islander Mental Health Initiative developed a semi‐structured questionnaire with Aboriginal partner organisations following consultation. Indigenous consumers of substance use treatment facilities participated in focus group discussions and key informant interviews were conducted with nine service providers at two time points, a year apart. Participants described key strengths in community as family, health and culture, while key worries included substance misuse, health concerns and family disharmony. Regulated gambling and card playing were also identified as important community worries. Financial and family concerns and addictive behaviour were seen as negative consequences of gambling. There was increasing concern linked with card playing and electronic gaming machines and an increased call for awareness campaigns, support from government for change and greater regulation. The findings of this study provide the most recent insight into attitudes, behaviours and consequences linked with Indigenous gambling in the Northern Territory.     

Closing the gap: the growing divide between poverty research and policy in Australia

This paper reviews major developments in Australian poverty research in the 50 years since the Melbourne poverty study established the Henderson measurement framework. It focuses on the limitations of the dominant, but narrow income (poverty line) approach used in Australia, contrasts it with the deprivation approach pioneered and refined in the United Kingdom, and shows how this provides more compelling evidence that poverty exists. Against the background of recent developments in international poverty research, the paper identifies existing gaps in Australia, and explores what needs to be done to address this situation. It then draws on international experience to examine how anti‐poverty policy has evolved, focusing on the role of poverty targets in producing better data and promoting debate between policy makers, researchers and community sector practitioners about developing better measures. Australia lags behind these developments: a new approach is needed that engages researchers, policy makers, and other key stakeholders in positive dialogue aimed at setting a new framework for poverty measurement and an achievable anti‐poverty policy agenda.     

浅析女性就业弱势及化解途径

就业是女性获得发展的重要方式,近年来女性就业中的非平等性越来越引起社会的关注。女性(尤其是高学历女性)就业弱势不仅大大影响妇女群体的整体素质及其可持续发展,而且必将制约整个社会文明的发展。本文揭示了女性就业弱势状况及原因,并对其解决途径进行了探讨。     

Diversity in the School Problems of Economically Disadvantaged Adolescents: Dual Pathways of Reading and Externalizing Problems

This study of economically disadvantaged 13-year-olds examined the relations between serious reading difficulties and clinical levels of externalizing behaviors in school. The variable-centered results showed that family variables, adolescent verbal ability, and negative emotion patterns differed in uniquely predicting reading achievement and externalizing behaviors. The person-centered analyses established robust groups of adolescents showing problems in a single domain, both domains, or neither domain, and that family and adolescent variables distinguished the adolescent groups in predictable ways. Longitudinal results available for a subsample showed that high problem levels for the groups were stable across elementary school and associated with first-grade characteristics. The results provide evidence for relatively independent pathways of reading and externalizing difficulties for young disadvantaged adolescents.     

北京市城乡居民收入分配差距变化的实证分析

改革开放后,北京市城乡居民收入分配差距不断扩大。分析结果表明:转移性收入差距和工资性收入差距表现明显;14个区县城乡居民收入分配差距规模出现了"两极分化"现象,但是不同功能区内部结果存在差异,城市功能拓展区和生态涵养发展区内的城乡居民收入分配差距规模正逐步缩小;城乡居民收入分配差距与经济发展水平基本适应,具有一定的合理性;今后城乡居民收入分配差距有可能继续扩大,但是城乡居民收入比的差距将逐渐缩小。特别值得注意的问题是,城市发展新区城乡居民收入分配差距规模可能明显扩大。     

北京与国内重点城市文化产业政策比较研究

文化产业政策的完善关系到文化产业的健康、稳定、持续发展,需要针对本地区文化资源特点和产业发展现状制定适合本地区的政策,以此调动发展文化产业的积极性和自主性。近几年,我国文化产业发展迅速,北京市作为中国的文化中心,在制定文化产业政策方面起到了一定的引领作用。但是包括上海、广州、深圳、杭州、南京等在内的重点城市也都把文化产业的发展放在了重要地位,颁布了一系列政策措施。本文选取上述几个重点城市,与北京进行文化产业政策的比较研究,从财政专项资金、税收、投融资、人才和集聚区等五个方面,剖析北京文化产业政策的优劣势所在,并为北京文化产业政策的优化完善提供建议。     

黑龙江省非国有经济发展优势及劣势分析

黑龙江省非国有经济在全省经济发展中具有集体经济所占比重大,个体私营经济发展较快等特点。在可持续发展、政策环境及外部条件等方面有一定优势,但在观念、规模、科技含量以及知识产权的保护等方面仍存在一些问题。     

透视中国的行政审判体制:问题与改革

行政审判体制问题是当前制约我国行政诉讼发展的重要因素 ,改革现行的行政审判体制已经成为我国司法改革的最主要内容之一。我国现行的行政审判体制面临的是全面性危机 ,问题突出表现为 :行政审判的独立性不强 ,法院在行政审判中的权威性严重缺乏 ,行政诉讼案件执行难 ;深层次来看 ,涉及到司法的地方化、司法的行政化、法官的官僚化等问题 ,使得行政审判中的司法公正难以实现。针对实践中暴露出的种种问题 ,文章在剖析成因后提出相应的对策 :在改革路径上应当推行整体性的结构化改革 ,在中国建构独立的行政法院制度才是改革的根本出路。     

构建和谐社会要重视刑事当事人与相关利益人的关系平衡——倡导以人为本的刑事和解文化

本文在构建和谐社会的语境下,从刑事和解机制入手,肯定刑事和解重视刑事当事人(被害人和犯罪人)与相关利益人的关系平衡是符合追求和谐社会目标的,进而提出要倡导以人为本的刑事和解文化。同时文章针对倡导刑事和解文化的理论基础与面临的困惑进行了深入的阐释与探讨。     

Assessing the impact of community programmes working with children and families in disadvantaged areas

Community programmes designed to improve the functioning of disadvantaged neighbourhoods and the families living there, as well as to reduce specific problems such as child abuse and youth offending, are currently very popular with the UK government. However, whilst there is considerable knowledge about the structural causes of individual and neighbourhood disadvantage in UK society, evidence about the role that community programmes can play in addressing these inequalities is much more limited. The evidence that does exist tends either to have been imported from other parts of the world (notably the USA), or to be in the early stages of evaluation in the UK, with the initial findings sometimes proving rather unconvincing. In particular, the limitations of targeted funding, and the difficulties of establishing and maintaining the effective partnerships upon which successful programmes rely, are emerging as significant issues. In this paper the implications of these findings for the future of children's services is considered, in the context of ever‐widening inequalities in UK society and the government's plans for children's trusts, integrated children's centres, and extended schools, involving multi‐agency working between health, education and social services.