Australian Government Social Policy- Where are Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander People Positioned in Policy-making?
Keywords:
Policy, Aboriginal social policy, socio-economic outcomes, closing the gap, policy analysisAbstract
For too long Australian State and Federal, Governments have excluded Australian Aboriginal people from the planning, design, and implementation stages of social policies. Annually updated socio-economic outcomes for Aboriginal Australians in the Closing the Gap Report reveal a “minimal change in health and education outcomes, housing needs, and socio-economic outcomes” (Lowitja Institute, 2022, p. 14). The data from the 2022 Productivity Commission Report confirm this statement stating that “Education, employment, health and wellbeing, interaction with the criminal justice system, access to land and waters, and strength of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander cultures and languages” (Productivity Commission, 2022, p. 19) are targeted areas for improvement in socio-economic outcomes.
The design and implementation of Government social policies is a critical point of engagement between Aboriginal Australians and Australian Commonwealth and State Governments. Changing socio-economic outcomes require a major shift in how, why, and what policies are being planned, as well as ascertaining who will be responsible for the implementation. Being able to navigate a complex system of bureaucracy means having a presence in that process. Without a presence it is difficult to achieve targeted outcomes that are identified, to improve socio-economic living standards. Historically, Governments control and manage policy-making however, it is essential for Aboriginal people to access key entry points of policy-making, to secure Aboriginal involvement; Aboriginal decision-making and finding solutions to ongoing policy issues, that have occurred for many years.
References
Aboriginal Child, Family and Community Care State Secretariat. (2008). Submission to the Special Commission of Inquiry into Child Protection Services in New South Wales. AbSec.
Aboriginal child, Family and Community Care State Secretariat. (2022). Who we are. https://absec.org.au/who-we-are/
Althaus, C., Bridgman, P., & Davis, G. (2007). The Australian policy handbook (4th ed.), Allen & Unwin.
Bacchi, C. (2009). Analysing policy: What's the problem represented to be? Pearson.
Behrendt, L. (2003). Achieving social justice, - Indigenous rights and Australia's future. The Federation Press.
Bennett, B. (2019). The importance of Aboriginal History for practitioners. In B. Bennett and S. Green (Eds.) Our voices – Aboriginal social work (pp. 10, 22). Red Globe Press.
Colebatch, H.K. (2009). Policy (2nd issue). Open University Press.
Colebatch, H.K. (2018). What work makes policy? Policy Sciences, 39 (4), 309-321.
Commonwealth of Australia, Department of the Prime Minister and Cabinet, Closing the Gap Report 2020. https://apo.org.au/node/275101
Davis, J., Wanna, J., Warhurst, J. & Weller, P. (1993). Public policy in Australia (2nd ed.). Allen and Unwin.
Fenna, A. (2004). Australian public policy. Pearson Education Australia.
Goodall, H. (1996). Invasion to embassy. Allen & Unwin Pty. Ltd.
Goodwin, S. (2010). Analysing policy as discourse Methodological advances in policy analysis. In L. Markauskaite, P. Freebody & J. Irwin, (Eds.), Methodological choice and design (pp. 167-180). Springer.
Human Rights and Equal Opportunity Commission. (1997). National Inquiry into the separation of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander children from their families, Bringing them home. Commonwealth of Australia, Sterling Press Pty. Ltd.
Libesman, T. (2015/16). Indigenous child welfare post Bringing Them Home: From aspirations from self-determination to neoliberal assimilation. Australian Indigenous Law Review, 19(1), 46-60.
Lipsky, M. (1980). Street Level Bureaucracy: Dilemmas of the individual in public services. Russell Sage Foundation.
Lowitjia Institute. (2022). Closing the Gap Report. Writing and Editing Team: Dent, P., Mohamed, J., Rind, B., Smith, R., Thomson, E., Zissermann, K. The Closing the Gap Campaign Steering Committee.
Maddison, S. & Denniss, R. (2009). An introduction to Australian public policy. Cambridge University Press.
National Agreement. (2020). Commonwealth Government, Department of the Prime Minister and Cabinet: Closing the Gap, https://www.closingthegap.gov.au/sites/default/files/2022-09/ctg-national-agreement_apr-21-comm-infra-targets-updated-24-august-2022_0.pdf
Patrick, R., & Moodie N. (2016). Indigenous education policy – Discourses in Australia. In T. Barkatsas & A. Bertram (Eds.), Global learning in the 21st century, (pp 165–184). Sense Publishers.
New South Wales Law Reform Commission. (1997). Aboriginal child placement principle, Research report 7: The origins of the principle. NSW Law Reform Commission.
Parbury, N. (1988). Survival: A history of Aboriginal life in NSW. David Ell Publishing.
Patrick, R., and Moodie N. (2016). Indigenous education policy – discourses in Australia. In T. Barkatsas and A. Bertram (Eds.), Global learning in the 21st century, (pp. 165–184). Sense Publishers.
Prehn, J. (2019). How social work can improve the health and wellbeing of Aboriginal men. In B. Bennet and S. Green (Eds.), Our voices – Aboriginal social work (p. 157). Red Globe Press.
Productivity Commission (2022). Annual Data Compilation Report, https://www.pc.gov.au/closing-the-gap-data/annual-data-report/report. July.
Russ-Smith, J. (2019). Indigenous social work and a Wiradyuri framework to practice. In B. Bennet and S. Green (Eds.), Our voices – Aboriginal social work (p. 105). Red Globe Press.
Sanders, W. (2021). Big picture essays on Australian Indigenous policy: Deep structures and decolonising, Policy Insights Paper No. 05/2021. Centre for Aboriginal Economic Policy Research. The Australian National University. https://doi.org/10.25911/E6JF-VY08
Wilson. R. (1997). Bringing them home: Report of the national inquiry into the separation of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander children from their families. Canberra, Australia: Human Rights and Equal Opportunity Commission.
