iDIDJ Australia Didgeridoo Cultural Hub

[ididjaustralia]

Quote:

IT could take 2000 years before the life expectancy gap between indigenous and non-indigenous Australians is bridged, a group of academic researchers predict. Significant changes need to be made to government policy to close the gap more quickly, they say. Jon Altman, Boyd Hunter and Nicholas Biddle, from the Australian National University, have used census data to chart likely timeframes for closing gaps in various areas. They found that from 1971 to 2006 there was improvement in most social indicators, including employment, school qualification and school attendance. Based on present trends and policy, they estimated the gaps in those areas would be closed within 35 years. However, in other areas - including male and female life expectancy, median income and unemployment - the researchers found the gaps were not closing at all. They estimated it would take 2000 years before those gaps were closed. Professor Altman said the findings showed indigenous affairs policy was much more complex than thought. "For a number (of measurements) there is a divergence in outcomes, suggesting that the gaps will never close without significant policy changes," Prof Altman said in a statement. The researchers also found the latter half of the Howard government years (2001-2006) was more effective at closing the gaps than either the first half (1996-2001) or during the latter Hawke/Keating government years (1991-1996).

Source: AAP

Quote:

There is hope for indigenous people Jon Altman April 16, 2008 A GLANCE at media stories or listening to political discussion on indigenous affairs would suggest decades of policy have produced a quagmire of failure, where wellmeaning ideas battle with political ideologies and nobody wins. The truth, though, is somewhat more complicated — especially when use is made of historical official statistics. New research undertaken by Nicholas Biddle, Boyd Hunter and myself at the Centre for Aboriginal Economic Policy Research at the Australian National University uses census data from 1971 to 2006 to look at socioeconomic outcomes for the indigenous population over time. These official statistics have shortcomings: they can be used only for comparative purposes at the national level and so clearly mask the extreme indigenous disadvantage in many remote communities that have so dominated public debate. And they primarily reflect the values of the dominant society. However, all are collected by the Australian Bureau of Statistics, internationally renowned for impartiality; and they are the only long-term time series data currently available. The findings from this research are significant, surprising, and in some cases a wake up call for policy makers. Using key indicators to measure employment, housing, education and health status, the central planks of John Howard’s "practical reconciliation" and now of Kevin Rudd’s "closing the gaps", we found that most socioeconomic outcomes are better now than 35 years ago. In absolute terms indigenous unemployment and household size are lower and the employment to population ratio, private sector employment, median income (adjusted to 2006 dollars), home ownership, levels of post-school qualifications and the elderly proportion of the population are all higher. These results are all positive and somewhat surprisingly, some of the best outcomes were in the period 2001-2006 when the Howard government’s rhetoric framed indigenous affairs as a disaster. In relative terms — the ratio of indigenous to non-indigenous outcomes — the gaps are generally narrower today, although the convergences in outcomes are not consistent. Arguably, the older the data, the less meaningful is the comparison and so we estimate best-case scenarios of where we might be in closing the gaps in 35 years from two series of observations, 1971-2006 and 1996-2006. Such an exercise assumes that policy settings will be similar and that the macroeconomy will continue to expand at recent rates. We extrapolate outcomes for 13 variables from the longer series and 15 variables from the shorter series to 2041. Overall, we found that there are only a few outcomes such as the unemployment rate, private sector employment, post-school qualifi cations and per cent of adults who never attended school, where the gaps will be eliminated and there will be parity. For other variables, such as labour force participation, median income, home ownership, degree or higher qualification and population aged over 55 years, our estimates indicate that closing the gaps will take so much longer, over 100 years, that even contemplating such scenarios today becomes meaningless. For a number there is divergence rather than convergence, indicating that the gaps will never close without signifi cant structural changes. The recent commitments to close the gaps articulated by the Rudd Government are an imperative for a rich country like Australia. But the available statistical evidence suggests that gaps may never be entirely eliminated at the national level. This is primarily because indigenous and non-indigenous populations are distributed very differently. Numerous other cultural, structural and demographic factors as well as historical legacy and associated shortfalls also militate against statistical equality. What should the Federal Government do to break the "business as usual"gridlock that is delivering better outcomes, but not convergence, within a policy-realistic time frame? A fundamentally different policy framework is needed that will address the complex mix of factors that currently impedes a more rapid closing of the gaps. This new framework will be a worthy focus for the Options for The Future of Indigenous Australia stream at the 2020 Summit. It would need to address the following questions. What is a proper philosophical basis for indigenous policy that can accommodate the twin goals of ensuring indigenous outcomes get better, while distinct indigenous aspirations can be pursued? How can indigenous Australians be guaranteed basic citizenship entitlements on an equitable needs basis and catch up for past neglect? Is there a need to confer commercially valuable property rights alongside land and native title customary rights? How can policies be better framed to target the regional diversity of indigenous circumstances? And how do we learn from the many successes of the past 35 years that have delivered much progress, but too slowly to meet national expectations? It’s time for us all to move on from the rhetoric of failure, and focus instead on using available evidence that documents outcomes. Then we might move to a more productive focus on the massive national challenge of reducing relative disparities. Professor Jon Altman is director of the Centre for Aboriginal Economic Policy Research at the Australian National University.

Source:
The Age newspaper

See the attached PDF file below for Altman's paper on Closing the Gaps.

Guan

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[didgeredoo]

2000 years? i can only say omg

[Peter Lister]

You gotta praise these guys for doing this very difficult task - such difficult data to be working with. Let's hope something practical is done to gain parity in all of these areas, although without being pessimistic it seems like it will always be a game of trying to catch up - look at the rate of technological change. I can't even keep up !! There has been improvement though (albeit vastly insufficient) and the 2000 year quote refers to a single aspect of the study;

"We undertook this exercise, but found that some variables were estimated to converge so slowly that parity may not be achieved for several hundred years (and in the case of one variable, median household income, for over 2,000 years)."

It goes without saying that even "several hundred years" is just way too long - an embarrassment as far as I'm concerned.

The "compositional issue" is an interesting factor as it really skews the data. So many more individuals that are identifying as Aboriginal yet they may not actually be disadvantaged especially when compared with those in remote communities. We have all sorts of programmes at the Uni where I work to enable Aboriginal students to operate on par with non-Aborignal students but right from the start, these students are way beyond many of the people I've met and known in communities. The fact that they've completed some kind of secondary education to enable them to gain entry to Uni is something way beyond what many people in remote communities could ever gain.

But there are some positives - the fact that such research is now bringing these very real issues to the fore can only accelerate the process of change. Now we need to ensure all the rhetoric becomes reality - close the gaps...

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Bita

[pedro]

it is very sad to me indigenous ppls everywhere is similar situation, i send you good vibes to australia i pray for improve condition