APO Research

Review of the misuse of kava among Indigenous people
Belinda Urquhart, Neil Thomson Australian Indigenous Health Bulletin28 August, 2009 A considerable body of research exists highlighting the deleterious impact of alcohol on the health and wellbeing of Indigenous people, but much less attention has been directed to the impact of kava.

Garma Festival 2009 key forum address
Robyn Archer Australia Council for the Arts28 August, 2009 The 2009 Garma Festival Key Forum focussed on the creative industries and how they interface with Indigenous Australians.

Our future in our hands: creating a sustainable national representative body for Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples
Australian Human Rights Commission01 September, 2009 This report proposes a model for a new national representative body for Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples.

Indigenous arts: ethics, rights and the code of conduct
31 August, 2009 This discussion considers how Indigenous artists can engage with the arts industry on an equal footing.

2009 Media Release: Radical new approach announced for Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Affairs
PORTFOLIO: Attorney-General's
http://www.humanrights.gov.au/about/media/media_releases/2009/80_09.html
SNIPPET: A new representative body independent from government, with an equal number of men and women in leadership roles and reliance on strict ethical standards are among the key elements of a ground-breaking new approach to Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander affairs proposed today by a Steering Committee led by Social Justice Commissioner Tom Calma. Today is a day when, as Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples, we begin a new journey and express our determination to put our future in our hands, Commissioner Calma said.

Indigenous Childcare: Evaluation of the Law and Justice Advocacy Development Program
(27/8/2009) Minister for Finance and Deregulation, Lindsay Tanner today announced thepublication of an evaluation of the Attorney General’s Law and Justice AdvocacyDevelopment program.
http://www.financeminister.gov.au/media/2009/mr_552009.html

The entangled relationship

The entangled relationship between Indigenous spatiality and government service delivery
Sarah Prout / Centre for Aboriginal Economic Policy Research
Drawing on research in Yamatji country, Western Australia, this paper examines the complex and often contested relationship between mobile Indigenous people living in regional and remote areas and the delivery of State housing, health and education services. Posted 27-05-2008

We need a seismic shift in attitude

Kevin Rudd has made a commitment to report annually on his government's efforts in closing the gap of Indigenous disadvantage.
Indigenous Affairs - Stephen Hagan - posted 7/5/2008

Indigenous Governance Brief—October 2007

This is the first in a new online series of Indigenous Governance Briefs (No. 1), produced as part of the ARC Indigenous Community Governance Project in partnership with Reconciliation Australia. The series is aimed at policy-makers, Indigenous leaders, and Indigenous community organisations. This issue focuses on the 'Who, what, where, and how of Indigenous governance'. [11 September 2007]

COERCIVE RECONCILIATION:

STABILISE, NORMALISE, EXIT ABORIGINAL AUSTRALIA Podcast/MP3
Hosted by Jack Waterford, Editor at large The Canberra Times
CAEPR - ANU Toyota Public Lecture Series Tuesday 9 October 2007
On 21 June 2007 Prime Minister John Howard and Minister for Indigenous Affairs Mal Brough declared a ‘national emergency’ in relation to child sexual abuse in the Northern Territory. In an unprecedented set of actions, the Commonwealth has taken direct control of communities, overriding the authority of both the NT Government and local community organisations in the name of creating safe and healthy environments for children. In this public lecture, Dr Hinkson, Professor Behrendt, Ms Watson and Professor Altman contributors to the first book about the intervention Coercive Reconciliation: Stabilise, Normalise, Exit Aboriginal Australia assess the intervention from the perspectives of human rights, welfare and land rights reforms, Indigenous representation and reconciliation, and the recognition of cultural diversity.

Aboriginal Intervention

Late Night Live ABC Radio National 03 October 2007 MP3 / Audio
Professor Jon Altman
Director of the Centre for Aboriginal Economic Policy Research at the ANU
Harry Scott
Chief Executive Officer of the Titjikala Community Government Council.
An update on the progress of the federal government's intervention into Aboriginal communities in the Northern Territory.

ANU - RMAP Seminar: Police failure in Indigenous affairs. Altman

RESEARCH SEMINAR - Policy failure in Indigenous affairs: The social and economic impacts and likely legacies of the NT emergency intervention.
Jon Altman MP3 Audio
On June 21 2007 the Australian government dramatically declared a 'national emergency' in relation to child sex abuse in the Northern Territory. In an unprecedented set of actions the Commonwealth has taken direct control of communities, overriding the authority of both the NT government and local community organisations using the territory powers conferred under the Australian constitution. Subsequently in August 2007 these actions and others were enshrined in Australian law. This seminar addresses the immediate policy background to this intervention and then from a development anthropology perspective assesses the likely social and economic impacts of these new laws on prescribed communities and their residents. It is argued in the seminar that for a wide range of reasons the new measures are unlikely to work and indeed may result in adverse and unsustainable outcomes for Indigenous Australians.

National Indigenous Times Issue 138, September 20, 2007

Brough announces extra $700m for NT intervention
Issue 138, September 20, 2007: The federal government will spend more than $700 million on a new range of measures in its takeover of Northern Territory Indigenous communities.

AMSANT slams intervention child health checks
Issue 138, September 20, 2007: The federal government's health checks of Indigenous children in the Northern Territory have been labelled inefficient, ineffective and potentially unethical by a lobby group representing NT Aboriginal health services.

$100m to go to follow-up health care
Issue 138, September 20, 2007: A $100 million fund has been set aside by the federal government to provide follow-up care for Aboriginal children in the Northern Territory with dental, stomach, ear, nose and throat problems.

Labor questions "new" money
Issue 138, September 20, 2007: Labor says the outlay of half a billion dollars committed on Tuesday to fix and build the homes of Northern Territory Indigenous people is not new money.

Mobile teams 'doomed to failure'
Issue 138, September 20, 2007: Mobile teams of health professionals visiting remote Aboriginal communities must be integrated with existing health services, the Fred Hollows Foundation says.

Indigenous health campaign kicks off
Issue 138, September 20, 2007: The nation's leaders have been challenged to take concrete steps to boost the health and life expectancy of Indigenous Australians on the first National Close the Gap Day.

NSWALC welcomes state govt inquiry into life expectancy gap
Issue 138, September 20, 2007: The NSW Aboriginal Land Council (NSWALC) has welcomed a state government inquiry to investigate the difference in life expectancy between Indigenous and non-Indigenous Australians.

Brough "a bit confused" over SBS "porn" in NT
Issue 138, September 20, 2007: Minister for Indigenous Affairs, Mal Brough has accidentally admitted he hasn't read at least one key section of the Little Children Are Sacred report, despite claiming it was the catalyst for the federal government's half billion dollar fight against child abuse in remote Aboriginal communities.

Welfare latest move in NT
Issue 138, September 20, 2007: Aboriginal people from four central Australian communities had half of their welfare payments quarantined from Monday in a federal government bid to stop the money being spent on alcohol, drugs and pornography.

Porn bans hit the Territory
Issue 138, September 20, 2007: The federal government's pornography bans started in the Northern Territory this week.

Review called over CDEP alternatives
Issue 138, September 20, 2007: The federal government needs to review its alternatives to Community Development Employment Programs (CDEP), a group of remote Aboriginal service providers says.

Care for country under threat: NLC
Issue 138, September 20, 2007: Canberra needs to ensure jobs and wages for Aboriginal rangers or risk programs that protect the Northern Territory's unique environment, the Northern Land Council (NLC) says.

Thousands of tourists face alcohol bans in NT
Issue 138, September 20, 2007: Under new restrictions that began on the weekend, thousands of tourists will be banned from having a beer while fishing on river banks or camping in many Northern Territory national parks.

NT alcohol changes will spark backlash: Crossin
Issue 138, September 20, 2007: Federal government changes to its Northern Territory alcohol restrictions will spark an enormous backlash but won't stop Indigenous people getting drunk, a Labor senator says.

Alcohol ban for Fitzroy Crossing
Issue 138, September 20, 2007: The strictest liquor licensing conditions in Western Australia could soon be slapped on the troubled Kimberley town of Fitzroy Crossing.

New national Aboriginal body to counter govt policy
Issue 138, September 20, 2007: Aboriginal leaders have formed a national representative body to counter what they say is government dominance of the Indigenous policy agenda in the wake of Canberra's intervention in the Northern Territory.

NT intervention supporters 'naive': Dodson
Issue 138, September 20, 2007: Aboriginal leader Pat Dodson has described the Howard government's intervention in the Northern Territory as a sinister attempt to extinguish Indigenous culture.

Qld ministry reshuffle puts women in hot seats
Issue 138, September 20, 2007: For the first time in Australian political history - at either a state or federal level - two women will assume ultimate responsibility for Indigenous affairs in Queensland, following the swearing in last week of the new Queensland government's ministry.

A Major call on Bligh to give hope to Cape folk
Issue 138, September 20, 2007: Premier Anna Bligh must shape a new future for Queensland's Indigenous people by decreasing the welfare dependency that is crippling Cape York communities, Young Australian of the Year Tania Major says.

NITV viewing numbers to rise on Foxtel, Austar
Issue 138, September 20, 2007: A note to Eddie McGuire. Increasing the potential audience share of a television channel by about 25-fold is not only do-able, it's actually being done.

Stolen Gen bill introduced by Democrats
Issue 138, September 20, 2007: A bill to set up a compensation scheme for members of the Stolen Generation has been introduced into the Senate by the Australian Democrats.

Police start work in Territory
Issue 138, September 20, 2007: Eleven police officers from Queensland started work in Northern Territory Aboriginal communities last Wednesday as part of the federal government's 'emergency intervention'.

Third world eye programs needed here
Issue 138, September 20, 2007: Eye services similar to those available in third world countries are needed to help fight rising rates of blindness in Aboriginal communities, experts say.

New centre for health studies
Issue 138, September 20, 2007: A new Centre for Indigenous Health at The University of Queensland is uniquely placed to attract Indigenous students to health professions and generate real health benefits for communities, according to Centre Director, Professor Cindy Shannon.

Community Governance Research Update, No. 6.

Indigenous Community Governance Project
11 Sept 2007

Local governments and Indigenous interests in Australia’s Northern Territory

W. Sanders
Centre for Aboriginal Economic Policy Research
Discussion Paper 285 ISSN 1036 1774 ISBN 0 7315 5660 7
Abstract
Australia’s Northern Territory has three categories of local government referred to as municipal, community government and association councils. This paper explores the historical development of these three categories of local governing body since Northern Territory self-government in 1978. Through more contemporary demographic analysis, and some minor spatial analysis, the paper also explores the different relationships of these three types of local governments to Indigenous interests. Two important pieces of background information are that roughly one-quarter of the Northern Territory’s population of 200,000 is Aboriginal and that outside the major urban areas this proportion is much higher still. A later section of the paper looks at the contrasting financial positions of these three types of local government in the Northern Territory and relates this to the very different service roles they play for Indigenous people in remote areas and others.

Indigenous Governance Can Succeed: Study

Indigenous communities can be successful in establishing good governance according to a landmark study of what works and what doesn't in 11 Indigenous communities across the nation. The Indigenous Community Governance Project (ICGP) found that this success is achieved despite the complex inter-cultural environment in which these communities operate. In particular, the study shows that the way governments function affects Indigenous capacities to govern themselves well. [9 July 2007]

ICGP Community Governance newsletter and research update

ICGP Community Governance newsletter & research update
The latest editions of the Community Governance newsletter and the Community Governance Research Update from the ARC Indigenous Community Governance Project. [4 July 2007]

Overcoming indigenous disadvantage

Cumulative causation and the Productivity Commission’s framework for overcoming indigenous disadvantage?
Boyd Hunter / Centre for Aboriginal Economic Policy Research, Australian National University
Boyd Hunter argues that it is not sufficient to measure the various aspects of disadvantage as we need to understand the pathways into disadvantage and the evolution of more sustainable positive outcomes. In this paper from the 2007 Australian Social Policy Conference he uses cross-sectional evidence to suggest circular causation between the three priority outcome areas identified by the Productivity Commission. Posted 18-07-2007

Overcoming Indigenous disadvantage: key indicators 2007

Productivity Commission
In April 2002, the Council of Australian Governments commissioned the Steering Committee to produce a regular report against key indicators of Indigenous disadvantage. This report has the long-term objective of informing Australian governments about whether policy programs and interventions are achieving positive outcomes for Indigenous people. Posted 07-06-2007

Indigenous Community Governance Project: Year two research findings

J. Hunt and D.E. Smith / Centre for Aboriginal Economic Policy Research
This is the second research report exploring the nature of Indigenous community governance in Australia - aiming to understand what works, what doesn’t work, and why. This report brings together findings from fieldwork conducted during 2006, based on evidence drawn from case studies of Indigenous governance in action within differing community, geographical, cultural and political settings across the nation. Posted 29-05-2007