Equality Speaks
Australia may have dodged the bullet that has put the US, Britain and most European economies on life support, but our 2009 collection of essays shows that – despite our enviable economic position – Australia is not the egalitarian paradise that many believe it to be.
Equality Speaks features an eclectic mix of writers who highlight a common challenge – to use our (relatively) stable economic times to make the shift to a fairer Australia. It brings together some of our sharpest minds to look at paths to a more equal Australia in areas like transport, homelessness, education, women, tax, refugees, work and employment amongst others. It includes new research on the distribution of wealth in Australia.Indigenous People
"Indigenous policy is always targeted at intervention, at emergency. It rarely seeks to look at the underlying issues. Addressing disadvantage requires long term solutions, not just interventions. Rather than always reacting to a crisis, a long-term sustained approach requires addressing the underlying causes of disadvantage." Larissa Behrendt
Australia’s Indigenous people do worse than non-Indigenous people on every social and economic indicator. Larissa Behrendt looks at the challenges for Indigenous affairs, the foremost of which is closing the 18 year life expectancy gap between Indigenous and non-Indigenous Australians. Thirty years ago life expectancy rates for Indigenous peoples in Canada, New Zealand the United States of America were similar to Australia’s, but we have not mirrored the significant gains made since then in those other countries.
Poverty is the overriding issue affecting the social and economic status of Indigenous people, which itself brings a number of health consequences. Lower education and dramatically higher unemployment rates for the Indigenous population compound poverty and disadvantage. And despite the 1991 Royal Commission into Aboriginal Deaths in Custody and recommendations, the number of Indigenous prisoners has increased over the last decade.
Behrendt acknowledges the commitment of the Federal Government to reaching benchmarks and to reporting on progress, but argues there are considerable barriers to achieving equality for Aboriginal people. These include a limited definition of closing the gap; funding focused on crisis and intervention, rather than on long-term solutions and building human capital and capacity; a lack of engagement with communities; an emphasis on remote populations; cost-shifting and a lack of co-operation between governments; and the continued influence of ideology over evidence-based approaches in Indigenous affairs.
Download Chapter 5 Indigenous Poverty67.88 KB
