Using systems thinking to create more impactful social policy

This article proposes that “systems thinking” offers a way of (a) diagnosing the potential effectiveness of social policy and (b) of creating more impactful social policy. In particular, Donella Meadows’ “twelve places to intervene” (Meadows 1999) have been used as the basis of creating a tool to this end. Meadows’ 12 places can be broadly grouped into three categories: (1) physical features, (2) information and controls and (3) ideas. Using these three categories, this article analyses a number of examples of social policy related to Indigenous disadvantage in Australia. The actions and goals of different policies are analysed via this tool, with a view to illuminating what could be expected by way of impact from these policy initiatives. The overall aim is to understand if systems thinking in particular, and foresight approaches in general, can be useful in contributing to more impactful, or at least more honest, social policy in the face of ever growing complexity

Issues surrounding cyber-safety for Indigenous Australians

This inquiry examined issues surrounding cyber-safety for Indigenous Australians, particularly young people in remote and rural communities.Introduction to the inquiryOn 20 March 2013 the Committee adopted an inquiry into the issues surrounding cyber-safety for Indigenous Australians.This inquiry followed the Committee’s previous inquiries into Cyber-Safety and the Young and Cybersafety for Senior Australians. Following completion of those inquiries, the Committee believed that issues surrounding cyber-safety for Indigenous Australians warranted further, more in-depth investigation. Therefore, under paragraph (1)(b) of its Resolution of Appointment, the Committee adopted the inquiry which is the subject of this report.As a Select Committee, under paragraph (17) of the Resolution of Appointment, the Committee must present its final report to Parliament no later than 27 June 2013. The terms of reference, which can be found at the start of this report, are far-reaching and could not be accomplished in any depth in the available timeframe.The Committee, therefore resolved to use the available time to investigate to the extent possible what particular issues Indigenous people might be facing with cyber-safety. This brief report discusses those issues and finds that a longer, more in-depth investigation of the topic by a Committee in the 44th Parliament would be appropriate

Disrupting the new orthodoxy: Emergency intervention and Indigenous social policy

This article develops a critical analysis of the ideological framework that informed the Australian Federal government’s 2007 intervention into Northern Territory Indigenous communities (ostensibly to address the problem of child sexual abuse). Continued by recently elected Prime Minister, Kevin Rudd, the NT ‘emergency response’ has aroused considerable public debate and scholarly inquiry. In addressing what amounts to a broad bi-partisan approach to Indigenous issues we highlight the way in which Indigenous communities are problematised and therefore subject to interventionist regimes that override differentiated Indigenous voices and intensify an internalised sense of rage occasioned by disempowering interventionist projects. We further argue that in rushing through the emergency legislation and suspending parts of the Racial Discrimination Act, the Howard and Rudd governments have in various ways perpetuated racialised and neo-colonial forms of intervention that override the rights of Indigenous people. Such policy approaches require critical understanding on the part of professions involved most directly in community practice, particularly when it comes to mounting effective opposition campaigns. The article offers a contribution to this end

The civil and family law needs of Indigenous people in Victoria

This report identifies the most pressing legal needs of Indigenous Victorians, which involve housing, discrimination and debt.The report presents key findings and recommendations of research conducted in 2012- 2013 by the Indigenous Legal Needs Project (ILNP) in Victoria. The ILNP is a national project. Its aims are to:identify and analyse the legal needs of Indigenous communities in non-criminal areas of law (including discrimination, housing and tenancy, child protection, employment, credit and debt, wills and estates, and consumer-related matters); and provide an understanding of how legal service delivery might work more effectively to address identified civil and family law needs of Indigenous communities. ILNP research is intended to benefit Indigenous people by improving access to civil and family law justice

Northern Territory safe streets audit

This audit examined crime and safety issues in the Northern Territory urban communities of Darwin, Katherine and Alice Springs to help inform effective strategies to reduce the actual and perceived risk of victimisation. Abstract This Special Report is a research driven response to community concerns regarding the level of crime and fear of crime in the Northern Territory. The Northern Institute at Charles Darwin University and the Australian Institute of Criminology (AIC) were commissioned by the Northern Territory Police Force (NT Police) to undertake the NT Safe Streets Audit. The purpose of the Safe Streets Audit was to examine crime and safety issues in the Northern Territory urban communities of Darwin, Katherine and Alice Springs and to help inform effective strategies to reduce the actual and perceived risk of victimisation. The audit involved a literature review exploring issues impacting on the fear of crime in the Northern Territory, focus groups with a range of stakeholders in Darwin, Alice Springs and Katherine, the analysis of media articles on crime and policing, the analysis of incident data from NT Police on assault offences and public disorder incidents, and a rapid evidence assessment of the effectiveness of strategies targeting NT crime problems. Implications for future crime reduction approaches in the Northern Territory were then identified

An intersection in population control: Welfare reform and indigenous people with a partial capacity to work in the Australian Northern Territory

In Australia, in the last decade, there have been significant policy changes to income support payments for people with a disability and Indigenous people. These policy reforms intersect in the experience of Indigenous people with a partial capacity to work in the Northern Territory who are subject to compulsory income management if classified as long-term welfare payment recipients. This intersection is overlooked in existing research and government policy. In this article, we apply intersectionality and Southern disability theory as frameworks to analyse how Indigenous people with a partial capacity to work (PCW) in the Northern Territory are governed under compulsory income management. Whilst the program is theoretically race and ability neutral, in practice it targets specific categories of people because it fails to address the structural and cultural barriers experienced by Indigenous people with a disability and reinscribes disabling and colonising technologies of population control

Secure tenure for home ownership and economic development on land subject to native title

The public policy debate on land rights, the struggle of Indigenous peoples to have their pre-colonial possession of land recognised and interests in how land rights might be exercised to fulfil Indigenous peoples’ hopes for economic development and home ownership.Those people who have had their native title rights and interests in land legally recognised are contemplating the implications for their future prosperity. They are pondering the types of investments they can make to develop their land for social and economic purposes, the use and development rights they might temporarily exchange for income, or, as a last resort, the rights and interests they are prepared to relinquish in return for compensation. Western Australia (WA) presents a unique case in the Australian context because, unlike other states and the Northern Territory, WA does not have a statutory Aboriginal land rights system despite its large and remote Aboriginal population. What is termed ‘Aboriginal land’ in Western Australia covers approximately 12 per cent of the state but has generally been granted at the discretion of the Minister for Lands, or else is held in trust as a reserve for the ‘use and benefit of Aboriginal inhabitants’.1 This estate has not been transferred to Aboriginal ownership under state legislation on the basis of statutory rights conferred on Aboriginal people as the result of a formal claim based on their cultural connections to the land or waters. According to the former Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Social Justice Commissioner Tom Calma (AHRC 2005), this reflects ‘protection’ style legislation from the 19th century, which has been the basis of calls for reform of the system since the early 1980s (Seaman 1984; Bonner 1996; Casey 2007)

Commonwealth place-based service delivery initiatives: key learnings project

Overview: Place-based initiatives are programs designed and delivered with the intention of targeting a specific geographical location and particular population group in order to respond to complex social problems. Typically, they focus on areas and communities with entrenched disadvantage or deprivation. This report investigates the key factors and characteristics associated with successful outcomes with such programs, drawing on the international literature and evaluation studies of Australian government and overseas programs. Key messages: Many Commonwealth place-based initiatives reviewed had features that accord with those of international place-based initiatives, including common program elements such as design, delivery, implementation and evaluation. Evaluation of all these common elements is rarely done by either international or Commonwealth place-based initiatives. In particular, evaluations of Commonwealth place-based initiatives lacked sufficient evidence to establish the causal effects of initiatives, their cost-effectiveness and an understanding of how these initiatives work to achieve their goals. This was more pronounced among the evaluation of Commonwealth initiatives than in international evaluations

Dodgy data, language invisibility and the implications for social inclusion: A critical analysis of indigenous student language data in Queensland Schools

As part of the ‘Bridging the Language Gap’ project undertaken with 86 State and Catholic schools across Queensland, the language competencies of Indigenous students have been found to be ‘invisible’ in several key and self-reinforcing ways in sch

Community participation agreements: a model for welfare reform from community-based research

Summary In its June 2001 budget, the Federal Government announced a new framework for welfare reform, Australians Working Together. One component of the framework is the proposed development of Community Participation Agreements in remote Indigenous communities, to deal with welfare income payments, mutual obligation and related service delivery. This paper presents the results of community consideration and the author’s field research between March and August 2001 at Mutitjulu, Central Australia, regarding what such an Agreement might look like on the ground. Mutitjulu presents a microcosm of many of the issues currently affecting remote Indigenous communities. As Mutitjulu residents struggle daily to come to terms with substantial economic and social difficulties, they find their culturally-based forms of social and cultural capital are being undermined by external factors seemingly beyond their immediate control. These include: the continuing failure of governments to develop a comprehensive approach to planning and service delivery, reflected in a band-aid approach to addressing welfare dependence; the debilitating impacts of inter-generational dependence on welfare income; and the multiplicity of local corporate structures and institutions with ill-defined roles and poor accountability to the Mutitjulu community. The failure to adequately address welfare dependence and major community problems of substance abuse, family breakdown, domestic violence, and low levels of education is viewed by Anangu (local Aboriginal people) as directly contributing to a noticeable deterioration in the wellbeing of individuals, their families and the community at large. There is growing frustration over the failure, at all levels, to deal effectively with these matters. The Mutitjulu Community Council has formally decided to proceed with the development of a Community Participation and Partnership Agreement (the ‘Mutitjulu Agreement’), in partnership with government and other stakeholders, as one means to begin addressing these matters. The development of practical partnerships with key government departments and local agencies will be a critical factor in the overall success of the proposed Mutitjulu Agreement. It is for this reason that the name of the proposed Agreement has been expanded to include the strategy of ‘partnership’ and well as ‘participation’. The paper begins with an overview of the background to the community-based research, terms of reference and research methodology. The proposed Mutitjulu Agreement is then placed in its national policy context to identify the factors that have generated this particular initiative. The paper goes on to describe the community context for the Agreement, including the nature of the local welfare economy, and Anangu views about the impacts of the welfare system. Consideration is given to the nature of contemporary Anangu social and economic relations, and how the term ‘participation’ might be most relevantly defined for the purposes of a community agreement about participation