Policy issues for the Community Development Employment Projects scheme in rural and remote Australia

One of the most important programs for Indigenous community and economic development is the Community Development Employment Projects (CDEP) scheme. CDEP employs around 35,000 Indigenous Australians and accounts for over one-quarter of total Indigenous employment. This paper reviews the evidence on the social and economic impacts of the scheme. The available evidence demonstrates that the scheme has positive economic and community development impacts and that it is cost effective in achieving these outcomes. The paper argues that the CDEP program should continue to be supported and resourced and outlines options for future policy directions in regard to Indigenous economic development and the role of the CDEP scheme.Indigenous; labour market programs; economic development

The Economic Value of Wild Resources to the Indigenous Community of the Wallis Lakes Catchment

There is currently a growing policy interest in the effects of the regulatory environment on the ability of Indigenous people to undertake customary harvesting of wild resources. This Discussion Paper develops and describes a methodology that can be used to estimate the economic benefi ts derived from the use of wild resources. The methodology and the survey instrument that was developed were pilot tested with the Indigenous community of the Wallis Lake catchment. The harvesting of wild resources for consumption makes an important contribution to the livelihoods of Indigenous people living in this area.Indigenous; harvesting of wild resources; natural resource management

Proof-of-concept: Three dimensional pipe surface reconstruction from 2D laser scanned image

A simulation of three-dimensional models of pipe defect detection systems has been performed. The primary goal is to inspect internal pipe structures for corrosion damage, structural damage, and buildup by driving a video-capture pipe inspection system through the pipe, processing the video, and creating a computer model of the pipe. The software system extracts frames from .avi-format movie files, renders up to thirty frames into a data cube and provides several different methods of visualization. Using commercial-off-the-shelf- technology and components, a simple model for the robotics and optics necessary to scan the interior structure was created. Illumination techniques, extraction algorithms, and fault analysis have been explored. The system has not been tested in-situ in actual pipes; however, computer models show that cracks and abnormalities have distinct signatures after transformation

Decentering Anthropocentrisms: A Functional Approach to Animal Minds

Anthropocentric biases manifest themselves in two different ways in research on animal cognition. Some researchers claim that only humans have the capacity for reasoning, beliefs, and interests; and others attribute mental concepts to nonhuman animals on the basis of behavioral evidence, and they conceive of animal cognition in more or less human terms. Both approaches overlook the fact that language-use deeply informs mental states, such that comparing human mental states to the mental states of nonlinguistic animals is misguided. In order to avoid both pitfalls -- assuming that animals have mental lives just like we do, or assuming that they have no mental lives at all -- I argue for a functional methodological approach. Researchers should study animal cognition by identifying environmental inputs, the functional role of internal states, and behavioral outputs. Doing so will allow for cross-species comparisons in a way that the use of folk psychological terms does not

The effects of the CDEP scheme on the economic status of Indigenous Australians: some analyses using the 1996 Census

The Community Development Employment Projects (CDEP) scheme is currently the Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Commission's (ATSIC's) most significant program. Since its establishment in 1977, this Indigenous-specific program has been variously described as a labour market program, an alternative income support scheme and a community development initiative. A major objective of the scheme is to improve the employment and income status of Indigenous people. This paper presents the first analysis using data from the 1996 Census of the effects of CDEP employment on the economic status of Indigenous individuals. The 1996 Census is the first census that provides information about CDEP employees. Information is restricted to areas in which the Special Indigenous Personal Forms (SIPF) were utilised, but this allows the effects of CDEP employment on income to be better isolated, at least in these areas. Some comparisons of the labour market outcomes of Indigenous people in CDEP communities to those in non-CDEP communities are also presented

Policy issues for the Community Development Employment Projects Scheme in rural and remote Australia

One of the most important programs for Indigenous community and economic development is the Community Development Employment Projects (CDEP) scheme. CDEP employs around 35,000 Indigenous Australians and accounts for over one-quarter of total Indigenous employment. This paper reviews the evidence on the social and economic impacts of the scheme. The available evidence demonstrates that the scheme has positive economic and community development impacts and that it is cost effective in achieving these outcomes. The paper argues that the CDEP program should continue to be supported and resourced and outlines options for future policy directions in regard to Indigenous economic development and the role of the CDEP scheme

The economic value of wild resources to the Indigenous community of the Wallis Lakes Catchment

There is currently a growing policy interest in the effects of the regulatory environment on the ability of Indigenous people to undertake customary harvesting of wild resources. This Discussion Paper develops and describes a methodology that can be used to estimate the economic benefi ts derived from the use of wild resources. The methodology and the survey instrument that was developed were pilot tested with the Indigenous community of the Wallis Lake catchment. The harvesting of wild resources for consumption makes an important contribution to the livelihoods of Indigenous people living in this area

Fichte’s Practical Response to the Problem of Other Minds

The present paper examines the problem of attributing mental predicates to anyone but myself. Traditionally, this has been a major issue at the intersection of epistemology and ethics, because whether we should consider someone in our moral deliberations is often thought to depend on their cognitive abilities or their capacity for consciousness. For both Kant and Fichte, we have direct moral duties only to other rational beings. The fact that the other is present to us as a representation (for Kant) or as a Not-I that is posited in opposition to the I (for Fichte) threatens our supposed moral obligations to them and risks a form of metaphysical solipsism and moral egoism. The bindingness of interpersonal obligations depends on overcoming the separation between me and other persons. It will be shown that in order to establish the other as a morally considerable being, Fichte reverses the direction of implication: I do not derive my moral duties from others’ personhood; rather, others’ personhood follows from my immediate sense of moral obligation toward them. The way that the problem of other minds is posed presupposes that the only appropriate answer would be a series of propositions that establishes the existence of other morally considerable beings outside of myself. The immediate moral feeling of considerability, however, is not a proposition. It will be argued that Fichte thus provides a radically different alternative to Kant’s approach. The problem of other minds is not answered or solved but is rather dispelled in Fichte’s philosophy by the feeling of moral obligation and the recognition of others as the object of our obligations