A comparative analysis of the industrial relations experiences of Indigenous and other Australian workers

Indigenous employment policy needs to be informed by a good understanding of the industrial relations culture of workplaces. For example, the local industrial relations environment is a major factor determining wages, job conditions and the quality of workplace life. This study contrasts the experience of industrial relations for Indigenous and non-Indigenous workers in workplaces with some Indigenous employees. The Australian Workplace Industrial Relations Survey (AWIRS) 1995 is the first publicly released dataset that permits analysts to directly examine the industrial relations environment in firms that employ Indigenous Australians. Information from the AWIRS employee survey and AWIRS Employee Relations Managers survey are used in the analysis

Industrial relations in workplaces employing Indigenous Australians

The enactment of the Workplace Relations Act 1996 by the Howard Government represented an acceleration in the pace of industrial relations reform. Amid these significant and widespread legislative developments, little attention was paid to the plight of groups traditionally disadvantaged in the labour market-including Indigenous people. The Australian Workplace Industrial Relations Survey (AWIRS) 1995 is the first publicly released data set that permits analysts to directly examine the industrial relations environment in firms that employ Indigenous Australians. Information from the AWIRS employee survey and AWIRS Employee Relations Managers survey are used in the analysis

Work and welfare for Indigenous Australians

An issue frequently raised in the literature on the economic status of Aboriginal people is the importance of welfare transfers as a source of income, yet there is very little aggregate information documenting this. The purpose of this paper is to present the available evidence from the Population Census and administrative data sources. One estimate is based on the share of total individual income coming from those in employment. Results from 1976 and 1991 show that for Aboriginal people, a smaller share of total individual income came from this source than was the case for other Australians. The last time a question on sources of income was included in a census was in 1976, and the comparison of the numbers receiving a government pension or benefit presented here shows that a larger proportion of Aboriginal people were in receipt of these payments than other Australians. The conclusions based on more recent administrative data are less clear because of the difficulties faced in identifying Aboriginal people and in combining figures from different sources. Nevertheless, the figures are consistent with a broad conclusion of higher levels of welfare receipt among Aboriginal people. The relatively high levels of welfare receipt reflect important underlying problems facing Aboriginal people; high levels of unemployment, poor health and the high incidence of sole parenthood. The paper concludes by stressing the importance of addressing these issues directly

Industrial relations in workplaces employing Indigenous Australians

The enactment of the Workplace Relations Act 1996 by the Howard Government represented an acceleration in the pace of industrial relations reform. Amid these significant and widespread legislative developments, little attention was paid to the plight of groups traditionally disadvantaged in the labour market-including Indigenous people. The Australian Workplace Industrial Relations Survey (AWIRS) 1995 is the first publicly released data set that permits analysts to directly examine the industrial relations environment in firms that employ Indigenous Australians. Information from the AWIRS employee survey and AWIRS Employee Relations Managers survey are used in the analysis

The impact of the welfare state on the economic status of Indigenous Australian women

This paper uses census data and Department of Social Security (DSS) administrative records to examine the role of social security income in explaining the growth and relative improvement in the income status of Indigenous Australian women. The real median income of Indigenous women was 81 per cent of that of non-Indigenous women in 1991 compared with 74 per cent in 1976. Much of the change has come from an improvement in the position of Indigenous women who were not in employment. The paper argues that much of this improvement can be attributed to increased access to social security benefits for Indigenous women and therefore needs to be qualified by the circumstances in which Indigenous women live. A mid-term review of the Aboriginal Employment Development Policy (AEDP) has recently been completed. While much of the associated policy rhetoric and assessment of policy outcomes has been aimed at the national level, the fiscal environment in which AEDP goals are to be achieved is invariably one of regional labour markets and administrative systems operating in the economic context of States and Territories. In view of this reality, this paper responds to a need for regional-level analyses of change in the economic status of Indigenous people compared to that of non-Indigenous people in each State and Territory. Using 1986 and 1991 Census-based social indicators for the Northern Territory, attention is focused on relative shifts in population growth and intra-State distribution, labour force and income status, and levels of welfare dependency (measured as non-employment income). A major finding is that while the gap in labour force status between Indigenous and non-Indigenous people has narrowed, the relative income status and level of welfare dependency of Indigenous people has worsened. This suggests that increased emphasis on the quality of AEDP outcomes, and not just quantity, will be necessary if the overall aims of the AEDP are to be accomplished

Indigenous Australians and the labour market: Issues for the union movement in the 1990s

The Aboriginal Employment Development Policy (AEDP) aims to achieve economic equality between Indigenous and other Australians by the year 2000 via three goals: employment equality, income equality and commensurate levels of welfare dependence. Achieving employment equality, in statistical terms, for working-aged Indigenous Australians will require an increase in the employment rate from 27 percent of those aged 15-64 years to 63 percent. The relatively low labour force participation of Indigenous Australians will require a simultaneous policy focus. In 1991, only 57 percent of the working-age Indigenous population was in the formal labour market compared with 71 per cent of the total population. The achievement of income equality will require an increase in mean annual individual income by over 50 per cent. This paper addresses some of the issues which affect Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people in the labour market. Some possible options available to the union movement to assist in improving their performance in the formal labour market in a manner commensurate with broad AEDP goals, are canvassed. The particular focus here is on how unions can assist in increasing formal employment and attendant income levels for Indigenous Australians

Dynamics and gravitational wave signature of collapsar formation

We perform 3+1 general relativistic simulations of rotating core collapse in the context of the collapsar model for long gamma-ray bursts. We employ a realistic progenitor, rotation based on results of stellar evolution calculations, and a simplified equation of state. Our simulations track self-consistently collapse, bounce, the postbounce phase, black hole formation, and the subsequent early hyperaccretion phase. We extract gravitational waves from the spacetime curvature and identify a unique gravitational wave signature associated with the early phase of collapsar formatio

Dynamics and Gravitational Wave Signature of Collapsar Formation

We perform 3+1 general relativistic simulations of rotating core collapse in the context of the collapsar model for long gamma-ray bursts. We employ a realistic progenitor, rotation based on results of stellar evolution calculations, and a simplified equation of state. Our simulations track self-consistently collapse, bounce, the postbounce phase, black hole formation, and the subsequent early hyperaccretion phase. We extract gravitational waves from the spacetime curvature and identify a unique gravitational wave signature associated with the early phase of collapsar formation

Effect of a culturally safe student placement on students’ understanding of, and confidence with, providing culturally safe podiatry care

Background: For university-based podiatry education there are little data available documenting the delivery method and impact of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander health curricula or the use of, and outcomes from, immersive clinical placements generally or specific to podiatry practice. Therefore, the primary aim of this study was to evaluate the effect of undertaking clinical placement in a culturally safe podiatry service for Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Peoples on podiatry students’ understanding of, and confidence with, providing culturally safe podiatry care. Methods: Final year University of Newcastle undergraduate podiatry students attending a culturally safe Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander student clinic at a local hospital were purposively recruited to participate. Students completed a custom-made and pilot-tested cultural awareness and capability survey before and after placement. Survey domains were determined from a principle component analysis. The Wilcoxon Signed Rank test was used to compare pre-placement scores on each domain of the survey to the post-placements scores. Effect sizes were calculated and interpreted as small (0.1–0.29), medium (0.3–0.49), and large (≥0.5). Results: This study recruited 58 final year University of Newcastle podiatry students to complete baseline and follow-up surveys. For survey domain 1 (level of understanding of power relationships), domain 2 (level of understanding of the interrelationship between culture and self-perceived health), domain 3 (level of understanding of the importance of culture in clinical practice and access to health care), and domain 4 (level of confidence with providing culturally safe care) a statistically significant (p < 0.05) increase in scores was recorded post-placement. The effect sizes were medium to large. Conclusion: This study demonstrated that an immersive student placement at a culturally safe podiatry clinic significantly improved students’ understanding of, and confidence with, providing culturally appropriate care to Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Peoples. This study provides foundation evidence of the role that such placements have on developing students’ cultural capability in a tertiary health care setting, and will help inform future curricula development at both educational institutions and health services, as well as form the basis for ongoing research

Adolescence is an opportunity for farm injury prevention: A call for better age-based data disaggregation

Injury is a leading cause of mortality and injury-related morbidity, which can have lifelong impacts on physical and mental health, as well as on an individual’s and family’s economic livelihood. Transport and unintentional injuries are the leading cause of death for adolescents 10–24 years of age, with more lives lost than communicable or non-communicable diseases, nutritional or maternal health causes or selfharm. Predominantly, in the injury prevention arena, there is a tendency to focus on young (especially under 5 years) children and therefore, despite the persistently high injury burden among adolescents, there has been limited research on, and evaluation of, the prevention of injury-related harms among adolescents