Indigenous job training: questioning the numbers

This Topical Issue critically analyses the use of statistics on Indigenous jobs by Andrew (Twiggy) Forrest and the Australian Government. Mining magnate Andrew Forrest’s May 2 address to the National Press Club signalled another war of words with the Gillard Government, this time over his plan for Indigenous jobs. Forrest used the occasion to criticise the Government’s approach to training Indigenous job seekers, arguing that billions was being wasted on training programs that failed to lead to sustainable employment. In making his case, Forrest relied on a key set of figures. He stated that while the Government’s efforts at assisting Indigenous job seekers to find work through its Job Services Australia scheme have resulted in a retention rate of only 45 per cent over three months, his own Indigenous jobs program—the Australian Employment Covenant (AEC)—has effected 10,500 job placements and a retention rate of more than 70 per cent after six months. According to Forrest, this is evidence that his model works where the Government’s approach too regularly fails

The Australian Employment Covenant: A Research Update

This Topical Issue provides an update on information concerning the Australian Employment Covenant, whose goal was to create 50,0000 Indigenous jobs by 30 June 2011

The Australian Employment Covenant: Is it taxpayers' money well spent?

30 October 2010 marked the second anniversary of the Australian Employment Covenant (AEC), launched by then-Prime Minister Kevin Rudd and mining executive Andrew Forrest with the bold goal of creating 50,000 jobs for Indigenous Australians in two years. It is now timely to review the AEC’s progress, and to ask whether the taxpayer funds invested in the scheme have been money well spent

Indigenous job training: Questioning the numbers

This Topical Issue critically analyses the use of statistics on Indigenous jobs by Andrew (Twiggy) Forrest and the Australian Government

Impact of Climate Change on Indigenous Australians: Submission to the Garnaut Climate Change Review

Indigenous Australians now own over 20 per cent of the continent under a number of different forms of tenure. Much of this Indigenous estate is in relatively intact environmental condition and has high biodiversity value. This submission is based on preliminary CAEPR research and highlights some of the potential costs of climate change to Indigenous Australians, and notes some of the positive contributions that Indigenous Australians might make to ameliorate anthropomorphic causes of global warming

Indigenous Economic Development through Community-Based Enterprise

This Topical Issue addresses the Australian Government’s draft Indigenous Economic Development Strategy (IEDS), with specific lessons learnt from working with Aboriginal people to further their economic development in remote areas. It notes the lack of coherence between the draft IEDS and the United Nations Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples, explores possible unintended 'perverse outcomes' based on the misapplication of the notion of 'incentives', and champions the significance of Indigenous community-based enterprises in land and sea management as an economic development option for remote areas

Closing the Gap Refresh: papering over the gaps or structural reform?

Ten years on from the Council of Australian Governments committing to National Indigenous Reform Agreement – Closing the Gap, the Federal Government has announced the Closing the Gap Refresh. Five academics and visitors at the Centre for Aboriginal Economic Policy Research made submissions as part of the Closing the Gap Refresh ‘Have Your Say’ process, engaging with the Closing the Gap Refresh from specialist disciplinary perspectives and with their grounded expertise. The views of these individuals have been consolidated into a single document to ensure their longer-term availability. Together, the submissions in this CAEPR Topical Issue paper argue that the failure of gaps to close is a reflection of a failed policy-making process. All five papers indicate the need for substantial change and structural reform, and express concern at the risk that the current ‘refresh’ will simply ‘paper over the gaps’. They identify a need for governments to do policy differently, and suggest avenues toward a reform of the policy-making process in Indigenous Affairs

Linking Indigenous Communities with Regional Development: Australia Overview

This report was Commissioned by the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) in 2018 for their project ‘Linking Indigenous communities with regional development’. Intended for international comparison with other OECD nations, it is written more-or-less to a thematic template provided to us for this purpose. The OECD selected the parts they wanted for their project, but we were always at liberty to publish our full report in the name of transparency. This report discusses key issues in demography, governance and policy as they relate to Indigenous Peoples in Australia. It focuses on the ‘governance of government’, including the difficult institutional environment that many Indigenous communities and organisations face. It provides a brief history of policy approaches that the settler colonial state has adopted in relation to Indigenous Peoples in Australia, from the violent dispossession of the early stages of colonisation through protection and assimilation to the current concern with ‘Closing the Gap’. It acknowledges the active campaigns of Indigenous Peoples in Australia over many decades to progress agendas of structural change including calls for treaties, land rights and self-determination. We conclude the report with a discussion of several issues that should be central to policies and programs seeking to promote economic development of, for and by Indigenous Peoples

30 years on: Royal Commission into Aboriginal Deaths in Custody recommendations remain unimplemented

This paper outlines concerns with the 2018 Deloitte Access Economics review of the implementation of the 339 recommendations of the Royal Commission into Aboriginal Deaths in Custody (RCIADIC). Here, we update a statement produced by Jordan et al in December 2018, which argued that due to its scope and methodology, the Deloitte review had the potential to misrepresent the extent to which the RCIADIC recommendations had been implemented. Drawing on coronial inquest reports, we cite new evidence of the failure of governments to implement key RCIADIC recommendations and the fatal consequences for First Nations lives. We argue that there is a risk that misinformation may influence policy and practice responses to First Nations deaths in custody, and opportunities to address the widespread problems in Indigenous public policy in Australia may be missed. In particular, current approaches too often ignore the principles of self-determination and the realities of laws and policies as experienced by First Nations peoples. We reiterate arguments for the development of national independent monitoring of Indigenous deaths in custody and further work towards the implementation of the recommendations of RCIADIC. We also call on the Australian Government to provide a response to the Australian Law Reform Commission’s 2017 Inquiry on Indigenous Incarceration Rates

Looking for 'real jobs' on the APY Lands: Intermittent and steady employment in CDEP and other paid work

The principal justification for restructuring the Community Development Employment Projects (CDEP) scheme over the last 10 years, and eventually abandoning it, has been an argument that the availability of CDEP work has prevented the take-up of more favourable ‘real jobs’. This chapter draws on evidence from the remote Aṉangu Pitjantjatjara Yankunytjatjara (APY) Lands in the far north of South Australia to argue that a binary distinction between CDEP and ‘real jobs’ is a fiction. This has important implications not just as a critique of past policy decisions, but also for designing future strategies to sustainably improve livelihoods for remote-living Aṉangu where recent policy directions are falling short