UNDERSTATING INDIGENOUS DISADVANTAGE
November 13 2003
A new report title Overcoming Indigenous Disadvantage released today by the Steering Committee for the Review of Government Service Delivery (SCRGSD), has found that the statistical data use to measure the success of the Federal, State and Territory Governments Indigenous policies have been inaccurate and are disguising the actual levels of Indigenous disadvantage.
Commissioned by the Council of Australian Governments (COAG) the report states, “Implicit in the frame work is the recognition of the need to account for the diversity of Indigenous peoples and their circumstances. It is apparent that data collections will need to be improved to realise this”.
NTEU Indigenous Officer Joel Wright said:
“Indigenous work for the dole participants, for example have always been counted by the Federal Government as employed, grossly misrepresenting the number of Indigenous people who are unemployed. We have been saying this to the Howard Government since 1996, yet its taken nine years before any response other than denial is provided.
“It is pleasing to see this report finally confirms what we knew all along, but it also confirms the abysmal failure of John Howard’s policy of Practical Reconciliation on every indicator, and raises the question of how much damage to progressing Indigenous affairs this policy has caused”, Wright said.
While the report recommends the adoption of a new reporting framework based on three priority outcomes it fails to afford the appropriate priority to Indigenous governance as the primary key to achieving a significant and sustainable redress of Indigenous disadvantage.
On this point the report states, ’There is also a recognition that some central factors such as culture and governance are inherently difficult to quantify but remain important to document. In such respects this first report in the series needs to be seen as a work in progress, one which will benefit from further feedback and consultation’.
“The report in my view is an attempt to provide further agency to practical reconciliation through Federal State & Territory governments, their departments and agencies in response to the ever increasing number of State and Territory agreements recognising Indigenous rights above the Indigenous rights recognised through practical reconciliation”, said Mr Wright.
For More Information Contact
NTEU National Indigenous officer
03 92541910