This short paper discusses some of the issues of current adverse macroeconomic conditions on a small segment of the national population, Indigenous Australians. Like other disadvantaged minorities they may be particularly susceptible to the prospect of large increases in unemployment and reductions in national wealth, but with a few notable exceptions such issues have been...

The literacy debate rarely addresses the critical social and historical factors that also account for why literacy levels among remote Indigenous youth are lower than their mainstream counterparts. The focus on schooling obscures the less obvious fact that we must also be cognisant of the broader sociocultural factors associated with literacy acquisition, maintenance and transmission...

It argues for a very different policy framework that looks to openly combine three interlinked elements: needs-based citizenship rights, special Indigenous rights, and compensatory ‘social justice’ rights. This paper is based on a presentation to the Australian Council of Social Service (ACOSS) National Conference, ‘Building a Fair Australia in Tough Economic Times’, Australian Technology Park...

This paper focuses on proposed changes to the Social Security Act 1991 that would facilitate changes to the Community Development Employment Projects (CDEP) scheme, and examines the serious potential consequences of abolishing CDEP as currently formulated in non-remote areas by July 2009 and remote areas by July 2011. This paper was prepared as a submission...

Analysis of the Repeat Offenders Database collated by the New South Wales Bureau of Crime Statistics and Research shows that the Indigenous population of offenders are substantially undercounted in administrative data collections. Hunter and Ayvar are concerned that the failure to account for this will understate the ‘gap’ between Indigenous and non-Indigenous outcomes.