‘The evidence is increasingly clear – Indigenous policies at the federal level are getting worse. They are becoming less successful and more dysfunctional.
‘Since the abolition of the Aboriginal self-management agency in 2005, the responsibility for developing policy and managing services for Indigenous peoples has moved to mainstream government agencies.
‘And this has proven to be a mistake – Indigenous policymaking is now in “a perpetual state of crisis”, according to Ian Anderson, respected Indigenous academic and government official.
‘The main problem with recent government policies, such as the Northern Territory intervention, welfare quarantining and the Indigenous Advancement Strategy, is they all draw on the same problematic way of thinking – that Indigenous communities are dysfunctional and need to be “normalised”.
‘Concerns that Indigenous programs are failing to help communities have now led to a new Productivity Commission inquiry. But any new strategy will fail unless it addresses the power imbalances and racism that characterises the current approach to Indigenous policymaking as a whole.’
- A new inquiry into Indigenous policy must address the root causes of failure »
- Productivity Commission: A Whole of Government Indigenous Evaluation Strategy »
- Kevin Rudd offers to team up with Tony Abbott on Indigenous recognition in constitution »
- Indigenous groups, Labor, Greens attack expansion of cashless welfare card »
- There’s mounting evidence against cashless debit cards, but the government is ploughing on regardless »
- ‘Stigma, shame and frustration’: cashless welfare card found to do more harm than good »
- Hidden costs: an independent study into income management in Australia »
- Welfare recipients on cashless debit card will have $750 stimulus payment quarantined »
- The coronavirus supplement is the biggest boost to Indigenous incomes since Whitlam. It should be made permanent »
- For First Nations people, coronavirus has meant fewer services, separated families and over-policing: new report »
- Codesign in the Indigenous policy domain: risks and opportunities »
- Big picture essays on Australian Indigenous policy: deep structures and decolonising »
- Has Labor learnt from the failure of the cashless debit card? »
- Colonial ideas have kept NZ and Australia in a rut of policy failure. We need policy by Indigenous people, for the people »
- Australia’s cashless debit card to become voluntary from 4 October, Labor says »
- Indigenous policy’s inflection point