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The Journal o f Indigenous Policy - Issue 5 ENHANCING ECONOMIC INDEPENDENCE JON ALTMAN* and JOE MORRISON** In Reconciliation: Australia’s Challenge, The Council for Aboriginal Reconciliation (2000: 113-14) proposed a National Strategy for Economic Independence. This Strategy sought a combination of economic independence equality and equity. Indigenous Australians should be in a position to enjoy the same levels of economic independence as the wider community. At the same time this may need to be interpreted differentially—for some, economic independence will need to be defined in terms of the customary economy and lifestyles. This discussion paper provides some perspectives on how economic independence might be enhanced. Since 1788 and the white colonization of Australia commenced, the continental population has grown rapidly and national income has increased, to the point that today Australia is one of the world’s very rich or developed nations. History shows though that national wealth creation has been predicated on the gradual alienation of both land and resources from the continent’s prior inhabitants, Indigenous Australians. The growth of national wealth has largely excluded this section of the population. Widespread Indigenous poverty and growing marginalization was clearly evident throughout the nineteenth and twentieth centuries. But it is only since the 1971 Census of Population and Housing that this could be statistically documented. This is because the Constitution specifically excluded the ‘natives of Australia’ from the five-yearly census count, a crucial source of information, and it was only in the 1967 Referendum that this discriminatory s.127 was deleted. The first snapshot of the Aboriginal economic situation nation-wide used 1971 Census information. This study by Altman and Nieuwenhuysen (1979) showed that Aboriginal economic status was not only far lower than that for other Australians, but that within the Aboriginal population there were significant variations depending on place of residence and timing of contact history. Those living remotely in discrete Aboriginal communities on pastoral stations, townships and outstations have the lowest economic status as measured by standard social indicators. While the cross-cultural applicability of such social indicators can be easily called into question, the six censuses since then have all shown that as a self-identifying ethnic group Indigenous Australians have a far lower socio-economic status than other Australians. For example, analysis of the most recent 2001 Census shows that the Indigenous unemployment rate is nearly three times that for non-Indigenous Australians, median income for Indigenous individuals is only 60 per cent of the non* Jon Altman is Professor and Director o f the Centre for Aboriginal Economic Policy Research, Australian National University. ** Joe Morrison is a Visiting Fellow at the Centre for Aboriginal Economic Policy Research, Australian National University. 48 Enhancing Economic Independence Indigenous median, Indigenous home ownership is half the national rate and Indigenous participation in higher education is similarly about half the national rate (Hunter 2004). Between 1971 and 2001 the Indigenous population has grown from an enumerated 115 000 to an estimated 460,000 so that the overall significance of this economic difference has increased significantly.. In 1985, the Report of the Miller Committee of Review of Aboriginal Employment and Training Programs (Miller 1985) differentiated the circumstances of Aboriginal people in the more densely populated southeast and south-west from those in low density rural and remote regions, especially in the undeveloped tropical north and desert. In the former, policy focus has been placed on equitable integration of the Indigenous population into the mainstream economy, via the labour market and self-employment in business. This broad approach has some similarities with the now widely discredited assimilation policy that ran from the immediate post-war period until its official end as Commonwealth policy in 1972. The difference is that in an Australia more committed to cultural pluralism there is a recognition that economic integration can sit alongside distinctive and different belief and value systems and practices. Today, about 70 per cent of the Indigenous population lives in this part of the continent and their problems of poverty are recognized as arising from economic and social exclusion based on historic legacy and discrimination. The policy focus has been on affirmative action through a mix of special programs and attempts to provide equality of opportunity. Progress has been made in the last thirty years, although it has been too slow, possibly because of inadequate investment by the state, because of the depth of shortfalls, especially in health, housing and education, and because of some difficulty in targeting assistance. Targeting is especially difficult in urban Australia as Indigenous households are often ethnically mixed and residentially integrated with the wider society. Issue 1 - Will the current mix of Indigenous-specific and mainstream programs at Commonwealth and State levels enhance Indigenous prospects for economic independence? Issue 2 - How can assistance be targeted more effectively for Indigenous people living in urban and metropolitan situations outside discrete communities? The Miller Committee rightly differentiated Aboriginal access to the affluent mainstream economy from the issue of economic development—what it termed building an economic base—in rural and remote Australia where 30 per cent of the Indigenous population resides. In this sector, there are an estimated 1 200 discrete Indigenous communities with a total population of about 120 000. It is in these remote parts that since the 1970s, land rights and, more recently following the Mabo High Court judgment, native title laws, have seen 49 Jon Altmann and Joe Morrison the legal restitution of over 1 million sq kms to Indigenous people. Paradoxically, most of this reclaimed land was unalienated Crown land of perceived limited commercial value that has historically been reserved for Aboriginal populations beyond the frontier. Consequently its economic development continues to present significant challenges both to residents of discrete communities and to the state. Issue 3 - Is the strategy of building an economic base on the Indigenous estate enhancing prospects for Indigenous economic independence? The term economic independence in such situations can have many meanings. These range from an equality goal that would seek to match economic well-being, as measured by standard measures like per capita income, for Indigenous people to that enjoyed by other Australians; to a goal that may be based more on equity, a recognition of difference and a view of development as a process that allows Indigenous people to exercise choice. Arguably, the independence equalization goal will be extraordinarily difficult to achieve owing to the relative absence of commercial opportunity and labour markets in remote regions and the evident reluctance of many Indigenous people to migrate for employment—even if it were readily available. Issue 4 - In remote situations, should broader notions of independence be adopted that recognize a need for ongoing state support? The role of the state and state aid looms large. Development strategies in remote regions have historically been underwritten by the state. Yet there is a growing concern that many social problems evident in Indigenous communities are linked to a combination of too little engagement with the market economy and too much dependence on the welfare state (Pearson 2000). This too is a legacy of past policy, in the 1960s in particular, assimilation policy was predicated on the view that economic development in remote regions would mirror that evidenced a century earlier in more settled temperate regions. In the 1970s, a mix of self-determination and belated full bestowal of citizenship rights saw a rapid growth in the significance of the welfare state in the lives of Indigenous people; and the concurrent abandonment of false hopes of seamless economic assimilation. Since the late 1970s, an Indigenousspecific program, the Community Development Employment Projects (CDEP) scheme has seen more and more Aboriginal people work for the dole, but this state institution, with financial ceilings linked to welfare entitlements, has been inadequate to realistically underwrite costly economic development. 50 Enhancing Economic Independence Issue 5 - Is there adequate state support for economic independence at Indigenous communities or is the state merely perpetuating dependence? In parts of remote and regional Australia, Indigenous people have maintained aspects of their customary economy in tact, in part as a response to the absence of the market and in part because the customary economy articulates well with land rights and living at small communities called outstations or homelands, on country of customary association. In such situations, especially in the Northern Territory, the economy is a ‘hybrid’ or mixture with three sectors, the customary, the market and the state, as distinct to the more usual two, private and public (Altman 2005). Customary activity today can generate direct economic (but non-market) benefit in the harvesting of wildlife and fish and in the production of art (based on custom) for sale. It can also generate public good when associated with natural resource management that enhances biodiversity conservation in under-populated regions that are environmentally in tact. With property rights in resources used for domestic purposes now recognized in native title common law, it is likely that Aboriginal economic development in remote regions will see expansion of all three sectors of the hybrid economy. Arguably, such a form of Indigenous economic development will also require greater recognition (and monitoring) of the public good generated by Indigenous natural resource management activity as a form of sustainable development. Issue 6 - How can the Indigenous customary economy be supported where it generates private and public benefit and how can such benefits gain national recognition? This paper suggests that Indigenous economic independence might be enhanced if the differences within Indigenous Australia were better understood—for example, in more settled regions Indigenous economic futures might mesh with the mainstream Australian economy. In remote regions, especially where Indigenous people live on the Indigenous estate, economic futures might lie in the hybrid economy and prospects for independence might be constrained. Such distinctions are clearly over-simplifications that do not accord with lived reality—people may migrate and there are many aspects of socioeconomic disadvantage apparent in metropolitan, urban, rural and remote contexts. Issue 7 - How can the diversity of Indigenous economic circumstances be better understood by both the Australian public and policy makers? Issue 8 - Will mainstreaming enhance a national understanding of 51 Jon Altmann and Joe Morrison Indigenous diversity and difference? Since the 1990s, some development programs, for example the Indigenous arts industry, have used Australia-wide approaches, many auspiced by the now defunct national Indigenous representative and program delivery organization ATSIC. It is unclear which agency will now have carriage of such national strategic development approaches and if the corporate knowledge that ATSIC had accumulated over its 14 years will be transferred effectively to new service delivery agencies. In north Australia, new forms of land and sea management organizations have been established coordinated by Aboriginal representative organizations. A part of the success of such initiatives has been the growing recognition that Indigenous knowledge has value in natural resource management and sits comfortably alongside western science. Many of these initiatives have been grossly under-funded on a project rather than recurrent basis. Issue 9 - How can successful economic development programs from the past be maintained and enhanced? In the past there was also a view that restitution of land, via land rights and native title laws, will underwrite Aboriginal economic development. Now it is increasingly apparent that the proper basis for economic development will need to be based on the recognition of Indigenous property rights in commercially-valuable assets like water, fisheries, and minerals—land rights alone cannot deliver development and independence. Alternatively, such property rights may need to be purchased with financial payments from land or resource use agreements or compensation in regions where such rights may have been invalidly extinguished. The negotiation of regional agreements might provide important institutional mechanisms for such restitutions. Federal-State relations will also loom large in enhancing economic independence—the apparent intractability of Indigenous underdevelopment and the escalating costs of existing backlogs suggests that this will need to become an arena for enhanced cooperation rather than cost shifting. This is especially in situations where fair access to basic services will be essential to increase the human capital endowments needed to make Aboriginal people more competitive in labour markets. Indigenous economic development will need to utilise competitive advantage, where it exists, while also acknowledging the realities of historical legacies and the cost disadvantages of remote living, even in modem Australia. Issue 10 - What new institutions might be needed to ensure that new whole-of-government mainstream approaches deliver enhanced economic independence opportunities? 52 Enhancing Economic Independence In an Australia Day speech on 26 January 2005 the Prime Minister stated ‘So as we celebrate this day, we count it a privilege to be Australians, we pay respect to the first Australians-the Indigenous people of this country and we look to their full enjoyment of the benefits and the bounty that Australia brings to all of its citizens’. There is a growing recognition that Indigenous Australians need a greater share of the national economy both to enhance their economic independence and for national benefit. Issue 11 - How can the reconciliation process facilitate enhanced economic independence for Indigenous Australians? References Altman, J.C. 2005. ‘Development options on Aboriginal land: sustainable Indigenous hybrid economies in the twenty-first century’ in L. Taylor, G.K. Ward, G. Henderson, R. Davis and L.A. Wallis (eds) The Power of Knowledge and the Resonance of Tradition, Aboriginal Studies Press, Canberra, pp. 34-48 Altman, J.C. and Nieuwenhuysen, J. 1979. The Economic Status of Australian Aborigines, Cambridge University Press, Cambridge. Council for Aboriginal Reconciliation 2000. Reconciliation: Australia’s Challenge. Final Report of the Council for Aboriginal Reconciliation to the prime Minister and the Commonwealth Parliament, Commonwealth of Ausralia, Canberra. Hunter, B.H. 2004. Indigenous Australians in the Contemporary Labour Market, ABS Catalogue no. 2052.0, Australian Bureau of Statistics, Canberra. Miller, M. (Chair) 1985. Report of the Committee of Review of Aboriginal Employment and Training Programs, Australian Government publishing Service, Canberra. Pearson, N. 2000. Our Right to Take Responsibility, Noel Pearson and Associates, Cairns. 53 The Journal o f Indigenous Policy - Issue 5 CONTRIBUTIONS FROM STATE AND TERRITORY GOVERNMENTS! WESTERN AUSTRALIA Introduction This paper examines Aboriginal reconciliation from the Western Australia Government's perspective. The paper is structured around the four 'pillars of reconciliation': 1. 2. 3. 4. Promoting recognition of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Rights; Overcoming disadvantage; Sustaining and growing the reconciliation process; and Enhancing economic independence. The Western Australia Government is committed to shared leadership, shared responsibility and a partnership with Indigenous people. The Government acknowledges its role in addressing past injustices against Indigenous people. The Government also acknowledges the Indigenous community's responsibility for managing individual, family and community actions. The commitment to develop partnerships is based on shared responsibility as part of the Statement of Commitment to a New and Just Relationship between the Government of Western Australia and Aboriginal Western Australians and the Government's broader Indigenous affairs policy. The commitment includes working in partnership with Indigenous people to design and implement programs that contribute to reconciliation by empowering Indigenous people to take responsibility within their communities and families for developing practical solutions to problems. The Government has developed a framework with four key themes for Indigenous affairs in Western Australia. The themes are: • • • • Building capacity and governance; Land and sea title tenure and use; Economic opportunity and development; and Improved access to government and local government services. The framework will form the basis for the Australian Government to add value to the State's effort in, and intergovernmental bilateral agreement on, Indigenous affairs. 1 Background paper for the National Reconciliation Workshop, Canberra 30-31 M ay 2005. 54 Contributions from State and Territory Governments Promoting Recognition of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander rights Aboriginal reconciliation is a priority for the Western Australian Government. One of the Gallop Labor Government's first major gestures of support for reconciliation was the signing of the Commitment to a New and Just Relationship between the Government of Western Australia and Aboriginal Western Australians in 2001. Signing the Statement of Commitment with Western Australian Indigenous representatives was of immense symbolic and practical importance. Symbolically, the Statement of Commitment acknowledges, among other important principles, the rights of Aboriginal people as the first peoples of Western Australia including their ownership and connection to land and waters, the need for legislative protection of Aboriginal rights, equity of citizenship entitlements, the importance of addressing issues arising from past acts of displacement, and the importance of improving governance, capacity building, and economic independence for Aboriginal people. Practically, the Statement of Commitment provides a framework for Government and Indigenous people to negotiate, in partnership, regional and local agreements for improving health, education, living standards, and wealth acquisition. The Statement of Commitment embodies the principles of reconciliation, and is the foundation for enabling the Government and Indigenous people to connect in ways that engender trust, strengthen relationships, and lead to a better quality of life for Indigenous people. Since the Australian Government announced the abolition of the Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Commission, the Western Australia Government has embarked on a project to consult with Indigenous people to develop representative structures that can be used by Government to continue the partnership. Furthermore, the Western Australian Government has commenced discussions with the Australian Government on a bilateral agreement to coordinate government effort to improve social and economic outcomes for Indigenous people. Overcoming Disadvantage The Western Australian Government has increased its effort to improve outcomes for Aboriginal people in the key areas of housing, health, education, and employment. The requirement for Governments to report under the Council of Australian Governments' (COAG) key indicators of Indigenous disadvantage will demonstrate whether policy and programs are achieving outcomes for Indigenous people, and will help guide future work. In working towards reducing disadvantage, the Western Australian Government has had to critically look at the way it develops policy in relation to Aboriginal people and delivers services to them. The Government has had to 55