Crucial Constituents Engaging Indigenous Australians in Employment Policy Development

In: http://hdl.handle.net/1885/14007

Abstract

Unemployment amongst Indigenous Australians is one part of a bleak and worrying picture of economic and social divide in this country. Since the early 1970s the Australian Government has increasingly invested in policies to address Indigenous disadvantage in employment and other areas. Terms such as 'stakeholder engagement' and 'participation' have become part of the government lexicon in addressing Indigenous disadvantage. In light of the nominal importance placed on stakeholder engagement, it is important to question what the concept means in practice -that is, what mechanisms exist for incorporating stakeholders in policy development. More specifically, this report investigates how stakeholders can be involved in employment policy development. CDEP The CDEP program has dual roles of providing employment and welfare services to Indigenous people. It has become .an integral part of many local economies, particularly in remote communities. The scheme is also an important mechanism for stakeholder engagement. It enhances the potential for regional perspectives to inform economic development and employment decision-making. The Rudd Government is currently phasing out the CDEP scheme. This decision is partly based on the scheme's failure to function as a job-readiness program in communities where local economies are small and jobs are very scarce. The removal of CDEP in these remote regions will force many people onto unemployment benefits. It may also jeopardise key representative Indigenous organisations in remote communities. Recommendation 1: limited exceptions should be made to the removal of CDEP, specifically in those communities without an established economy. Regional agreements In the last two decades, the Canadian Government has begun to negotiate regional agreements with Indigenous people occupying the land. These agreements involve an exchange of property interests on the part of Indigenous people for greater control in economic development and environmental planning processes. Increasing Indigenous people's capacity to regulate land use has promoted the growth of Indigenous enterprise. It has also led to employment agreements between corporations and Indigenous people. Recommendation 2: the use of negotiated regional agreements should be considered as a means of giving Indigenous Australians greater control of their land for economic development and employment initiatives. Regional representation The newly-formed National Congress of Australia's First Peoples (NCAFP) is an important step to improving Indigenous stakeholder engagement mechanisms. This body differs from the previous Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Commission model in two key respects. It does not have a policy-implementation role and it does not establish regional representative branches. The experience of Canada's core Aboriginal representative body, the Assembly of First Nations (AFN) demonstrated that regional viewpoints can be overlooked in a national representative body. Without a regional planning strategy developed by Indigenous stakeholders, there is a risk that government policy will override the views and interests of regional stakeholders. Recommendation 3: a pilot regional representative authority should be established. This would be a public authority that would liaise with the NCAFP. The authority would be responsible for developing a regional economic development plan.