Suchergebnisse

Safety outcomes in Indigenous communities are significant worse than in rest of Australia. Community Patrols have been employed in most Indigenous communities to combat the issues. Some evidence does indicate that patrols work, but little is known about how effective they are or exactly in what ways they work to achieve inter-governmental goals and targets. This report aims to put scrutiny to the community patrol program. Community patrols are a uniquely Indigenous Australian form of community self-policing that are expected to assist people at risk of either causing or becoming the victims of harm and protecting children. Patrols are intended to deliver a culturally appropriate service that recognises all individuals' right to be safe. The Australian Government acknowledges that "government programmes alone will never close the gap" and decries that "there is a need to engage Indigenous people more in solving their own problems" (Australian Government, 2015). This report will focus on levels of crime and violence in Aboriginal communities in the Northern Territory. Surveys indicates that levels of trust in local police in Indigenous communities are worrisomely low. Indigenous persons have a high frequency of contact with the formal justice system. The report will highlight a theory-of-change approach to evaluation in order compare two central, but not always aligned areas of a program: How it is intended to run, and how it is actually running. It will employ a Program Logic Model as presented by the K. W. Kellogg Foundation (2004). A program logic model is an analytical tool that describes the ideal inter-relations between inputs, processes and outputs necessary for a program to produce the ideal outcome(s). Essentially, using a logic model can help program managers understand the assumptions underpinning its operational framework and plan how one can monitor and report on progress. The report later turns to an analysis of the program logic with the concrete aim of developing a theory-of-change model for clarifying the assumptions and theory of the program and assess the linkages in the service delivery. When developing a program theory model the report consults the program statements as they appear in documents produced by the program manager – the Australian Government. Leveraging on the program elements described in the discussion of this report, it makes the argument that the Australian Government has developed and implemented the policy program of community patrols with a theory-of-change in mind. It is important for program managers to reflect on this theory and on how associated assumptions generate a certain logic on which the program rests. Being explicit about what is assumed is important, and communicating this with program stakeholders can help achieving agreement on how intentions can become reality. Community patrols appear to work specifically because of their cultural appropriateness, therefor the community patrols must remain utmost attentive to community needs as perceived and conveyed by local community stakeholders and focus on building capacity for communities to sustain engagement in the initiative.

Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander children are disproportionately represented in all parts of the child protection system in Australia. The recruitment of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander practitioners into child protection systems to work with Indigenous families at risk underpins the government strategy to reduce this over-representation. However, little is known about the experiences of Indigenous people who undertake child protection work or what their support and supervision needs may be. This research is centered on Indigenous Australian child protection practitioners as experts in their own experiences and as such includes large excerpts of their own narratives throughout. Practitioner narratives were collected via qualitative semi-structured in-depth interviews. Critical theory and decolonising frameworks underpinned the research design. The study found that Indigenous child protection practitioners have a unique place in the families, communities and profession. Many viewed their work in the child protection field as an extension of their Indigeneity. This coupled with the historical experience of state-sanctioned removal of Indigenous children during colonisation and contemporarily, informs the need for child protection workplaces to re-think the support and supervision afforded to Indigenous practitioners

The Indigenous Burden of Disease (IBoD) report is the most comprehensive assessment of Indigenous disease burden in Australia. The aim of the present study was to investigate the potential effect of the IBoD report on Australian Indigenous health policy, service expenditure and research funding. Findings have significance for understanding factors that may influence Indigenous health policy. Methods The potential effect of the IBoD report was considered by: (1) conducting a text search of pertinent documents published by the federal government, Council of Australian Governments and the National Health and Medical Research Council of Australia (NHMRC) and observing the quantity and quality of references to IBoD; (2) examining data on government Indigenous healthcare expenditure for trends consistent with the findings and policy implications of the IBoD report; and (3) examining NHMRC Indigenous grant allocation trends consistent with the findings and policy implications of the IBoD report. Results Of 110 government and NHMRC documents found, IBoD was cited in 27. Immediately after publication of the IBoD report, federal and state governments increased Indigenous health spending (relative to non-Indigenous), notably for community health and public health at the state level. Expenditure on Indigenous hospital separations for chronic diseases also increased. These changes are broadly consistent with the findings of the IBoD report on the significance of chronic disease and the need to address certain risk factors. However, there is no evidence that such changes had a causal connection with the IBoD study. After publication of the IBoD report, changes in NHMRC Indigenous research funding showed little consistency with the findings of the IBoD report. Conclusions The present study found only indirect and inconsistent correlational evidence of the potential influence of the IBoD report on Indigenous health expenditure and research funding. Further assessment of the potential influence of the IBoD report on Indigenous health policy will require more targeted research, including interviews with key informants involved in developing health policy. What is known about the topic? There are currently no publications that consider the potential effed of the IBoD study on Indigenous health expenditure and research funding. What does this paper add? This paper offers the first consideration of the potential effect of the IBoD report. It contains analyses of data from readily available sources, examining national expenditures on Indigenous health and NHMRC Indigenous research, before and after the publication of the IBoD report. What are the implications for practitioners? The paper is relevant to analysts interested in drivers of Indigenous health policy. Although it finds correlations between the release of the IBoD report and some subsequent health spending decisions, other factors should be investigated to better understand the complexity of processes that drive government efforts to improve Indigenous health.

This article outlines the Australian Taxi Industry Association's (ATIA) perspective on the development of the National Competition Policy (NCP). The ATIA has been actively involved in the issue since the establishment of the Hilmer Inquiry into National Competition Policy in 1992.The Australian taxi industry is regulated by state and territory governments. Taxi industry regulations are designed to facilitate the provision of high‐quality and comprehensive taxi services to the community and disadvantaged groups. One element of this regulatory structure involves the sale, or lease, of taxi plates by state and territory governments as a revenue‐raising measure.This revenue‐raising by governments produces two different effects. On the one hand taxi plate owners having purchased taxi plates from the government (or leased) have an interest in the value of the plate, as well as in continuing to provide quality services. On the other hand some observers see taxi plate values as inherently unacceptable and needing to be reduced, or abolished, by allowing unrestricted access to the taxi industry.These competing views have provided much of the impetus for the debate associated with the taxi industry and the NCP. The industry believes that NCP has the potential to impact adversely on taxi 'markets' and consumer interests.

Increasing Indigenous health care professional presence in health care aims to reduce health inequities of Indigenous Peoples in Canada. Nurses are the largest health professional group and nurse graduates the main source of recruitment. The quality of graduate transition to practice is evident in the literature; however, little is reported about Indigenous new graduates. We describe using Indigenous methodology and two-eyed seeing (Indigenous and Western perspectives) in exploring Indigenous transition experiences. Talking circles provided a safe environment for nurses, nurse educators and students, health managers, and policy makers to discuss Indigenous new graduate case scenarios. The methodology was critical in identifying challenges faced, recommendations for change, and a new collective commitment for cultural safety education, and ethical and respectful relationships within education, practice, and policy.

Australian public policy engages with the values and dilemmas of progressive public policy in Australia, bringing together leading authors to explore a wide range of issues which challenge and extend current thinking about Australian public policy.

This paper provides an overview of discourses of the movement for national reconciliation prevailing within the Australian socio-political context since the inception of the Council for Aboriginal Reconciliation in 1991, to the national apology delivered by the Prime Minister Kevin Rudd on 13th February 2008. It provides an framework for the various discourses of reconciliation, by exploring and analysing the accrued meanings to such terms such as 'genuine', substantive or 'true' reconciliation; the Howard's Government's 'practical reconciliation' and the Rudd government's great attempt at 'symbolic' reconciliation in the national apology to Indigenous Australians. In the changing political context in Australia today this paper revisits the debates on reconciliation, and endeavours to locate the movement solidly within a human rights framework that includes first nation rights. This requires an examination of the roots of the reconciliation movement including community attitudes to reconciliation and the nature of the peoples' movement as well as the differing perspectives of policy makers, politicians and of course, Indigenous peoples. It asks crucial questions about the progress of reconciliation and the type of reconciliation mainstream Australians will accept. In truth therefore, was the 'National Apology' a grand symbolic gesture by mainstream Australia to maintain the status quo and divert our eyes from the more searching questions of the 'unfinished business' of 'substantive' reconciliation which encompasses first nations rights for Indigenous peoples.