Suchergebnisse

On 1 July 1994 the Torres Strait Regional Authority (TSRA) replaced the Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Commission (ATSIC) Regional Council for Torres Strait. The TSRA's role includes formulating and monitoring policies and one of its primary aims is the creation of a sustainable economic base for the region. The TSRA is responsible for preparing a Torres Strait Regional Development Plan and has established a Development Plan Steering Committee to this end. In response to these functions and goals this paper represents an initial step in establishing a regional database which could inform the TSRA. Using data from the censuses and from relevant primary research, an analysis of Indigenous socioeconomic change in the TSRA area between 1986 and 1991, focusing on population, labour force status, education and training, and income is presented. The paper identifies change in several areas and draws out the policy implications. In particular, attention is given to high levels of population growth within the Outer Islands; and the continuing dependency of the TSRA area on government transfers and the Community Development Employment Projects (CDEP) scheme. Apparent substantial improvements in aspects of Indigenous labour force status are qualified with respect to the expansion of the scheme between the censuses. In conclusion it is noted that further analysis of census data would be useful, but census-based analyses alone will not be sufficient to assist the TSRA to meet all of its development planning goals, and additional and alternative research is proposed. This paper considers the determinants of employment income for Indigenous Australians compared with non-Indigenous Australians. Ordinary Least Square (OLS) regression techniques are applied to 1991 Census data to consider the question: does the lower income of these Indigenous people reflect differences in their factor endowments (like education) rewarded in the labour market, or are they rewarded differently for the same set of endowments than are non-Indigenous Australians. The results show that the main source of lower incomes for Indigenous Australians was their smaller endowment of human capital characteristics. The paper concludes with a discussion of the policy implications of these results.

The Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Commercial Development Corporation represents the most recent in a line of government programs aimed at increasing levels of Indigenous self-management and economic self-sufficiency by involving Indigenous people in businesses. However, the Corporation appears to mark a change from earlier programs inasmuch as it is required to operate along strictly commercial lines and it utilises the strategy of creating joint ventures between Indigenous and non-Indigenous business people. This paper outlines the history of Indigenous enterprise programs over the last 20 years, the formation of the Corporation and its present operations. The paper argues that the Corporation's legislation implies that it will create Indigenous entrepreneurs and business managers, and some of the issues within the concept of Indigenous entrepreneurship in Australia are discussed. However, the paper concludes that the Corporation's commercial activities are constrained in part by its pursuit of some social goals and, in summary, calls for a methodology that can illustrate the costs of having mixed social and economic goals and which can show whether the Corporation is indeed creating entrepreneurs as a means of increasing levels of Indigenous self-management and economic self-sufficiency.

This paper is an outcome of a survey of access for Torres Strait Islanders living on the mainland of Australia to government programs and services, commissioned by the Office of Torres Strait Islander Affairs. The survey found that there were no data or statistics on access for Islanders to government programs and services, nor were there any specific government programs and services for mainland Islanders. The survey questionnaires did not reveal evidence that Islanders experience great difficulties accessing mainstream programs and services. The survey did, however, reveal some perceptions about programs and services. For instance, some service providers and Islanders appear to believe that Islanders are supposed to access Indigenous programs and services rather than mainstream programs and services. This is contrary to the generally held policy view that Indigenous programs and services are intended to supplement rather than replace those in the mainstream. Governments believe that Islanders do not experience access problems and that in any event there are too few Islanders to warrant any special forms of access for them. Islanders meanwhile perceive that, within the system of Indigenous programs and services, and especially within the Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Commission (ATSIC), they are marginalised with respect to Aboriginal people. It is argued that this largely stems from the fact that Islanders are a numerical and cultural minority within the mainland Indigenous system. Two approaches to improve the situation are discussed. One is to strengthen the position of Islanders within the present Indigenous system. It is felt that such an approach would have a limited impact unless resources were reserved for Islanders. The other approach is to establish an Islander system outside ATSIC. However, this approach has little government support because, as already discussed, there are relatively few Islanders on the mainland and a separate system for Islanders would be costly.

Using several categories of data from the 1996 Census, this paper assesses the socioeconomic status of Torres Strait Islanders compared to that of non-Indigenous people. As in earlier research, the paper points out that Torres Strait Islanders in Torres Strait live in a different economic and policy environment from those on the mainland, suggesting the need for different policy strategies to improve socioeconomic status. The data indicate that Islanders on the mainland are closer to achieving parity with non-Indigenous people than are those residing in Torres Strait. The paper proposes that the policy environment for Torres Strait Islanders also varies across the mainland, with only the Queensland Government making any particular concessions to Torres Strait Islanders as a specific group. However, overall, the data suggest that it is in Queensland that Islanders are furthest from parity with non-Indigenous people. In no State/Territory do Torres Strait Islanders own their own homes to the same extent as non-Indigenous people, nor are they as likely to have tertiary qualifications. Though the employment data are influenced by the fact that it includes those working in the Community Development Employment Projects scheme, it suggests that Islanders are close to parity with non-Indigenous people in waged-employment and self-employment in all States except Queensland and the Northern Territory. Islanders are approaching parity in private sector employment everywhere on the mainland, but appear highly dependent on public sector employment in all locations, except Victoria.

This paper explores the concept of autonomy as it might apply to Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people. Literature dealing with the concept of autonomy is considered and several analytical approaches are discussed. Principal amongst these are the distinction between corporate autonomy for a people and regional autonomy, whether autonomy might apply to only Indigenous people or to all people in a region, and the possible relationship between political and economic factors. Although autonomy may be considered as a right, the paper takes the view that it is a status which has to be negotiated with the state, and so requires legitimation. With these principles in mind, the concept of autonomy is discussed at the national level and in four regions: Torres Strait, the Tiwi Islands, the Miwatj region in Arnhem Land, and the Murdi Paaki ATSIC region in New South Wales. These examples suggest that Indigenous people perceive autonomy as something that would apply to largely to Indigenous-specific services; only in Torres Strait is consideration being given to a form of regional autonomy that might apply to issues relating to all of the people in the region. The example of Murdi Paaki in New South Wales suggests that in the more heavily populated regions of the country Indigenous people may well view autonomy in terms of devolving more economic power to the regions within the ambit of the ATSIC system. In general, the examples suggest that Indigenous views of economic autonomy include increased control over Indigenous-specific funding. The only exception to this is in Torres Strait where one goal is greater Indigenous control of local fisheries. There is a significant point of divergence between Indigenous and government views of the economic aspects of autonomy, with governments considering political autonomy as something that might result in a reduction in welfare costs either through greater regional efficiencies or through increased Indigenous participation in the market economy. The paper suggests that the concepts of negative and positive autonomy may be useful in the Australia context as they may help illustrate that a particular form of autonomy is possible even when there is continuing economic dependence on the welfare system.

There is a tendency to view the CDEP scheme as unsuccessful when measured in predominantly economic terms, and in particular against its ability to reduce welfare dependence by reducing unemployment. However, it can be suggested that the scheme is quite successful in non-economic terms, as it appears to increase Indigenous political autonomy. By introducing the concepts of negative and positive autonomy, this paper proposes that it is legitimate to consider the scheme as relatively successful in terms of its political outcomes, even if it does little to reduce welfare dependence

In 1997, the House of Representatives Standing Committee on Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Affairs commenced an Inquiry into Indigenous Business. However, after a Commonwealth election held late in 1998, the government decided not to continue the Inquiry and its investigations have not been published. This paper summarises some of the evidence given to the Inquiry to see if this increases our understanding of indigenous businesses. The evidence provides additional information on issues about which we are already aware. For example, there appears to be a continuing desire to clarify social and commercial goals within indigenous businesses. There is also some interest in establishing businesses that are owned by individuals and families rather than just communities, and in the strategy of joint venturing. A number of access issues were also raised during the Inquiry such as the ability to raise capital from inalienable land and some of the limits of the existing government structures. However, most of the data supplied to the inquiry were from bureaucracies and much of it related to their programs rather than to the enterprises themselves. Very few submissions were from indigenous people in business and the data tell us almost nothing about such issues as their aims, their problems, or the size of their ventures (for example, the number of employees or turnover). Despite the fact that other data indicate the majority of self-employed indigenous people are in major urban centres (capital cities), the Inquiry collected no data from these areas. Also absent were submissions from any of the mainstream banks. Therefore, the majority of the evidence to the Inquiry does not add a great deal to our knowledge about the nature of indigenous businesses nor does it introduce many new issues or insights. However, evidence to the Inquiry did raise the possibility of increasing access for indigenous people through micro-credit and credit union arrangements and one submission proposed that aspiring business people could be mentored through the facility of business incubators. These proposals may warrant further investigation. The Inquiry has revealed that other data may be available that has not yet been analysed. For example, the Western Australian Department of Commerce and Industry has indicated that it has records on some 1,000 indigenous businesses. Both this Department and the Aboriginal and the Torres Strait Islander Commission have suggested that some of the business people with whom they have contact may be willing to be interviewed. It would seem worthwhile exploring these new data sources in the future.

This paper has been written as CAEPR's second response to the terms of reference of the current HRSCATSIA inquiry into greater autonomy for 'the people of the Torres Strait'. It notes that Islander submissions to this inquiry have predominantly interpreted these terms of reference as being about Torres Strait Islander autonomy, as a cultural group Australia wide, and have used the inquiry to further calls for a national statutory Torres Strait Islanders organisation; a Torres Strait Islanders Commission as we have indicatively referred to it. The paper explores the demographic background to this call for a national Torres Strait Islanders Commission and also the position of Torres Strait Islanders within the current ATSIC structure. It then goes on to discuss issues that are likely to arise in a move towards a Torres Strait Islanders Commission, under the headings of representation, funding, organisational scale, dual identification and Aboriginal people in Torres Strait. The paper argues that a national Torres Strait Islanders Commission is a real possibility, but that it would raise some quite significant and difficult issues. Because of this, the paper also discusses another reform possibility; better representation and funding arrangements within ATSIC and the TSRA for Torres Strait Islanders resident outside the Strait. The paper argues that Torres Strait Islanders themselves must determine which of these reform possibilities they want to pursue and to facilitate this it suggests a national Torres Strait Islander convention as a necessary next step. The final brief section of the paper attempts to clarify relationships between reform towards a Torres Strait Islanders Commission, or better representation and funding arrangements within ATSIC and the TSRA for Torres Strait Islanders resident outside the Strait, and reform towards Torres Strait regional government. Both, it argues, can be legitimately pursued under the rubric of seeking 'greater autonomy for the people of the Torres Strait'.

In recent years, Torres Strait Islanders have made a number of calls for greater governmental autonomy within the Australian federal system. This paper examines a number of these calls and government responses to them. It observes that progress towards greater autonomy has been slow and difficult and relates this to unresolved issues pertaining to three underlying analytic questions: from whom, for whom and for or over what is autonomy being sought? The paper argues that there have been, and still are, difficult unresolved issues relating to all three questions which Torres Strait Islanders need to address if autonomy is to be progressed. It also argues that the Australian federal system can accommodate greater autonomy in Torres Strait, though it will require some real innovation in Australian federal governance.