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The Australian Government has recently increased resourcing for evaluation of Indigenous programmes following critical reports by the Australian National Audit Office and Productivity Commission around their failure to significantly reduce Indigenous disadvantage. Evaluation in Indigenous affairs has a long history, although not a consistent or coordinated one. While there is significant knowledge held by those with experience in commissioning and conducting evaluations for Indigenous programmes over a number of decades that could usefully inform current efforts, there has been little research focused on this area. This article outlines the findings of qualitative research about evaluation in Indigenous policy conducted with policymakers, senior public servants, programme managers, researchers and independent evaluation consultants that sought to privilege the voices and perspectives of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people. It outlines key themes derived from those interviews relating to the methods, parameters, politics and accountability around government-commissioned evaluation in Indigenous policy and programmes and concludes by canvassing ways that evaluation could better serve the interests of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples.

Australians turn to the mainstream media to gain information, analysisand reasoning about events and issues on a daily basis. 'The news' has apowerful and permeating influence on how we all understand and make sense of the world around us. Notions of 'objectivity' and 'fact' in media traditionbelie the reality that the experiences and values of those who work in the media influence the way events and issues are portrayed. Like many Australians, those who work in the media may have ill-informed or prejudiced views of the historical and current experience of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander communities. Although there are many commentators, opinion columnists andothers who make overtly racist statements about Indigenous people, racism in the media also manifests in more subtle ways in everyday media practices of news gathering and the narrative structures of news reportage. There is an institutional racism in the media, an entrenched culture that represents issues and people in particular ways. It is as much about what is not reported as what is. Whether deliberate or unconscious, those working in the media have the power to marginalise and construct Indigenous communities as 'other', as associated with criminality or conflict. This power comes from the capacity to make connections, to represent events or issues in the context of pre-existing prejudices. This article explores the relationship between media reporting, political rhetoric and community attitudes, and the impact on Aboriginal andTorres Strait Islander people - from the way that legislation and policiesconcerning Indigenous people are formulated, to the way that Indigenouspeople are treated on a daily basis in the street, in the workplace, at school, and in the community.

© 2017, © The Author(s) 2017. The stigmatisation, control, criminalisation and incarceration of people with disability have a long history. While in recent decades there has been increasing commitment to the rights of people with disabilities by governments in western nations, the over-representation of people with mental and cognitive disability in criminal justice systems has continued. Although there are similarities amongst Western jurisdictions in regard to the treatment of people with disability in justice systems, there are particularities in Australia that will be drawn out in this article. We argue that disadvantaged people with mental and cognitive disability are being managed by and entrenched in criminal justice systems across Australia's six states and two territories, including so-called diversionary and therapeutic measures that appear to accommodate their disability. In the absence of early and appropriate diagnosis, intervention and support in the community, some disadvantaged and poor persons with mental and cognitive disability, in particular Indigenous Australians, are being systematically criminalised. Criminal justice agencies and especially youth and adult prisons have become normalised as places of disability management and control. Drawing on research that focuses in detail on the jurisdictions of the Northern Territory and New South Wales, we argue for a reconstruction of the understanding of and response to people with these disabilities in the criminal justice system.

This study provides a cost-benefit analysis of CJSN support services in terms of criminal justice costs to the NSW State Government.

STUDY OBJECTIVE--The purpose of the study was to examine default rates in tuberculosis treatment in two hospitals in north India with different follow up arrangements. DESIGN--The study was a retrospective cohort study. SETTING--Two hospitals were involved. One was the District Tuberculosis Centre for the Kulu Valley area of Himachal Pradesh. The other was a private mission hospital serving the same area. PATIENTS--The study involved 321 patients at the tuberculosis centre and 381 at the mission hospital, being all those newly diagnosed with tuberculosis from October 1982 to September 1983; follow-up to October 1984. Patients at the mission hospital were more affluent and had travelled much further to seek treatment; only one reminder was sent to defaulters from treatment. The government hospital had a more active response if the patients missed an appointment, with a home visit by a health worker. RESULTS--Rates of permanent default were similar in each hospital and were very high: approximately 40% at 6 months, 60% at 12 months, and 65% at 18 months of treatment. CONCLUSIONS--Default was a major problem irrespective of the follow up procedures employed. Recommendations are made concerning treatment and follow up, including better communication about the disease and its treatment, active follow up of defaulters, and review of treatment policies.