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Aboriginies

  
   
 

Of five hundred thousand Aborigines and Torres Strait Islanders, only one third work in mainstream jobs and have mainstream living standards.

CIS research on Indigenous policy issues began in 2005, with an overview of the issues facing the ninety thousand most disadvantaged Aborigines and Torres Strait Islanders, who reside in remote settlements.

The Coombs model of isolated ‘living museums,’ which has dominated Indigenous policy for remote areas, has resulted in widespread deprivation.

Labour force participation is the principal determinant of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander income, health, housing, and social characteristics. The three principal determinants of labour force participation are location, education, and welfare dependence. 

CIS work on Indigenous education suggests that lack of basic literacy and numeracy, combined with the absence of the experience of school discipline from which other Australian school children benefit, is a major factor in the inability of Aborigines and Torres Strait Islanders to access even very low-skilled jobs. With increasing skill requirements in the Australian labour market, the inability of graduates from Indigenous primary schools to progress to high schools, let alone TAFEs and universities, is a major obstacle to employment.

The denial of Indigenous private property rights by communal native title legislation also bears a major responsibility for substandard housing. The communal nature of native title legislation gave Indigenous Australians the illusion but not the substance of land ownership, robbing them of the right to own a home or to use their land as collateral for business.

Current Research Areas

  • analysis of Northern Territory learning and education

  • housing and ninety-nine-year leases

  • the impact of Community Development Employment Projects (CDEP) on labour force participation

  • Indigenous location and labour force participation: Where do Aborigines and Torres Strait Islanders live in relation to
    labour markets

  • Aborigines and Torres Strait Islanders in the Open Society

Research Staff
Helen Hughes
Sara Hudson
Kirsten Storry
shudson

Sara Hudson is a policy analyst in the Indigenous Affairs Research Program at the Centre for Independent Studies. Prior to joining the CIS, Sara worked as a policy advisor for the New Zealand Department of Labour, and in the Evaluation Unit of the New Zealand Police. She has a Bachelor of Arts with first-class honours in criminology and anthropology from Victoria University of Wellington. 

Areas of expertise:

  • Indigenous employment
  • Indigenous welfare dependency, CDEP
  • Governance
  • Indigenous land permits
  • Law and order
Kirsten Storry

Kirsten Storry is a Visiting Fellow on the Indigenous Affairs Research Programme. She researches indigenous education issues in remote communities.  Kirsten has written two Issue Analysis papers, published some 20 opinion pieces in newspapers and magazines in Australia and New Zealand, appeared as a panelist on a TV current affairs show, and given interviews on 15 radio stations across Australia. She has travelled on field trips to communities in East Arnhem Land, the Torres Strait and Cape York. Kirsten has Bachelors of Arts (Honours) and Laws from the University of New South Wales and is completing a Master of Public Policy at the Australian National University. She has previously worked at a number of Australian Government agencies.

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