Indigenous Affairs
The CIS has been publicly advocating for improving the outcomes of Indigenous Australians since 2004. Our work has spanned health, education, housing, private property rights, criminal justice, child protection and employment policy reform and had a direct impact on government thinking on Indigenous issues.
Our latest program is run by Jacinta Nampijinpa Price, outspoken advocate for indigenous reform.
The program called Changing the Narrative aims to explain in straightforward language what is needed to improve social outcomes for indigenous people with a particular emphasis on indigenous women.
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Featured Publication
Changing the Narrative
Jacinta Nampijinpa Price
01 June 2019
Prospectus for the CIS Indigenous Research Program Despite meaningful intentions by government and NGOs to close the gap, the billions of dollars spent have not achieved their goal. In order to begin to solve the issues faced by Australia’s most marginalised citizens, the narrative must change. It must become a…
READ MOREPublications
Submission to the Department of Prime Minister and Cabinet – Consultation Paper: COAG Closing the Gap Refresh
Charles Jacobs
30 April 2018
While the targets set in 2008 were ambitious, and the task immense, the failure to meet the majority of targets implies the need for a reassessment of the underlying principles and structures of the Closing the Gap strategy. The Centre for Independent Studies welcomes the…
Risky business: the problems of Indigenous business policy
Charles Jacobs
29 November 2017 | RR35
The Commonwealth’s Indigenous Procurement Policy (IPP) has put Aboriginal owned small businesses at the heart of a renewed approach to Indigenous economic development. The IPP has irrevocably changed the space, and the Indigenous business sector has grown exponentially since its introduction in 2015. While the…
Impact Investing: harnessing capital markets to solve societal problems
Josephine Cashman
25 October 2017 | OP158
In the post GFC environment, with the risk and return matrix and reputation risk to corporations and financial institutions, capital markets are attracted to social impact investing. Impact investing, or social impact investing, offers opportunities for investors with a commitment to social responsibility to invest…
Submission to Productivity Commission - Draft report: Introducing Competition and Informed User Choice into Human Services
Michael Potter, Sara Hudson
14 July 2017 | CIS Submission
The Productivity Commission (PC) released a draft report proposing reforms to increased competition, contestability and informed user choice to human services. CIS responded to the PC’s report with a submission covering two issues raised in the draft report: social housing and remote Indigenous communities. In…
Evaluating Indigenous programs: a toolkit for change
Sara Hudson
04 June 2017 | RR28
The federal government recently announced it will allocate $10 million a year over four years to strengthen the evaluation of Indigenous programs. However, given that the average cost of an evaluation is $382,000, the extra $10 million a year for Indigenous program evaluations will not…
Media & Commentary
Closing the gap requires us to reject separatism
Jacinta Nampijinpa Price, Simon Cowan
15 February 2020 | Canberra Times
This week the Prime Minister delivered the latest (not) Closing the Gapreport, which again shows how little progress has been made in the 12 years since the “Gap” targets and…
Change laws that enable violence
Jacinta Nampijinpa Price
14 February 2020 | ideas@theCentre
Claims that those of us who decry the violence against Aboriginal women and children are seeking the abandonment of indigenous culture are a straw man argument meant to deflect attention…
Why we should be worried by the High Court’s bizarre citizenship ruling
Peter Kurti
13 February 2020 | Daily Telegraph
When Prime Minister Kevin Rudd launched Closing the Gap in 2008, he can hardly have imagined that by 2020 so much of the gap would still need closing. But that…
Indigenous law: Fix it if it’s wrong
Jacinta Nampijinpa Price
05 February 2020 | The Australian
Claims that those of us who decry the violence against Aboriginal women and children are seeking the abandonment of indigenous culture are a straw man argument meant to deflect attention…
Changing the debate
Jacinta Nampijinpa Price
24 January 2020 | Ideas@TheCentre
In light of the reduced debate around Change the Date, it is the perfect time to give attention to the issues that impact the lives of Aboriginal Australians in some…