Addressing Indigenous Health Disparities in Australia

This assignment delves into the complex issue of health disparities among Indigenous Australians. It analyzes various factors contributing to these disparities, such as socioeconomic disadvantage, limited access to healthcare, and historical injustices. The assignment also examines government policies and initiatives designed to address these challenges, including the National Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Health Plan and strategies for promoting health equity. Students are expected to critically evaluate the effectiveness of existing interventions and propose potential solutions for improving Indigenous health outcomes.

Running head: SOCIOLOGY
Sociology
Name of the student:
Name of the University:
Author’s note

1SOCIOLOGY
Social policies are implemented with the purpose of resolving social problems in society
and providing adequate support to people living with disadvantage (Dean, 2014). There are some
groups of people in community who suffers greater disadvantage in all areas of life and their
disadvantage is defined by social, economic and cultural determinants in society (Fisher et al.,
2016). Some of the groups who are major targets of social policies include unemployed people,
single parents, aged people, women, children, and those living with disability. This is because
they experience social injustice due to inequality in the areas of employment, health, housing and
other areas of life. Hence, social policies focus on eliminating gaps in social aspects of well-
being and bringing positive changes in the community. This essay particularly focuses on
analyzing the position of Indigenous Australians in community and findings out ways in which
social policy domains in the area of income support and health care has influence the Indigenous
Australians. The paper analyzes social policies under the income support and health care domain
and gives an insight into the strength and limitation of social policy domain on impacting the
lives of the selected population group.
Indigenous Australians are one of the distinct cultural groups in Australia who used to
live in surrounding islands of the country. Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islanders also comprise
the group of indigenous Australians and they follow mix of both contemporary and traditional
practices. They are also regarded as the first inhabitant of Australia as they were the first human
to settle down in the country. By the time, European settlers arrived in Australian in 1778, there
were about 3,20,000 Aborigines in the country (Shareourpride.org.au., 2018). After the European
settlement, indigenous Australians have to resettle in other lands. The history of forced
resettlement and the loss of land has been a contributor to disadvantages in the group. They have

2SOCIOLOGY
been marginalized from society and they lag behind from non-indigenous Australians in the
areas of employment, health, housing and education.
The perception of indigenous Australians has changed over time. According to current
perception, indigenous Australians are regarded as the most disadvantaged group in Australia
because of disparities between indigenous and non-indigenous Australians across all parameters
of quality of life. A number of socio-economic factors create disadvantages for the group and
increase risk of health and well-being. Although indigenous people continue to inhabit Australia,
however they live in a separate social stratum and retain links to traditional culture and beliefs.
Indigenous people do not trust social workers because they also played a role in removal of
children during colonization. Issues of social justice, equity and social disadvantage hamper
sustainable and effective relation between indigenous Australians too (Bennett 2015). Although
many multicultural policies and immigration policies have been implemented in Australia to
encourage a culturally diverse population, however still indigenous Australians have been
recognized as having lower level of unemployment and greater negative health complications
compared too rest of the population (Mitrou et al. 2014).
Income support policy is one of the policy domains that have focused on welfare of the
indigenous groups. Income support policies are crucial for social security and alleviating burden
of unemployment and poverty for disadvantages group in society (Carson & Kerr, 2017). Low
socioeconomic position in terms of income and occupation also has association between greater
burden of disease and mortality in countries (Arno et al., 2011). Evidence related to burden of
disease and disparities in health status between indigenous Australians and rest of the population
points out to the need for immediate policy action for this group (Vos et al., 2009). A study on
cardio-metabolic risk and disease in indigenous Australians also revealed that unemployed

3SOCIOLOGY
individuals are most likely to have cardiovascular disease (Brown et al. 2014). Hence, this
proves that higher income is associated with lower odds of health risk and social disadvantage in
people and income support policies improves the economic status of people living in poverty.
Income support policy can achieve its goal when income support measures are complemented
with strategies to eliminate factors contributing to social problem in indigenous group. The role
of income support policy and its impact on indigenous Australians will be analyzed in later part
of essay.
Apart from income support, another policy domain that is importance in the context of
welfare of indigenous Australians includes the health policies. This is because indigenous
Australians have lower life expectancies and worse health outcome compared to non-indigenous
people (Durey & Thompson, 2012). Life expectancy is a parameter that describes population
health and for Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people born in 2010-2012, life expectancy
has been estimated to be 10.6 years lower compared to non-indigenous population (Australian
Institute of Health and Welfare, 2018). Such evidence affirms the fact that health policy domain
is a necessary element to assess the fate of welfare activities done in the area of health for
indigenous group. Evaluation of health policies for indigenous Australian will help to determine
whether health policies have been effective in reducing health disparities or not. It may also help
to assess whether health policies promote or compromise indigenous health and well-being.
To evaluate the role of income support policy domain in influencing lives of Indigenous
people, there is a need to analyze the performance of specific income support policies that has
been implemented for the group. Income inequality is a significant issue in indigenous people
and this is evident from the 2014-2015 statistics that only less than 46 % of Aboriginal and
Torres Strait Islander people above 15 years are employed in Australia. In addition, more number

4SOCIOLOGY
of males were found to be employed compared to females (Abs.gov.au, 2015). The statistics also
revealed that unemployment rate was high in those living in remote areas compared to those
living in non-remote areas. Hence, the above data gives implications for a policy that addresses
large income disparities between indigenous and non-indigenous people. In the domain of
income support policy, some of the policies that focused on providing income support options to
Aboriginal Australians include the Aboriginal Employment Development Policy (AEDP), the
Community Development Employment Projects (CDEP) scheme and the most recent Aboriginal
Employment Strategy 2013-2015.
The sources of income for people in Australia come in the form of wages, salaries,
investment, government benefits and income. Indigenous people received very small amount of
income from non-wage sources compares to non-indigenous people (Howlett, Gray & Hunter,
2016).. The CDEP is a program that played a role in pooling unemployment benefit entitlement
of individual indigenous people into their direct wages and this benefit was for those who
participated in community development programs to get access to income support payments. The
scheme targeted indigenous people living both in remote and non-remote areas before 2009.
Changes in CDEP schemes occurred after 2009 when the scheme was discontinued in non-
remote location because economy was well-established in those areas. However, those who
joined the scheme before 2009 continued to receive wages and new participants received income
support benefits (Abs.gov.au, 2012). The main impact of the CDEP scheme on indigenous
people was that it provided them social security and opportunities to enter mainstream labor
market programs. Furthermore, by focusing on the equal rights of indigenous people in the area
of economic, social and cultural rights, the CDEP scheme provided the right support to address
unemployment gap occurring due to remoteness of location (Jordan, 2016). Despite this success,

5SOCIOLOGY
some limitations found in the policy is that CDEP participants were not uniformly treated by
Commonwealth agencies thus pointing out to perception of discrimination issues in the scheme.
The main benefits of the CDEP scheme was that it allowed indigenous Australians to get
employment opportunities within their communities instead of passively receiving social
security. However, after criticism of the scheme for being discriminatory towards its participant,
there was a need for policies that incentivize employment for this population group. The reform
of the CDEP scheme gave rise to new policy framework called ‘Australians Working Together’.
This policy helped indigenous people to enter into mainstream employment (Dss.gov.au. 2018).
Besides this, the Aboriginal Employment Strategy 2013-2015 was one of the policies that
focused on making a difference in the Aboriginal employment outcome. The main goal of this
policy was to empower people by preserving diversity and developing a welcoming and
respectful work culture. This policy was also aiming to address the COAG’s (Council of
Australian Government) policy objective of ‘closing the gap’. With certain ambitious policy
drivers like reconciliation, substantive Equality and National Indigenous Reform Agreement, the
strategy played a role in creating an inclusive environment work environment for Aboriginal
people and developing their skills in doing their jobs (commerce.wa.gov.au, 2018).
Another policy domain that is a focus for indigenous Australians is the health policy.
Health policy is a domain that focuses on health equity and resource redistribution to address
disparities in health outcome in a population group. For indigenous Australian, one of the major
reasons for poor life expectancy and adverse health outcome is inequality in access to health
services. Access to health services is an important factor that can affect health status of
indigenous population (Bowling 2014). One specific policy that has been implemented for the
improving the health status of Aboriginals include the National Aboriginal and Torres Strait

6SOCIOLOGY
Islander Health Plan 2013-2024. The main focus of this policy framework was to close the gap in
health outcome in the selected population group and achieve equality in health status and life
expectancy between indigenous and non-indigenous Australians by 2031 (health.gov.au., 2018).
The main advantage of this policy in changing lives of Indigenous Australian is that it is inspired
by the United Nations Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples and so it took strength
based approach to promote health and positive behavior in indigenous people. The advantage of
taking strength based approach is that it values individuals’ skills and knowledge and pays
special attention to build on strength of target group to provide solutions to problem (Carson &
Kerr, 2017). This is crucial in shifting the balance of care. Hence, the health plan 2013-2014 has
been the reason for implementation of many guidelines related to improving the accessibility of
health services for indigenous people. Many effective programs are now reaching remote areas to
provide health service to people.
Policy development and progress in indigenous health is also monitored by the
Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Health Performance Framework. With the vision of
creating equitable and efficient health care system and address health of indigenous people, this
framework gave directive to Australian government for investment in indigenous advancement
programs. Hence, the Indigenous Australians Health Programme plays a role in addressing issues
faced by indigenous people due to cultural difference, language gap and remoteness of location.
This programme also fulfilled local health need of Indigenous Australians (Pmc.gov.au, 2018).
For aboriginal people, some of the barrier to health access was negative experience with health
care staffs. Health care staffs were found to lack cultural competence to understand the values
and culture of these people. This resulted in alienation from services (Clifford et al., 2015).
However, health policy led to positive implications in the area of cultural competence in health

7SOCIOLOGY
service. Many programmes are now being implemented to provide training to health care
workers regarding cultural competence. Education and training of the health care workforce is
likely to provide indigenous groups positive experience in accessing health services. In addition,
chronic disease programmes are engaging them in health lifestyle promotion activities. Primary
health care funding has also increased leading to good follow-on care, incentive payments and
chronic disease management (Pmc.gov.au, 2018).
The essay gave an insight into the role of health policy and income support policies on
influencing the life of Indigenous Australian. By evaluating the role of these policies on
addressing employment and health issues in the group, it can be concluded that these policies has
been influential in driving positive changes for the well-being of the indigenous population.
However, by reviewing employment policies, it is predicted that addressing discrimination in the
delivery of income support policies might be a challenge in the future. Hence, changing the
attitude of non-indigenous people and inclusive work culture across various sectors might be a
challenging task in the future. In case of health policies, aligning and sustaining goals of the
National Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Health Plan 2013-2024 for a long period might be
a challenge. However, social policies can look to evaluate existing programs and identify
existing gaps in data to plan ways to address issue in the future.

8SOCIOLOGY
Reference
Abs.gov.au. (2012). 6287.0 - Labour Force Characteristics of Aboriginal and Torres Strait
Islander Australians, Estimates from the Labour Force Survey, 2011. Retrieved 25
January 2018, from
http://www.abs.gov.au/ausstats/abs@.nsf/Products/6287.0~2011~Chapter~Community
%20Development%20Employment%20Projects%20%28CDEP%29
Abs.gov.au. (2015). 4714.0 - National Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Social Survey,
2014-15. Retrieved 25 January 2018, from
http://www.abs.gov.au/ausstats/abs@.nsf/Lookup/by%20Subject/4714.0~2014-15~Main
%20Features~Labour%20force%20characteristics~6
Arno, P. S., House, J. S., Viola, D., & Schechter, C. (2011). Social security and mortality: The
role of income support policies and population health in the United States. Journal of
public health policy, 32(2), 234-250.
Australian Institute of Health and Welfare. (2018). Life expectancy. Retrieved 25 January
2018, from https://www.aihw.gov.au/reports/life-expectancy-death/deaths-in-australia/
contents/life-expectancy
Bennett, B. (2015). “Stop deploying your white privilege on me!” Aboriginal and Torres Strait
Islander engagement with the Australian Association of Social Workers. Australian
Social Work, 68(1), 19-31.
Bowling, A. (2014). Research methods in health: investigating health and health services.
McGraw-Hill Education (UK).

9SOCIOLOGY
Brown, A., Carrington, M. J., McGrady, M., Lee, G., Zeitz, C., Krum, H., ... & Stewart, S.
(2014). Cardiometabolic risk and disease in Indigenous Australians: the heart of the heart
study. International journal of cardiology, 171(3), 377-383.
Carson, E., & Kerr, L. (2017). Australian social policy and the human services. Cambridge
University Press.
Carson, E., & Kerr, L. (2017). Australian social policy and the human services. Cambridge
University Press.
Clifford, A., McCalman, J., Bainbridge, R., & Tsey, K. (2015). Interventions to improve cultural
competency in health care for Indigenous peoples of Australia, New Zealand, Canada and
the USA: a systematic review. International Journal for Quality in Health Care, 27(2),
89-98.
commerce.wa.gov.au (2018). Aboriginal Employment Strategy 2013–2015. Retrieved 25
January 2018, from
https://www.commerce.wa.gov.au/sites/default/files/atoms/files/aboriginal_employment_
strategy_2013-2105.pdf
Dean, H. (2014). Welfare rights and social policy. Routledge.
Dss.gov.au. (2018). Australians working together - helping people to move forward |
Department of Social Services, Australian Government. Retrieved 25 January 2018, from
https://www.dss.gov.au/about-the-department/publications-articles/corporate-
publications/budget-and-additional-estimates-statements/2001-02-budget-and-additional-

10SOCIOLOGY
estimates/budget-2001-02-whats-new-whats-different/australians-working-together-
helping-people-to-move-forward
Durey, A., & Thompson, S. C. (2012). Reducing the health disparities of Indigenous Australians:
time to change focus. BMC health services research, 12(1), 151.
Fisher, M., Baum, F. E., MacDougall, C., Newman, L., & McDermott, D. (2016). To what extent
do Australian health policy documents address social determinants of health and health
equity?. Journal of Social Policy, 45(3), 545-564.
health.gov.au 2018). National Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Health Plan 2013–2023.
Retrieved 25 January 2018, from
http://www.health.gov.au/internet/main/publishing.nsf/content/B92E980680486C3BCA2
57BF0001BAF01/$File/health-plan.pdf
Howlett, M., Gray, M., & Hunter, B. (2016). Wages, government payments and other income of
indigenous and non-indigenous Australians. Australian Journal of Labour
Economics, 19(2), 53.
Jordan, K. (2016). Looking for ‘real jobs’ on the APY Lands: Intermittent and steady
employment in CDEP and other paid work. Better Than Welfare?: Work and livelihoods
for Indigenous Australians after CDEP, 36, 125.
Mitrou, F., Cooke, M., Lawrence, D., Povah, D., Mobilia, E., Guimond, E., & Zubrick, S. R.
(2014). Gaps in Indigenous disadvantage not closing: a census cohort study of social
determinants of health in Australia, Canada, and New Zealand from 1981–2006. BMC
Public Health, 14(1), 201.

11SOCIOLOGY
Pmc.gov.au. (2018). Policies and strategies | Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Health
Performance Framework 2014 Report. Retrieved 25 January 2018, from
https://www.pmc.gov.au/sites/default/files/publications/indigenous/Health-Performance-
Framework-2014/aboriginal-and-torres-strait-islander-health-performance-framework-
2014-report/policies-and.html
Shareourpride.org.au. (2018). Our shared history | Sections | Share Our Pride. Retrieved 25
January 2018, from http://www.shareourpride.org.au/sections/our-shared-history/
Vos, T., Barker, B., Begg, S., Stanley, L., & Lopez, A. D. (2009). Burden of disease and injury
in Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Peoples: the Indigenous health gap. international
Journal of Epidemiology, 38(2), 470-477.