Addressing Food Insecurity in Torres Strait Islanders in Northern Territory

This paper explores an approach to minimize food insecurity in remote areas of northern territory amongst Aboriginals. The policy aims to bring equity in economic and social gaps in a generation of Australian people.

ADDRESSING FOOD INSECURITY IN TORRES STRAIT ISLANDERS LIVING IN
NORTHERN TERRITORY
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BACKGROUND
Food Insecurity
Food insecurity comes with the inability of an individual to afford adequate food
nutrients.1Disease management is difficult when there is poor nutrition combined with
stress.2,3Worsening health conditions, in turn, drain a lot of money from the households, eating
down on the budget and result in worsened lack of nutritious food and medical care.
Food Insecurity with aboriginals in Northern Territory of Australia
As food insecurity becomes a big threat to the well-being of a people in both developed and
developing countries and likely to affect people who are low-income earners it still remains a
global challenge as developing countries try to reach millennium development goal 1c target. In
addition, indigenous Australians are more likely than other Australians to have food insecurity as
a result of low income, overcrowding and household infrastructure among other factors.2,3,5,8 Food
insecurity with Aboriginal living in Northern Territory is of a big concern and should be dealt
with significantly. This paper aims at exploring an approach that can be used to minimize food
insecurity in remote areas of northern territory amongst Aboriginals.
Prevalence of the food insecurity
The Australian National Nutritional Survey of 1995 and framework data 2004-05 indicate that
indigenous people have a leading rate of 24% of food insecurity among other
Australians.3,4,5,8According to Rosier K. 6,7 there is the likelihood of Indigenous people lacking
food due to 30% of adults expressing their worries over going without food.Browne J, Laurence
S, Thorpe S. 2009.6,7State that there is a higher percentage of food limitation in remote areas due

to the high cost of about 26% in remote community general stores more than it cost a ‘basket of
food’ in Darwin supermarket. Studies from the Australian National Survey states that indigenous
people spend a greater percentage of their income (35%) on food than non-indigenous
Australians.6,7
Food insecurity is a continuous phenomenon and is brought about by many factors that are not
similar in all regions and times.
Determinants of Food Insecurity
Food insecurity among Aboriginals is associated with low income, lack of access to affordable
healthy food and overdependence on welfare groups.8Leading unhealthy life is common in these
people than non-indigenous Australians as a result of poor diet.2,4,9Spending too much on health
also results in food insecurity among the Aboriginals.10-12Aboriginals are the majority among the
indigenous group representing 90% of total indigenous Australian population.This could be the
reason for the less attention given to their rights by the government hence there is the likelihood
of becoming poorer.
The geographical location is also another determinant of food insecurity where they are unable to
access quality food and at the right time in remote areas. Aboriginals’ access to shops with high
nutritional food at a high price is the cause of food insecurity. Pope states that ‘financialization’
of food items among Australian trade unions and industries is against human rights and has led to
many people going without food since they can’t afford due to low income.10-12
Studies from National Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islanders have found that aboriginals spend
over 35% of their income on food budget.10-12There is currently a worrying gap of food insecurity
between non-indigenous Australians and Torres Strait Islanders which raises a concern for the

ministry to take immediate measures to improve food security for Aboriginals in the country and
eradicate food-related health issues.
RECOMMENDED PUBLIC HEALTH APPROACH
PolicyExplanation
The Australian Federal government is committed to ‘closing gap’ between the indigenous and
non-indigenous Australians, specifically, the infant and child mortality gaps rate .13,14,15 Close the
gap campaign began in 2008 with an aim of enabling health equalities within a generation. This
approach is beneficial to the indigenous people but it lacks equity in all spheres disadvantaging
the indigenous people against their counterpart non-indigenous Australians.13,14,15The objective of
this policy is to bring equity in economic and social gaps in a generation of Australian people.
The following strategy is to be implemented.
 Education and training of indigenous personnel on nutrition to promote nutrition
 Enabling food access to the locals through the acquisition of general agricultural land
 Reducing monopoly of general food stores in rural areas by supplying nutritional food
 Directing more funds to the nutritional healthy eating of Aboriginals
 Provision of sufficient health ‘hardware’ such as stoves, functioning kitchens
refrigerators in Aboriginals
 Encourage locals to plant more fruits and vegetables in their agricultural land
 Implement healthy eating programs amongst Aboriginals communities.
1. Policy advantages

Studies from Australian national survey has suggested that food is sold at 26% higher in rural
areas of indigenous people than in the urban areas due to limited general food stores.Survey has
also shown that a good number of adults are worried about going without food for days in
Aboriginals which means the current program lacks greater effectiveness. Reducing monopoly of
general stores of the remote areas is the best way to equitable health eating among the
Aboriginals.
Economic implication
The implication of closing gap between indigenous people of Australia will have economic
advantages to both government and indigenous Australian households.13,14,15 It is estimated that
by 2031 the Australian governments would experience a net gain of $11.9 billion if the gap
between indigenous and non-indigenous Australians improves to match those of average
Australians. This is because of broadening of tax base created by larger economy close to
$7.2billion and $4.7 billion spent on health and social security will reduce due to greater well-
being of among the indigenous people of Australia. Individual households’ income is likely to
increase and expenditure on food lower as a result of nutritional food accessibility and reduction
in medical care expenditure. The broader society is likely to benefit from the increased economic
activities of the indigenous people.
Health Benefit
The health benefit brought by proper nutrient will improve the living standard of people living in
remote areas of northern territory, reduces dangers of contracting diseases hence healthy living.
Health for Pregnant mothers will be improved and reduce infant and child mortality rates and
healthy lives of their both inborn and growing children, hence the potential of maintaining best

talents lost as a result of poor diet.20,22Improvement of life expectancy gap between indigenous
and non-indigenous people is the other health benefit of closing the gap. Aboriginal life
expectancy for men is 69.1 years non-aboriginal Australians likely to live 10 more years. There
is a less life expectancy between aboriginal women of 9 years compared to non-aboriginals
women living for 82 years on average. Reduced risk of contracting or developing diseases such
as type 2 diabetes and cardiovascular diseases will reduce.
Increased education to indigenous people
Education is an important factor in improving and supporting families as educated people have
better labor market than those who are not educated. Tertiary education is more likely to open
opportunities for students after completing their studies.A healthy body contributes to right
judgment, improvement of moods, stress management and improvement in education.
Aboriginals have a low education because they are poorly fed and therefore unable to bear
children who are mental health with the ability to concentrate on education. The result is school
drop-out and poor performance producing lowly educated people. Good nutrition will reduce
school drop-out and poor performance among the aboriginals as well as reduce absenteeism in
school. This helps also in the agenda of balancing education level between aboriginals and non-
aboriginals in the Northern Territory. Quality education will increase the competitiveness of the
aboriginals and have better job opportunities hence achieve the target placed by the federal
government.
2. POLICY DISADVANTAGES
To achieve the goal of this policy it is required that life expectancy increase by 16 years and 21
years respectively among the indigenous females and males due to the increasing life expectancy

of the non-indigenous population. 23, This has been proven most difficult in the five years to 2012
where there was a gain of only 0.8 years for men and women 0.1 which accounted for a fraction
of what was needed. There has been no change in mortality rate per 100,000 in the year which
remains 1.7 times for the indigenous people compared to the non-indigenous people from 1998.
Child mortality rate increased slightly in 2014 and 2015 indicating zero declines since 2008.13,22,
The unemployment rate has remained half of the non-indigenous people by 2018. Few
indigenous people in remote areas are employed (35.1%) in comparison to 57.5% of those in
urban and major cities.
The closing gap is not limited to infant and child mortality rates making it have a limitation in
bridging gaps between aboriginals’ social and economic welfare and those of the non-
aboriginals.17,21Evidence concerning infant and childhood mortality rate reduction is not
anywhere to be found. Reducing monopoly of general food stores in rural areas by supplying
nutritional food has been proposed but evaluation of the rural areas was not evident. This
program will need a government-government support through funding and coordination. If this is
not done long-term goals of the policy would be at risk with the change in the ministry and
government. However, bridging gaps between the aboriginals and non-aboriginals remains the
most preferred strategy for reduction of future government and household of aboriginals
Australia health expenditure.
Evidence
a. Education and training
Reports from ABS show that an indigenous male or female with a degree has a high
probability of 85% and 74% employment respectively. 17,18,23 For those with year 12

certificate has a probability of 62% and 50% whereas having completed year 9 and below is
43% and 32% respectively. With education, there is a higher probability of securing an
employment.13,14,16
Nicholas Biddle, Boyd Hunter, Mandy Yap, and Matthew identifies eight ways to improve
employment in indigenous people and they include increasing indigenous Australians skill
levels via formal education, pre-employment assessment to prepare them for jobs,
recruitment and policies of workplace that facilitate conducive environment ensuring equal
opportunity to secure jobs, ongoing mentorship to employers, support for the families of the
employed indigenous, cross-cultural awareness training to employers, minimizing the racism
in the workplace, and flexible work arrangement for other natural duties.
B. feeding American network
This concept comes into existence in 160s through John Van Hengel in Phoenix and since then
American feeding has helped every community in the 50 states to any person who needs it
without being obliged regardless of their social or economic status in a free and confidential
manner.22Feeding America has over 200 member food banks feeding American people with over
3 billion pounds of food and grocery yearly. It has an initiative of feeding American families
struggling with hunger, educate the public on the hunger issues, advocate for legislative policies,
and offer programs that improve self-sufficiency among their clients.
All the American food banks partners with the local agencies and food programs to offer hunger
relief. They provide food through a non-profit partner agencies network that receives, store and
distributes donated foods and groceries to the needy. America has successfully addressed hunger
threats to its citizen over 35 years since the start of feeding America networks banks.

Political Sensitivities.
a. Demographic/Political Party Sensitivity
All decisions of policymaking are influenced by the political class especially if they are money
oriented. There are differences in interest and gains the political class will have with some
directly benefiting from policy or policies.14,20 Implementing policies that benefit a single class of
people may raise political temperatures especially for the people regarded as minors. Fear of the
ruling political party would deter the implementation especially if they know some electorates
are not in support of it.
b. Economic sensitivity
As budget may be hard to change, people who are targeted may develop even higher social
sensitivity especially if they feel their needs not catered for. The Australian government is
already spending over $44,000 per every indigenous Australian which could make it a challenge
to increase the expenditure on the aboriginals.22This may be negatively received making it hard
to implement. The program may also receive a negative response from the people not likely to
benefit from it.
3. ADDRESSING POLITICAL SENSITIVITIES
Decisions on social and economic may be received with a lot of opposition especially from the
majority of the already unaffected group than they may receive other policy suggestions.16,18The
ministry should choose reducing its health expenditure in the future by implementing this policy
in its target to minimize future expenditure and increasing its revenue. This policy focuses on

improving the already existing strategies as well as reduces the future expenditure and increase
the economic stability of Australia.

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