Indigenous policy is a complex domain motivated by a range of social, cultural, political and economic issues. The Council of Australian Governments 'closing the gaps' agenda for addressing Indigenous disadvantage in Australia now includes six targets with well defined and measurable outcomes for policy action. In this context there is a continuing and pressing need for robust debate to understand how meaningful improvement in Indigenous outcomes might be achieved.
This monograph presents the peer-reviewed proceedings of the 2011 CAEPR/ABS conference on ‘Social Science Perspectives on the 2008 National and Aboriginal Torres Strait Islander Social Survey’. It is the fourth CAEPR monograph since 1992 to reflect on national surveys of Indigenous Australians. The conference covered topics including child development, crime and justice, culture, wellbeing, the customary economy, demography, education, employment, fertility, health, housing, income and financial stress, mobility, poverty, social exclusion, and substance abuse. The papers summarise the strengths and limitations of the 2008 NATSISS, discuss the types of policy-relevant questions it can inform, and consider future survey design.
A social survey such as the NATSISS can ultimately never tell those responsible for developing public policy what to do, but it can provide useful information to inform policy decisions. This volume will be useful for researchers and policy makers, and relevant to the wider national debate and, in particular, Indigenous communities and organisations.
Table of Contents:
1 . Towards a broader understanding of Indigenous disadvantage Boyd Hunter and Nicholas Biddle
2 . Mobile people, mobile measures: Limitations and opportunities for mobility analysis John Taylor and Martin Bell
3 . Fertility and the demography of Indigenous Australians: What can the NATSISS 2008 tell us? Kim Johnstone and Ann Evans
4 . Does the 2008 NATSISS underestimate the prevalence of high risk Indigenous drinking? Tanya Chikritzhs and Wenbin Liang
5 . Improving Indigenous health: Are mainstream determinants sufficient? Nicholas Biddle
6 . What shapes the development of Indigenous children? Carrington Shepherd and Stephen R. Zubrick
7. The benefits of Indigenous education: Data findings and data gaps Nicholas Biddle and Timothy Cameron
8 . What are the factors determining Indigenous labour market outcomes? Prem Thapa, Qasim Shah and Shafiq Ahmad
9 . The Indigenous hybrid economy: Can the NATSISS adequately recognise difference? Jon Altman, Nicholas Biddle and Geoff Buchanan
10 . Is Indigenous poverty different from other poverty? Boyd Hunter
11 . Is there a cultural explanation for Indigenous violence? A second look at the NATSISS Don Weatherburn and Lucy Snowball
12 . NATSISS crowding data: What does it assume and how can we challenge the orthodoxy? Paul Memmott, Kelly Greenop, Andrew Clarke, Carroll Go-Sam, Christina Birdsall-Jones, William Harvey-Jones, Vanessa Corunna and Mark Western
13 . Do traditional culture and identity promote the wellbeing of Indigenous Australians? Evidence from the 2008 NATSISS Alfred Michael Dockery
14 . A mile wide, inch deep: The future for Indigenous social surveys? Matthew Gray
