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This report was published by the former Department of Families, Community Services and Indigenous Affairs

Overview

The whole-of-government approach in Indigenous Affairs was established in 2004. The Secretaries' Group on Indigenous Affairs has overseen implementation of the whole-of-government arrangements and includes the key departments and agencies with a major role in addressing Indigenous disadvantage. This approach has made government agencies more accountable for services and ensures that Indigenous specific and mainstream programmes operate in an effective and complementary way. The arrangements were designed to address the unacceptably high level of disadvantage faced by Indigenous people.

In 2006–07, the Australian Public Service (APS) focused on reviewing and monitoring the effectiveness of the arrangements and building on the lessons learnt over the last three years. This was an historic year for Indigenous people who celebrated the 40th anniversary of the 1967 referendum in which more than 90% of eligible Australians voted to count Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Australians in the national census of the population. The referendum also resulted in the Commonwealth acquiring the power to make specific laws in relation to Indigenous people by removing the exclusionary reference to Indigenous people.

However, the challenge of overcoming disadvantage experienced by many of the 517,2001 people who identify themselves as Indigenous people remains. In May 2007, the Steering Committee for the Review of Government Service Provision released its third Overcoming Indigenous Disadvantage: Key Indicators report. The report found that while there has been progress in overcoming the disadvantages that many Indigenous people experience, Indigenous people continue to do worse than other Australians.

The report is framed around three priority outcomes:

By identifying the performance of key Australian Government programmes which broadly address the priority outcomes outlined above, this report aims to provide transparency on progress towards overcoming disadvantage for Indigenous Australians.

Key achievements in 2006–07

In 2006–07, the situation of the most vulnerable-children, young people disengaged from education and employment, women and older people living in remote Aboriginal communities-has been a focus of attention by the APS and the Secretaries' Group. Secretaries have also worked to continue implementing reforms and programmes which commenced in previous years, including to streamline service delivery, reduce red tape and build Indigenous wealth and opportunity.
During the year, the group also consulted on key issues facing Indigenous Australians with the National Indigenous Council (NIC), which was established in 2004 to provide expert advice to the government on Indigenous issues. In 2006–07, the NIC and Secretaries' Group instituted biannual joint meetings to discuss mutual priorities such as enhancing Indigenous economic independence and accessing mainstream services by Indigenous Australians. 

Early childhood development

Helping to build better environments which support early childhood development and functional and resilient families requires more than increased investment in new infrastructure. It is about helping people create the opportunity for social and generational change by providing better health care and education opportunities.

To help children aged 0–5 years have the best possible start in life, practical assistance to families and communities is being provided through the Communities for Children initiative. This is breaking new ground by setting national high-level policy outcomes while enabling communities to implement appropriate place-based local systems. It recognises that a whole-of-community approach to the planning, implementation and delivery of activities provides stronger outcomes for children and families.

A healthy start in life is clearly an essential building block for achieving successful early childhood development. Improving antenatal care and birth weight is a strong focus for the Healthy for Life initiative, a four-year programme implemented during 2006–07. Good nutrition is also being supported through Outback Stores which will develop partnerships with Indigenous communities to deliver long-term sustainable retail stores where the community can have access to fresh and affordable food. Child health checks including hearing assessments-focusing on hearing loss caused by middle ear infection-will help to alleviate learning problems associated with hearing loss later in life.

Indigenous housing and infrastructure

Adequate housing is an essential building block for improved living standards for Indigenous children, particularly for the achievement of decent health, education, employment and community safety outcomes. Many Indigenous people in remote Australia suffer from unacceptable levels of substandard housing, overcrowding and homelessness.

In 2006 an independent review of the Community Housing and Infrastructure Programme (CHIP) was conducted,2 which recommended major reform to the programme's administrative arrangements. Data from the 2006 Community Housing and Infrastructure Needs Survey3 also showed that despite a significant investment of $1 billion in the last five years, only limited improvements to Indigenous housing stock had occurred. The housing stock requiring major repair had also increased.

In response to these findings the Australian Government announced a significant Indigenous housing and infrastructure reform package as part of the 2007–08 Budget.  At the centre of these reforms was the replacement of CHIP with a new Australian Remote Indigenous Accommodation (ARIA)4 programme.

Safer communities

Families and communities are the building blocks of our society. For a community to thrive, the family unit must feel safe and protected from harm. Children need to be supported in functional and resilient families that are healthy, free of violence and culturally vibrant.

On 14 July 2006, the Council of Australian Governments (COAG) reaffirmed its commitment to a collaborative approach to addressing family violence and child abuse in Indigenous communities, particularly in the areas of policing, justice and governance. The Australian Government made available $130 million over four years to improve community safety. Actions undertaken in 2006–07 include strengthening law and order with a commitment of $47 million in capital assistance to build police infrastructure such as police stations, facilities and housing that will be owned and operated by state and territory governments.

To support victims of crime, $6 million was committed from the Family Violence Partnership Programme to fund safe houses and support groups under the Safe Places Initiative through to 2008–09. Other elements of the package included funding drug rehabilitation and sniffer dogs for crime intelligence gathering in Indigenous communities.

The Petrol Sniffing Prevention Strategy is a whole-of-government approach to tackle petrol inhalation in the central desert region of Australia. It includes an eight-point plan to address supply and trafficking, as well as funding to support measures aimed at prevention and treatment.5 Research indicates that the roll-out of Opal fuel has been extremely successful, with some reports estimating that petrol sniffing has been reduced by up to 95% across Central Australia.

In 2006–07, the National Indigenous Law and Justice Strategy consultative draft was developed by the Attorney-General's Department. The strategy provides a framework for discussion and input for a whole-of-government coordinated approach to four key Indigenous law and justice issues across Australia. The key issues are to:

Wealth creation and economic sustainability

The focus on increasing Indigenous participation in the formal economy continued during 2006–07 by reducing dependency on passive welfare, assisting Indigenous people to obtain equity in a home, helping Indigenous Australians into sustainable jobs and providing ongoing support so that Indigenous Australians can make the most of economic development opportunities.

The Australian Government is working with industry bodies to link Indigenous communities that have high unemployment with industries that operate within their region. During the year, the government entered into memoranda of understanding with the mining, forestry and pastoral industries.

Removal of Remote Area Exemptions has been a key step in increasing participation in remote communities and improving the skills of job seekers so they are better equipped to apply for and win local jobs. To 30 June 2007, exemptions had been removed in 48 communities across Australia (plus 111 associated outstations).

Reforms to the Community Development Employment Projects (CDEP) programme over the past two years have increased opportunities for Indigenous Australians to gain education, training and work experience. In 2006–07, 5,770 CDEP participants were placed into employment. To address the cross-subsidisation in government service delivery by the CDEP programme, more than 130 community-based Indigenous health care and substance abuse worker positions were funded during the year. 

Record job placements for Indigenous Australians also continue to be achieved through Job Network with over 50,100 job seekers placed into work.

The Australian Government provided $3 million in the 2005–06 Budget to enable the Cape York Institute to develop proposals to trial new approaches to welfare in four volunteer communities. The approach aims to rebuild social norms and remove disincentives for people to engage in the real economy. Following the receipt of the Institute's Design Recommendations report in May 2007, the Australian Government committed $48 million over four years in the 2006–07 Budget to support the implementation of welfare reform trials.

The adoption of financial income management strategies in communities also provides funding across Australia to increase Indigenous people's money management skills and enhance their personal and family wealth. Financial literacy helps Indigenous people save for a home, buy a car or manage rent payments.

Indigenous land reform

Land tenure reform has been pursued to facilitate individual home ownership, business development and effective management of public housing in remote areas. The many different forms of land tenure, including communal ownership, can affect the ability of Indigenous people to leverage their land assets or buy their own home.

Amendments to the Aboriginal Land Rights (Northern Territory) Act 1976 passed by Parliament on 17 August 2006 included changes to allow for individual land ownership through a 99 year township lease of Aboriginal land in the Northern Territory.  Further amendments were made in June 2007 to establish a statutory officer, the Executive Director of Township Leasing, to enter into and hold township leases on behalf of the Australian Government. On 15 May 2007, the Australian and Western Australian governments announced a $112 million package for a range of initiatives to improve conditions for Indigenous people in Western Australia. The jointly funded package supports a number of place-based initiatives that specifically target the needs of each individual community.

Increased access to mainstream programmes

Mainstream programmes are universal services delivered by governments for the benefit of all Australians. In the past, Indigenous people have made little use of mainstream programmes and this has stretched resources in Indigenous specific programmes. Mainstream services need to provide a culturally appropriate service for Indigenous people.

Secretaries and their departments evaluate mainstream programmes to ensure that services are tailored appropriately for Indigenous people. During 2007, FaCSIA, as the lead agency in Indigenous affairs, developed a departmental framework for mainstreaming, which seeks to improve Indigenous outcomes by ensuring that Indigenous Australians have equitable access to government programmes. A mainstreaming framework will help staff determine where improvements in Indigenous access and outcomes are needed, and provide a strategy for implementing changes to the design of payments, state and territory agreements, grant programmes and ex-gratia payments, to ensure improved access for Indigenous Australians.

During 2006–07, the Australian National Audit Office (ANAO) conducted an audit of four mainstream government departments to assess how they were implementing the 2004 Indigenous affairs arrangements. The ANAO found that the mainstreaming of Indigenous services has provided Australian Government departments with the opportunity to develop more integrated solutions to entrenched Indigenous disadvantage and that reforms of major Indigenous specific programmes are taking place in employment and housing.

Streamlining service delivery through reduced red tape

In 2005–06, the Secretaries' Group identified that unnecessary red tape was adversely affecting small providers and organisations in regional and rural Australia and that there were inconsistencies in funding application, performance and financial reporting processes across programmes. These findings informed a review and subsequent reforms of programme administration in 2006–07 as well as enhancements by FaCSIA to its online funding management system.6 Further reforms to governance arrangements include consideration of the roles and responsibilities for both programme managers and the people managing funding agreements on the ground.

Evaluation activities

Learning where we can do better and finding new and innovative ways of delivering government services is a fundamental role for the Secretaries' Group. The synopsis of the whole-of-government evaluations of the eight COAG trials was published in January 2007 and provided a mechanism for learning what is working and where government needs to focus attention. The aim of the COAG trials was to explore new ways for governments to work together and with communities to address the needs of Indigenous Australians. Evaluations are available from the Office of Indigenous Policy Coordination.

The Office of Evaluation and Audit (Indigenous Programmes)

The Office of Evaluation and Audit (Indigenous Programmes) (OEA) was established under the Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Act 2005 to advise the Australian Government on the management and performance of its programmes for Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people7. In 2006–07, OEA finalised one evaluation and nine performance audits. At 30 June 2007, there were four evaluations and six performance audits in progress.

Indigenous Coordination Centres (ICCs)

ICCs facilitate coordinated and customised delivery of Indigenous services and negotiate regional and local arrangements and agreements for effective partnerships and shared responsibilities. The successful operation of ICCs is based on good communication between ICC managers, agency staff and programme managers, and their communities.  During 2006–07, a whole-of-government working partnership protocol was developed to ensure effective communication between all Australian Government agencies involved in the ICCs to provide better coordinated service delivery to Indigenous communities.

An independent review of the ICC model was undertaken in 2006–07 to examine the first two years following the implementation of the new arrangements in Indigenous affairs8. The findings of the evaluation were encouraging and indicated broad support for the ICC model.

Shared Responsibility Agreements

Shared Responsibility Agreements are voluntary agreements between governments and Indigenous communities. In return for discretionary benefits from the government, Indigenous communities make specific commitments to achieve identified goals.

The Shared Responsibility Agreements Implementation Review9was undertaken from May to June 2007. The review found that the majority of people in communities have embraced the agreements and saw them as a significant new way of working with government to address issues in their communities.

The development of Shared Responsibility Agreements is supported by the Flexible Funding Pool (FFP), a cross-agency pool of $75 million provided in the 2006–07 Budget over four years. The FFP also aims to help reduce Indigenous disadvantage through Regional Partnership Agreements, joint interventions and agreements with state and territory governments and other priority interventions. 

Regional Partnership Agreements use coordinated service delivery to improve the situation of Indigenous people. They can contain a broad statement of priorities and principles, but may also be used to underpin a specific regional strategy agreed between government and the community.

The development of SRAs enables Indigenous families and communities to work directly with governments under the principle of shared responsibility for achieving agreed outcomes. Ground-breaking solutions to locally identified problems are brokered through the network of ICCs using a range of funding sources. At 30 June 2007, four Regional Partnership Agreements and 260 Shared Responsibility Agreements had been signed with 197 Indigenous communities.

Funding for Indigenous Programmes

During the year the Secretaries' Group again helped develop a single Indigenous Budget submission to coordinate and focus Australian Government investment where it will have the most effect.

The 2007–08 Indigenous Affairs Budget10 provided $3.5 billion across 26 initiatives. It involved $815.7 million of additional funding over five years for remote housing, early childhood, new education opportunities, health and economic independence. These measures have a net fiscal balance impact of $748.3 million.

Informing generational reform

In July 2006 COAG agreed that long-term generational commitment is needed to overcome entrenched Indigenous disadvantage. It established a national working group to develop a proposal to significantly close the gap between Indigenous and non-Indigenous Australians over a generation. An important aspect of Indigenous generational reform is building a cumulative body of evidence about what works to improve policy and service delivery. At its meeting on 13 April 2007, COAG agreed to establish an Indigenous generational reform clearinghouse which would gather and disseminate reliable information about best practice and success factors. The clearinghouse is estimated to cost $1 million a year. 

The reporting framework

The remainder of this annual report uses the reporting framework from the 2007 Overcoming Indigenous Disadvantage: Key Indicators report, which is divided into seven strategic areas for action. Each of the chapters addressing these seven strategic areas highlights developments in key Australian Government programmes that have occurred in Indigenous affairs in the past year.

The chapters cover:

On 21 June 2007, the Australian Government announced the Northern Territory Emergency Response.  The Secretaries' Group will be monitoring this closely.

Although it is clear that there is still some way to go, much achievement and learning has taken place. The Secretaries' Group appreciates the collaboration of APS staff and Indigenous peoples and service organisations throughout 2006–07. We remain committed to, and accountable for, achieving a higher standard of living for Indigenous Australians.

 

 

1 Australian Bureau of Statistics, 2007. Population Distribution Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Australians. ABS Cat. No. 4705.0. Canberra: ABS. p 5.

2 The final report of the CHIP review, Living in the Sunburnt Country, was released publicly in March 2007.

3 Conducted by the Australian Bureau of Statistics.

4 Programme funding of $1.6 billion over four years from 1 July 2008–09.

5 This strategy is a collaboration between the Australian, South Australian, Western Australian and Northern Territory governments.

6 The reforms make it easier for service providers and organisations to do business with the government by providing consistent processes, expectations and requirements across programmes and locations while maintaining appropriate standards of accountability and monitoring. 

7www.finance.gov.au/aboutus/office_of_evaluation_audit.html

8The first stage of the review comprised a diagnostic evaluation of a sample of eight ICCs (Perth, Kalgoorlie, Ceduna, Wagga Wagga, Sydney, Darwin, Alice Springs and Rockhampton).

 

9The first stage of the review consisted of a literature review and analysis of the 80 individual Shared Responsibilty Agreement reviews that had previously been completed. The second stage of the review looked at the approach taken to implement Shared Responsibility Agreements in a sample of three ICCs.

10www.facsia.gov.au/internet/Minister3.nsf/content/
budget07_better_future_indigenous_australians8may07.htm

 

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Early childhood development and growth

Members of Secretaries' Group on Indigenous Affairs