Welfare reform and Indigenous empowerment
Welfare reform and Indigenous empowerment Journal Article
Australian Aboriginal Studies
- Author(s): Poroch, Nerelle
- Published: 2006
- Volume: 2006
Abstract: The Prime Minister’s Indigenous welfare reform is manifold. It has introduced Shared Responsibility Agreements and Regional Partnership Agreements for Indigenous communities, and restructured the Community Development Employment Projects scheme. It has abolished the Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Commission and distributed its functions between mainstream government departments. Indigenous Australians are categorised as marginal, non-institutionalised and illegitimate political minorities. In effect, the government has muted the Indigenous voice from a perspective of blaming the victim, as opposed to viewing the issue within power and inequality in the distribution of resources. The push to treat unequal Indigenous Australians equally by mainstreaming government services is in direct contrast to the United States and Canadian experiences where the degree of self-government that Indigenous nations exercise determines the change in rates of disadvantage. Ideas of empowerment through tactical intervention and emancipatory vision substantiate the overseas experience. These ideas provide an insight into ways of fostering an understanding and acknowledgment of human authenticity. They present an alternative pattern of intercultural communication where Indigenous issues set the context of government policy making in an environment of recognition of Indigenous experiences.