Social Policies For Closing The Gap

Scope and purpose of the policy

Discuss about the Social Policies for Closing the Gap.

Social policies are important in bringing social changes and ushering in some new strategies or ways of life for the people in a community. Social policy is associated with the lifestyle, behavior, cultural identity and religious beliefs of the people living in a community. However, “Closing the Gap” is a policy that aims towards the development of the aboriginal people and the people of Torres Strait Island (Rigney & Hemming, 2014). The policy came into existence due to the several problems that are widespread among the aboriginals and the people of the Toress Starit Island. Social problems include a wide range aspects and it brings in focus the present scenario or circumstances of the indigenous or the aboriginal people. The young generation does not show much interest in carrying forward their rituals and beliefs since the mainstream people of Australia always neglect them. The health care system is not at all up to the mark to help the aboriginals recover quickly from various kind of disease. The hospitals have minimum or hardly any facilities to treat the aboriginal people. Suicide among the aboriginal people is also an important social issue which will gradually extinct the aboriginal existence from Australia. Domestic violence, too much of alcohol consumption, vagabond lifestyle of the aboriginals are also some of the key social issues. Fights among their own people are also a common affair and it at times takes very violent forms. Drunkenness is a major social problem that is very common among the aboriginals and it is not conducive for the growth of their community. The indigenous people have another important social problem that is gambling (Hess & Ribeiro, 2016). They waste their little earned money in gambling and thereby uselessly wastes time. Unemployment is also a major social issue of the aboriginals and of the Torres Strait Islanders. There are several reasons, behind the unemployment of the aboriginal people, which are low wage structure, scarcity of work that matches their skill set and so on. Disease that is transmitted sexually is very common among the aboriginal people and it is one of the major social issues. The literacy rate among the aboriginal is very low and if this tradition continues then their lifestyle will never develop. The policy aims to develop or increase the life expectancy of the aboriginals and the people of the Torres Strait Island with in the year, 2030. In the year, 2008 the health equity summit for the indigenous people of Australia was held in Canberra where several Australian Government representatives were present (Haines et al., 2016). The Australian Government has planned to focus on the various health issues through this policy of theirs. They are responding to the identified needs of the Aboriginals and Torres Strait islanders in making choices along with offering them the safe admission to early involvement and treatment services, making them free from racism.

Effectiveness of the policy

‘Closing the Gap’ is a strategy of government aimed at lessening the disadvantage among the people of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander with reverence to child mortality, life expectancy, and outcomes in employment. This policy has come from the Australian Government as their commitment towards achieving the health equality of Aboriginals and Torres Strait Islander people within 25 years.

The aboriginals and the Torres Strait Islanders are the most primitive group of people of Australia and over the time, they have suffered many difficulties and adversities (Trivedi et al., 2016). During the time of the European settlement in Australia, the aboriginal people of Australia suffered a lot of pain and hardships since there was a discrepancy in the implementation of social policies between the European and the aboriginals. However, the aboriginals of Australia in today’s time are not that primitive and they earn their livelihood by working as laborers in fields or in farms. The northern part of the island, Australia is filled with maximum numbers of aboriginal people and with time they upgrading themselves to adapt with the contemporary Australian lifestyle. The Torres Strait Islanders are also the indigenous or the aboriginal people of Queensland having a different set of cultural and religious beliefs (Hunter & Yap, 2014). The main purpose or the targets of the policy can be discussed with special focus on the main points. The purpose of the policy is to decrease the mortality rate among the aboriginal children who are all within the age group of five. The purpose of the policy is also to ensure that the children, who are under the age of four, should get education. The policy also aims towards bridging the gap between the educational systems of the mainstream Australian people with that of the indigenous people of Australia. The policy also aims towards bringing in a change or improvement in the reading and writing capabilities of the indigenous people. The policy is delivering good results since yearly reports are being published which judges the growth and development of the aboriginal people. The Prime Minister of Australia every year hands out a report on “Closing the Gap” policy in the parliament to that talks about the details of the progress of the aboriginal and the Torres Islander people. The policy aims to bring in substantial development for the aboriginal people and the   Torres Islander people within 2030 and since the timeframe is quite lengthy, it has several issues to be addressed and rectified (Thronson, 2016). The policy is going to usher in a new life for the aboriginal people that will help them to make themselves associate with the rest of the Australian people.

Implementation plan

The policy has been quite effective in bring substantial development for the aboriginal and the people of the Torres Strait Island. Within the past few years, the life expectancy rate of the people has increased incredibly. The life expectancy of the males has increased by 1.6 years whereas the life expectancy of the females has increased by 0.6 years. However, there remains a gap of near about 10 years between the life expectancy rate of the aboriginal people and the non-aboriginal Australian people (Samji et al., 2013). Improvement in the health of the children and their mothers has also been observed along with a reduction in the smoking rate. The health community has provided good quality health care system for the aboriginal people so that they can access the primary health care services to treat their disease. The policy is very good since it is only for making the aboriginal people and the people of Torres Strait Island a part of the mainstream Australian community. The policy aims towards the betterment of the health and lifestyle of the indigenous people and it also focuses on the minute details of the indigenous people like, drinking that affects the health, smoking, imprisonment and so on. Australian Government sets the strategies for the aboriginal people as per the requirement or need of the indigenous people (Pruett & DiFonzo, 2014). People around the world are well aware of the policy and know how the policy has brought about considerable change for the aboriginal people of Australia. The implementation of the policy is done with calculative measure to make the strategies effective. The plan of implementation includes several points like, setting targets in order to measure or calculate the outcomes and the progress. Developing a good management system, a dedicated workforce and a good infrastructure are also included under the implementation plan to carry strategies of the policy successfully.  After this, the implementation plan also includes selecting or mapping the regions that are hugely affected by diseases or have poor health care system, which will help in better implementation of the strategies. The implementation plan also ensures the fact that the cultural prospect of the indigenous people is preserved during the process of strategy implementation. However, the effectiveness of the policy greatly depends on the implementation plan and it decides the success of the policy. However, “Closing the Gap” policy has some limitation as well. The policy fails to understand the sentiments and emotions of the aboriginal people, the wrongs that have been done to them. The policy also at times lacks behind in identifying the chronic diseases among the aboriginal people and thereby fails to provide any substantial cure for the diseases (World Health Organization, 2013). The most unpleasing result of the policy is the failure in detecting the chronic diseases like, improper function of kidney, high blood pressure, high level of cholesterol and so on. Research conducted among the aboriginal people and the people of the Torres Strait Island establish the fact that many of them have diabetes and they are fully unaware about it, which hampers the overall health prospect of the indigenous people. Apart from these other weakness or limitation of the policy, include in depth analysis of their mental state, which is associated with their healthy lifestyle. The strength of the policy includes presentation of yearly or annual report and monitoring the increase in the life expectancy rate of the indigenous people. Identification of the key problems or issues also adds to the strength of the policy. The strength of the policy also includes the fact that all the strategies are supervised and implemented by the Government of Australia.

It was way back in March 2008, that the Government of Australia and the Aboriginals and Torres Strait Islanders approved on working together in order to achieve equality in the status of health and expectancy of life between the non-indigenous sections of people and the Aboriginals by 2030. Though, reports suggest that the Aboriginals have been the scapegoats of bad decision making and i has become an issue of national shame for the Australians who are continuously failing in their endeavor to close the gap between the white and the black Australians.

The key issues of the indigenous people are proving the ownership of their land, which belonged to their ancestors, sine without land they cannot progress with making any permanent settlement for themselves. Remoteness is another key issue of the aboriginal people and the Torres Strait Islanders since most of them live rural and underdeveloped areas of Australia, which is far away from the vicinity of towns and cities (Samji et al., 2013). Poor health condition is another key issue of the indigenous people since they do not get good medical treatments or facilities. “Closing the Gap” covers international policies since it has incorporated several international or excellent measures to usher in a change for the indigenous people. The policy wants to achieve equity in health care service, education system and lifestyle of the aboriginal people and the Torres Strait Islanders with that of the non-aboriginal people. The policy is designed to close the “Gap” that has been there from time immemorial so that the indigenous people become a part of the mainstream Australia. The policy wants to improve the lifestyle of the indigenous people and bring them back from the dark social issues like gambling, excessive consumption of alcohol, intake of drugs and so on. It is perceived through proper planning and implementation of the strategies. The change cannot be brought about in few days therefore the government has taken a time- period of near about 30 years to develop the indigenous group of people (O’Brien, 2013). However, recent reports suggest that there has been no progress in even halving the gap in the outcomes of Indigenous employment, whereas, a little development has been made in the Indigenous life expectancy and again no progress in the numeracy gap. The government has failed to produce any kind of proper audit on spending as recommended by the Chief Indigenous Advisor, Warren Mundine.

Conclusion:

The aboriginals of Australia form a major part of the Australian community and they are the witness of the social changes that happened over the years. Social policies are generally formulated for the betterment of a society or the common people and the governing bodies of a country make the policies (Kersting & Vetter, 2014). The paper discusses the range of activities that “Closing the Gap” policy can undertake in order to develop the security, education, health care system and living condition of the humans. In today’s time, Australia can be said to be a multicultural country and among the multicultural people, the aboriginals and the Torres Strait Islanders deserves special mention. The paper mainly focuses on the strategies of the government officials in order to usher in some positive changes for the betterment of the aboriginals and the people of Torres Strait Island. However, the essay also discusses the policy that has been formulated at the state or at the federal level and the scopes of the policies for the betterment of the aboriginal people of Australia. The writing of the Australian aboriginal writer like, Jack Davis represents the true story of the aboriginal people. “No Sugar” shows the pitiable condition of the aboriginal people of Australia whom the Europeans treated very badly. For years, they remained in a very degradable and precarious situation (Jacobsen 2014). They ate foods, which no one would have eaten and they were even paid less for their hard work. All these created a rage among the indigenous group of people. However, with the formation of the policy it is recommended that the policy should be carried with utmost sincerity and calculative measures. It is also recommended that the indigenous people should cooperate with the government for developing their lifestyle.

Reference:

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