Demographic And Geographic Dilemmas: Employment Gap For Indigenous Australians

Factors Contributing to Employment Gap

Discuss about the Demographic and Geographic Dilemmas.

The issue regarding the gap of employment is getting bigger between the non-Indigenous Australians and the Aboriginal and Torres Strait People. According to the latest reports from the Australian Bureau of Statistics (ABS), the employment rates of indigenous people across the whole of Australia have only enhanced for those who have attained high levels of education, completed training or apprenticeships (Fawcett et. 2010).

According to relevant reports, in accordance to Employment Gap only 56% of the Indigenous Australians of working age are dynamically contributing in the labour force, as compared to 78% of the population comprising of non-Indigenous people aged 18-65 (Altman 2016). The rate of active participation takes into account the people who are working, having full-time education or is energetically in the hunt for employment. Between the participating Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander work force, a staggering 16% are unemployed currently, whereas for non-Indigenous Australians the rate stands at 5% (Biddle, Taylor and Yap 2014). The young indigenous people are the most likely ones to remain unemployed than any other age group.

Young Indigenous Australians having educational qualification is best suited and most active in the labour force. They have the best chance of improving their employment factor. In 2013, approximately 78% of the Aboriginals and Torres Strait Islander people attaining Certificate II were enthusiastically partaking in the labour force, compared to 40% who never had the chance of attaining these credentials (Gregory and Smith 2016).  Attaining higher qualifications always offers a better chance of being employed, with 84% of Indigenous Australians with a diploma degree participating actively. The rate of unemployment also depends on the level of education that is being received by the Aboriginals, as people who received Level 12 or Certificate II makes up around 13% of the unemployment rate (Otim et al. 2014). Without proper qualification in education, the rate stands at 24% for the Indigenous population. The results have been promising but the education rate among Indigenous Australians still remains a worrying factor for all.

Another factor that plays its part in having an impact on the outcome of labour market is the health or disability issue of Aboriginals. As per the reports, Aboriginals and Torres Strait Islander people are more prone to chronic diseases like diabetes, heart related issues and kidney disease (O’Connor, Wilson & Setterlund 2003). If they are not able to maintain good health, they would never be able to compete in the labour market as they would lack that energy and zeal to perform even if they possess that will power to do the same (Davidson et al. 2013).

Education: A Key to Closing the Gap

Over the years, the Australian Government has come up with lots of plans and policies to bring parity among the Aboriginals and Torres Strait Islander people. Success has not been there much, with gaps still existing between the two groups. The first and foremost thing that needs change is to improve the education system for Aboriginals and the conditions of the schools where they receive education (Eades 2013). It is surprising how a school in one of the rural areas of Australia, has filthy toilets, uncovered wiring and the existence of a hole in roof that lasted for a year. Walgett High School, as has been identified is situated in a region boasting bulky Aboriginal population, has the capability of handling 500 students, but astonishingly only 30-35 turn up each day (Chenoweth & McAuliffe 2014). These students do not even have the urge to complete their education at school and carry forward that knowledge for further studies. Such a condition of a school would never be witnessed in either Sydney or Melbourne, but then why here. The Government needs to make sure that their thoughts, policies and schemes do not slip when it comes down to these Aboriginal people. The improvement should start from the basic level, if the Government really wants to bridge down the gap that exists, they need to mix the students in a school, and every good school should have their doors open for the Aboriginals too. Accessibility might be a problem, but not if government plans to offer a scheme in providing student scholarships to the Aboriginal students who have that required intelligence. Each renowned school and college should have quota system for the Aboriginals where atleast 20% of the seats should be reserved for them. They need that basic education and care to go ahead and achieve something big.

Moreover, in Australia there should exist more companies like Rio Tinto, a big mining company having mining operations in Australia. During the mid-1990s only 0.5% of its workforce were indigenous ones, however, by 2010 the rate went up to 9% which is around 950 employees (Martin, Trigger and Parmenter 2016). More such Australian companies should follow the example of Rio Tinto where they have active employment programs for Indigenous people like job readiness training, support in literacy and numeracy, retention and improvement in career. Companies should be encouraged to have alternative retention methods for the Aboriginals like Indigenous people attending 4-5 days of workshops, where they get involved with problem-solving activities, receiving pre-employment training and an individual assessment from supervisors of the company (Griffin 2014). Companies should have Welfare and Workstart problem focusing on alcohol and drug training, literacy training, personal financial management.

Corporate Companies Can Make a Difference

Non-Indigenous people should be given cross-cultural training so that discrimination and racism is never a part of organization life. Many indigenous people stay away from all these in fear of being bullied at workplaces. This needs to be reduced through Government policies of heavy penalty and imprisonment if anyone found guilty of doing the same. Companies and Governments should have different committees looking after this matter, so that indigenous people do not live jobs and sit at their homes or do something silly that is not viable (Browne-Yung et al. 2013).

If employment rate of Aboriginals go up, they are most likely to be benefitted by it. Seeing a few, getting success in the corporate world and labour market would encourage more Aboriginals to join the suit. Earning money in a good way would improve their way of living and not influence them to indulge into criminal activities. They can maintain their and their family’s health and well-being and work on improving their next generation’s future. Improvement in their employment rate, education and health would witness in improvement of their living areas, sanitation facilities and other such factors that long being an issue for them (Altman 2016). They would no longer be prone to such chronic diseases, as better lifestyle would offer them better ways of living and money to go for periodical check-ups from better hospitals.

Everybody is going to be benefitted with things that have been proposed or needs change. Governments, companies, indigenous and non-indigenous people would all be the beneficiaries from this proposed change and things like this would create a better Australia. Australia faces lower level of human capital, which is why Government should assist the indigenous people to retain their places in the organizations, even if they lose jobs, get adequate training and get re-employed, especially during economic downturns (Jamrozik 2009).

The biggest and foremost strength of this proposal is Australia’s unemployment would decrease a great deal, improving its overall economy condition. The human capital would increase for Australia and the gap that exists between Aboriginals and Non-Indigenous people should be reduced. A country can never improve if its people, be it of any culture and religion does not have necessities of life and they lag behind while others enjoy. A gap often leads to distraction, disparity, hatred and criminal activities that have been another major worry for the Australian Government to handle (Fawcett et al. 2010). Corporate organizations can all come in and support the government in bridging this gap as every industry in Australia is in need of labor. Aboriginals if given proper training and facilities can be very hard working people because they have so much to prove to others about how effective they can be in this society.

Non-Indigenous People Need Cross-Cultural Training

Weakness is one thing that exists in any proposal or policies. In a society where people talk about equality, often they find doing things that leads to inequality. The quota system that has been mentioned in the change proposal might not hold well among the indigenous people who might protest against such actions. However, to pull up a community that has over the years being neglected is never easy. Strict rules are to be implemented so that they get that chance to highlight themselves to others what they are capable of. People does mention about being against racism (Williamson et al. 2016). However, there is still a lot of that remaining inside everybody everywhere around the world. The non-indigenous people might not enjoy the company of the indigenous people at workplace or other areas which might complicated things. If the organizations do possess different welfare programs for indigenous people, the non-indigenous ones barring a few would never be happy about that. This gap is like a curse that is slowly eating up a whole society, which is fighting for its existence in every manner they can.

Reference:

Altman, J., 2016. Basic Income for Remote Indigenous Australians: Prospects for a Livelihoods Approach in Neoliberal Times. In Basic Income in Australia and New Zealand (pp. 179-205). Palgrave Macmillan US.

Biddle, N.G., Taylor, J. and Yap, M.L., 2014. Closing which gap? Demographic and geographic dilemmas for indigenous policy in Australia. Aboriginal Populations: Social, Demographic, and Epidemiological Perspectives, p.415.

Browne-Yung, K., Ziersch, A., Baum, F. and Gallaher, G., 2013. Aboriginal Australians’ experience of social capital and its relevance to health and wellbeing in urban settings. Social Science & Medicine, 97, pp.20-28.

 Cashman, P.M., Allan, N.A., Clark, K.K., Butler, M.T., Massey, P.D. and Durrheim, D.N., 2016. Closing the gap in Australian Aboriginal infant immunisation rates–the development and review of a pre-call strategy. BMC public health, 16(1), p.514.

Chenoweth, L & McAuliffe, D 2014, ‘Starting the journey: an introduction to social work and human service practice’, in The road to social work & human service practice, 4th edn, Cengage Learning, South Melbourne, Australia, pp. 1-30. 

Davidson, P.M., Jiwa, M., DiGiacomo, M.L., McGrath, S.J., Newton, P.J., Durey, A.J., Bessarab, D.C. and Thompson, S.C., 2013. The experience of lung cancer in Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples and what it means for policy, service planning and delivery. Australian Health Review, 37(1), pp.70-78.

Eades, D., 2013. They don’t speak an Aboriginal language, or do they?. Aboriginal ways of using English, p.56.

Fawcett, B, Goodwin, S, Meagher, G & Phillips, R 2010, ‘People: who implements social policy’, in Social policy for social change, Palgrave Macmillan, South Yarra, Vic., pp. 118-42. 
O’Connor, I, Wilson, J & Setterlund, D 2003, Social work and welfare practice, 4th edn, Pearson Education, Frenchs Forest, NSW. 

Gregory, R.G. and Smith, R.E., 2016. 15 Unemployment, Inflation and Job Creation Policies in Australia. Inflation and Unemployment: Theory, Experience and Policy Making, p.325.

Griffin, D., 2014. Community and Inequality: Part 2: Australia. In Education Reform: The Unwinding of Intelligence and Creativity (pp. 55-75). Springer International Publishing.

Jamrozik, A 2009, ‘Social policy in a ‘free-market’ economy’ in Social policy in the post-welfare state: Australian society in a changing world, 3rd edn, Pearson Education Australia, Frenchs Forest, NSW, pp. 21-47. 

Martin, D., Trigger, D. and Parmenter, J., 2016. Mining in aboriginal Australia: economic impacts, sustainable livelihoods and cultural difference at Century Mine, northwest Queensland. Natural Resource Extraction and Indigenous Livelihoods: Development Challenges in an Era of Globalization, p.37.

Otim, M.E., Kelaher, M., Anderson, I.P. and Doran, C.M., 2014. Priority setting in Indigenous health: assessing priority setting process and criteria that should guide the health system to improve Indigenous Australian health. International journal for equity in health, 13(1), p.1.

Parker, R. and Milroy, H., 2014. Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander mental health: an overview. Working together: Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander mental health and wellbeing principles and practice. 2nd ed. Canberra: Department of The Prime Minister and Cabinet, pp.25-38.

Williamson, A., D’Este, C., Clapham, K., Redman, S., Manton, T., Eades, S., Schuster, L. and Raphael, B., 2016. What are the factors associated with good mental health among Aboriginal children in urban New South Wales, Australia? Phase I findings from the Study of Environment on Aboriginal Resilience and Child Health (SEARCH). BMJ open, 6(7), p.e011182.