[Anthropgrad] CAEPR Seminar 19 March 12.30

[Katarina Ferro]

CAEPR Seminar, 19 March 2008, Humanities Conference Room; AD Hope Bdg 
14; 12.30 - 2pm

Regional change in the Indigenous population: Early results from the 
2006 Census

—Nicholas Biddle (Research Fellow, CAEPR), John Taylor (Senior Fellow, 
CAEPR), Mandy Yap (Research Officer, CAEPR)

*Abstract:* The new Federal Government has identified as one of its 
priorities a 'closing of the gaps' in social and economic outcomes 
between Indigenous and non-Indigenous Australians with specific 
reference made to health/life expectancy, education participation and 
attainment, housing and employment. Previous CAEPR research has shown 
that the structural circumstances facing Indigenous populations are 
increasingly diverse and locationally dispersed and that this leads to 
variable constraints and opportunities for social and economic 
participation. In light of the renewed emphasis on targets in Indigenous 
public policy there is a need to update this spatial analysis and 
explore the extent to which prospects for the achievement of parity 
continue to be influenced by location.

As part of a new research project at CAEPR sponsored by the Ministerial 
Council on Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Affairs (MCATSIA) and 
aimed at maximising the use of recently-available 2006 Census data, this 
paper presents the preliminary findings of a regional analysis of recent 
change in Indigenous population and social indicators between 2001 and 
2006. In doing so, three interrelated questions are addressed. First, 
how does the scale and nature of gaps in key social indicators vary 
spatially? Second, how do trends in these vary in an absolute and 
relative sense? Finally, given the methodological issues involved, how 
meaningful are measures of relative outcomes at a regional or national 
level and is it possible to accurately assess changes through time in 
these outcomes?

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