2005/06 Federal Budget: Indigenous spending analysis

Reporting and analysis of Indigenous spending in the Federal Budget has been minimal and has tended to uncritically accept the Government's information. In reality Indigenous spending increases are minor and only scratch the surface in terms of identified need. Recent policy changes are also cause for concern with regard to the effectiveness of Indigenous spending.

Indigenous health

With money awash in the Budget (a $34.6 billion surplus and $21.7 billion tax cuts over 4 years) there was a real opportunity to fund the $1.8 billion over 4 years estimated by Access Economics / AMA as needed to lift Indigenous health standards to a level of parity. Instead Indigenous health got a measly $170 million over 4 years - less than 10% of what is required.

Moreover, the economic cost of such under-spending will be escalating Indigenous health costs as increasing expensive tertiary health care (eg hospital treatment) is required instead of low cost primary and preventive treatment (eg, it costs $100,000 per year to treat end-stage renal disease patients; $160,000 per year to care for disabled petrol sniffers). The human cost is preventable human suffering that Indigenous Australians must bear.

To put this in perspective, Indigenous health remains in crisis and at Third World standards with "over the last decade ... no discernible progress in redressing this situation" (Access Economics analysis of the 2005/06 Budget for the AMA - www.ama.com.au). Indigenous life expectancy remains 20 years less than other Australians - 45% of Indigenous men die before the age of 45.

The Government has had a decade to make inroads into Indigenous health and has failed to make any impact. It cannot blame ATSIC for this as it was mainstream government health departments, not ATSIC, that have had responsibility for Indigenous health.

2005/06 Budget new spending comparisons

(All figures shown are over 4 years, unless otherwise indicated. Sourced from the Australian Government's Budget 2005-06 website)

Other new Indigenous spending

Total new spending in Indigenous affairs, excluding health, is $138 million over 4 years. The bulk of this includes $102.8 million over four years to continue the Healthy Indigenous Housing initiative. Upgrading housing is an urgent need, however, this amount is nowhere near what is needed and will only have an incremental effect.

That leaves $35.2 million over 4 years for all other areas of spending, including education and employment. This is small change in terms of both need and overall budget spending.

ANTaR believes the Indigenous spending figures are shameful and discriminatory.

Shared Responsibility Agreements

The effectiveness of spending depends on the nature of the policy and service delivery framework of government. Recent changes at the federal level raise serious cause for concern.

The Government has trumpeted Shared Responsibility Agreements (SRAs) as the answer for improved service delivery for Indigenous communities, but the facts suggest a different story:

• Only 30 SRAs have been concluded so far according to Minister Vanstone. There are nearly 1300 Indigenous communities, so at the present rate it will take over 20 years to conclude agreements with them all. What happens to communities without SRAs in the interim?
• SRAs are ad hoc. They have no identified criteria, benchmarks or accountability and are not integrated within a research-based policy framework.
• SRAs are not linked to needs-based funding. No additional funding has been provided for SRAs - funding comes from already identified sources, including program money transferred from ATSIC/ATSIS programs.
• SRAs are modelled on the as yet unevaluated 'whole of government' trials, also known as COAG trials (see below).

SRAs may be a useful tool in the right circumstances. Some of the already announced SRAs originated as agreements negotiated with ATSIC Regional Councils (eg see Murdi Paaki SRAs). But they do not substitute for coordinated, research-based policy and planning.

And with the abolishing of ATSIC regional councils there is considerable potential for inadequate and inappropriate consultation processes in negotiating SRAs (see also 'whole of government' below). They also introduce a discriminatory conditionality to the provision of Indigenous funding for basic services and infrastructure - a situation not applied to non-Indigenous communities.

'Whole of government' approach

Dubbed a 'quiet revolution' by Minister Vanstone, the 'whole of government' approach is an as yet untested approach to coordinating the delivery Indigenous services through mainstream agencies. ATSIC regional council offices and ATSIS offices have been turned into Indigenous Coordination Centres (ICCs), staffed by bureaucrats from mainstream agencies. ICCs coordinate the delivery of services to Indigenous people and negotiate SRAs and regional agreements. A Ministerial Taskforce on Indigenous Affairs provides national level direction.

So far the process of transition has been marked by confusion and chaos, compounded by the loss of many ATSIC regional council Indigenous staff (see also 'loss of Indigenous employment' below). The ATSIC regional councils will be abolished as of 30 June 2005. As Indigenous senator Aden Ridgeway commented, "ATSIC Regional Councils contain an accumulation of the knowledge and experience of generations of Indigenous people actively working for Indigenous people" (Media release, 1/9/2004). This translates into a significant loss of Indigenous capacity and capacity-building as well as a loss of cultural sensitivity and experience within the government agencies now charged with delivering improved service delivery to Indigenous communities. This is very much a return to the past.

Loss of Indigenous employment and experience from the Australian Public Service

The Howard Government has presided over an unprecedented exodus of Indigenous staff from the Australian Public Service (APS), an exodus that has accelerated with the abolishing of ATSIC and ATSIS and return to mainstream service delivery.

The State of Service Report 2003-04 shows that Indigenous employment in the APS is at a10 year low with twice as many Indigenous employees leaving the APS as are joining it and a halving of the Indigenous trainees intake to the lowest on record. The National Indigenous Times (20 Jan 2005) compared ATSIC in 2002 with the Office of Indigenous Policy Coordination in late 2004, showing a reduction from 22 senior Indigenous staff to 1.

These figures show that under the Government's mainstream approach Indigenous people are becoming bystanders in decision-making over their futures.

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ANTaR media release, 13 May - Federal Budget ignores Indigenous suffering
AMA media release, 11 May - Federal Health Budget 2005-06
ANTaR webpage - 'Mutual Obligation', 'shared responsibility' & mainstreaming'
ANTaR webpage - Shared Responsibility Agreements - a critique