Forward looking policy responses to the COVID 19 pandemic in relation to First Nations citizens.

Defer no time, delays have dangerous ends.

1 Henry VI, Act 3, scene 2.

Here are two important policy perspectives on the current pandemic and its implications for First Nations.

First, a reader of this Blog with significant and ongoing engagement in remote Australia sent me the following comments / policy suggestions which resonated strongly with me. I set them out in full below.

Second, I also set out the Abstract to a new Topical Issues paper from the Centre for Aboriginal Economic Policy Research at the ANU (where I am a Visiting Fellow), which sets out eight short policy perspectives from researchers associated with the Centre. I am one of those contributors.

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Policy pathways for a COVID 19 response in remote Aboriginal communities

In recent weeks remote and regional Australia has witnessed the three spheres of Australian governments - local, state and Commonwealth - collaborate in an unusually quick and effective way to achieve the mass movement of large numbers of Aboriginal people out of regional towns and back into the many hundreds of Aboriginal Australia that are dotted across the regional landscape. This has been achieved by enlisting the support of Aboriginal leaders and Aboriginal organisations, backed up at times with wider community and industry support.

Almost every remote community across regional and remote Australia has rapidly increased in population size without evidence of the additional resources heading their way necessary to respond to these new circumstances.

Unless there is urgent response, proportionate to the magnitude of the new circumstances in which these remote communities have been thrust, the Aboriginal leadership and organisations who assisted government in delivering on this rushed population movement could understandably make themselves unavailable to subsequent government approaches when local support might be even more desperately sought.

The Federal Government’s previous policy position - implemented resolutely over the last decade - has been to walk away from earlier partnerships with the States, no longer supporting the essential municipal services and housing construction programs needed in these remote Aboriginal communities. That Federal policy position firmed up and has been pursued despite evidence of serious negative impact across Australia.

This implied new policy position of the Federal government - as evidenced by their active support for the mass movement of Aboriginal people - has been hurriedly expressed in terms that it is “for their own good” that in the face of this pandemic, Aboriginal people should move back onto country and reduce the Covid-19 risk to themselves that they are otherwise facing. An unstated objective would appear to be de-risking the regional towns of remote Australia and therefore protecting the wider population.

However, a whole host of other new risks and consequences open up as a result of the assisted sudden demographic shift. Not least of all is the risk of an outbreak of the standard lethal diseases that can too easily take hold of overcrowded populations living in unhygienic conditions.

With COVID 19 at risk of exploding across Aboriginal Australia, acute unprecedented crisis is recognised. To respond to this crisis and save as many lives as possible, rather than simply following mainstream templates, governments will need to urgently adopt innovative pathways tailored to the specific contexts of Aboriginal Australia.

Most pressing is urgent funding to deliver increased shelter, housing and ablution facilities for the remote communities of regional Aboriginal Australia; not only to ensure that Aboriginal people can avoid Covid-19 but also avoid an explosion in the standard lethal diseases; for example, dysentery.

There is a clear and real role here to support the leadership and authority of the Native Title Prescribed Body Corporates; and, in regions like the Pilbara and Kimberley, to bolster the significant Aboriginal owned and run organisations and building companies which - IF SPECIFICALLY FUNDED FOR THE TASK - could immediately step up and use their capacity and experience to deliver shelter, housing and much needed improvements in ablution facilities and protected water supplies.

During the period of this pandemic and beyond, support for on-country economic and employment opportunities for Aboriginal people will need to be embedded into the landscape of regional Aboriginal Australia. These include seed-collection programs for emerging mine revegetation and rehabilitation programs; expanded ranger programs; on-country artist development and support programs; and currently unavailable online technologies that allow Aboriginal Australians who wish to access the mainstream education, training, and employment opportunities that Australia has to offer.

Taken together, these modest policy innovations would allow remote Aboriginal Australians to stay on their communities close to country; assist in facilitating the effective maintenance of social distance and social isolation and thus minimise the risk of disease; provide increased access to employment opportunities on communities; and provide access to remotely delivered education, health and employment opportunities.

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Abstract

This Topical Issue is a compilation of eight short papers that have been written during the rapid escalation of the Australian response to the COVID-19 pandemic.   

First Nations people are being, and will continue to be, affected by this crisis in ways that differ from the effects on other Australians. The pandemic risks exacerbating deep-seated health, social and economic inequities in Australian society, especially the long-standing inequalities between First Nations people and other Australians. The pandemic has also made plain the shortcomings of the relationships between Indigenous people and Australian governments, revealing a governance gap that is difficult to ignore. But despite these inimical conditions, the disruption of the COVID-19 crisis is opening up new opportunities for public policy change. And many First Nation organisations and communities are leading the way. Unprecedented new government expenditure creates space for policy innovation, as the boundaries of what is possible become blurred.  The pandemic is a time of stark risks, but it is also a time when informed policy bravery could create new foundations for a better future. 

Contributions to this Topical Issue focus on employment impacts, social security reforms, Indigenous governance, violence against women, the Indigenous health workforce, school closures, energy security in remote communities, and a proposal for an Indigenous reconstruction agency

The link to the CAEPR Topical Issues Paper is here.