Boyd Hunter

Does Crime Affect Employment Status? The Case of Indigenous Australians

A significant cost for individuals who have contact with the criminal justice system is the potential effect on employment status. In this study the effect of arrest on the employment status of indigenous Australians is examined using data from the 1994 National Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Survey. Having been arrested is found to reduce the probability of employment. The size of the effect is estimated to be between 10% and 20% for males, between 7% and 17% for females. The effect also varies according to the reason for a persons most recent arrest. Differences in arrest rates between indigenous and non-indigenous Australians may explain about 15% of the difference in employment-population rates between those groups. Copyright 2000 by The London School of Economics and Political Science

Trends in Indigenous Educational Participation and Attainment, 1986-96.

This paper provides a summary and overview of indigenous people within the Australian education system. A cohort analysis of changes in educational participation and the level and type of educational qualification over the last three censuses for the indigenous and non-indigenous populations is presented. The main finding is that although there have been some absolute improvements in indigenous educational outcomes over the period 1986 to 1996, relative to the non-indigenous there have been little if any real gains. The lack of improvement relative to the non-indigenous population occurs not only in the proportion of the population with post-secondary qualifications, but also in the proportion of indigenous teenagers staying at school. By any measure, the indigenous population remains severely disadvantaged. Another finding is that, for younger age groups, the non-indigenous population has a higher participation rate in post-secondary education than the indigenous population. This situation is reversed for older age groups.

Assessing the validity of intercensal comparisons of indigenous Australians, 1986–96

The credibility of analysis of 1996 Census data on indigenous Australians hinges on who the people are who have changed their indigenous identification between the last two censuses. The number of people who identify as indigenous in either the Post-Enumeration Survey or the census is more stable than theprima facie evidence indicates. Also, the continuing low levels of education among the indigenous population means that self-identification signifies that one is, more than likely, disadvantaged. While it is difficult to say with absolute certainty that census statistics accurately reflect the economic status of the indigenous population, they are sufficiently credible to be taken at face value.

Predictors of Indigenous Arrest: An Exploratory Study

Abstract The Royal Commission into Aboriginal Deaths in Custody attributed Indigenous overrepresentation in the criminal justice system to Indigenous disadvantage. Others have attributed it to alcohol abuse and substance use and/or passive welfare dependence. To date, however, there has been little rigorous empirical research into the factors that distinguish Indigenous Australians who come into contact with the criminal justice system from those who do not. The study reported here uses the 2002 National Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Social Survey (NATSISS) to explore the correlates of Indigenous arrest. The analyses suggest that factors like economic stress, welfare dependence and unemployment are strongly correlated with whether or not an Indigenous respondent has been arrested and with the number of times an Indigenous respondent has been arrested in the past 5 years. The strongest correlate, however, is alcohol abuse. The implications of these findings for research and policy on Indigenous contact with the justice system are discussed.

Trends in neighbourhood inequality of Australian, Canadian, and United States of America cities since the 1970s

It is important to locate recent increases in neighbourhood inequality and economic segregation of Australian cities within the international debate about increasing urban disparities. The present article uses standard inequality techniques to show that neighbourhood inequality is increasing within Australian, Canadian, and USA cities. While the labour market status of people in poor neighbourhoods is similar for Australia and the USA, there is an almost inexorable trend towards increasing income inequality, probably reflecting ongoing labour market deregulation and the stricter welfare regimes that have been in place since the 1980s. Policy options to deal with locational disadvantage and increased economic segregation are also considered in detail.

Surveying Mobile Populations: Lessons from Recent Longitudinal Surveys of Indigenous Australians

Geographically mobile populations are notoriously difficult to survey, especially in a cross-cultural context. In broad terms, it is difficult to ensure that respondents are representative of the underlying population, can be relocated, and that data obtained are relevant to them. At a practical level, the problem can be as basic as not having any well-formed notion of what defines a household. Consequently, the resulting analysis of households is at best imprecise and, at worst, conceptually confused. This article documents the lessons for the design and conduct of longitudinal data collection from three recent surveys of an exceptionally mobile population, Indigenous Australians. There appears to be a trade-off between cultural relevance, data quality, response rates and survey costs. The use of Indigenous interviewers does not, in itself, guarantee that response rates will be acceptable.

A Cohort Analysis of the Determinants of Employment and Labour Force Participation: Indigenous and Non-Indigenous Australians, 1981 to 1996

A synthetic cohort analysis of the probability of employment and participating in the labour force for Indigenous and non-Indigenous Australians is presented in this article.

The labour market dynamics of Indigenous Australians

To date, the analysis of the reasons for the labour market disadvantage of Indigenous Australians has been constrained by the absence of longitudinal data on labour force status. This article uses the only extant large-scale longitudinal survey of the labour force outcomes of Indigenous Australians to analyse both labour market dynamics and the determinants of labour market success. The analysis reveals high rates of movements between labour force states by Indigenous Australians and that the Indigenous unemployed were around one-half as likely to move to employment over a 15-month period as were the non-Indigenous unemployed. The analysis presented in this article highlights the need for further longitudinal surveys of the labour market and social circumstances of Indigenous Australians.

A comparative analysis of the industrial relations experiences of Indigenous and other Australian workers

There is considerable conjecture about discrimination against Indigenous Australians in the workplace. This article is an exploratory attempt to systematically describe the overall differences in the industrial relations experiences of Indigenous and other Australian workers using data from Australian Workplace Industrial Relations Survey (AWIRS) 1995. There are several areas in which Indigenous workers particularly need active and informed representation within the industrial relations system and relevant statutory framework. The poor access to maternity/paternity leave, the apparent lack of control over the working environment and the relatively high incidence of work-related injury and illness suggest that as a group, the needs of Indigenous people have not been seriously considered by either unions or policy makers.

Household composition, equivalence scales and the reliability of income distributions: Some evidence for Indigenous and other Australians

Indigenous families experience substantial and multiple forms of economic burden arising from the size and structure of their families and households. Indigenous households are more likely to have more than one family in residence than other Australian households and are more likely to be multigenerational with older Indigenous people living with younger people in extended family households. This paper seeks to characterise the economies of household size in Indigenous and other Australian households using equivalence scales that cover the range of feasible values and 1995 National Health Survey data.