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Journal of Indigenous Policy - issue 14: Jon Altman: arguing the intervention
No full textFOREWORD
For over three decades, Professor Jon Altman has been one of the leading scholars on Indigenous research with a particular focus on Indigenous economies.
Through the period since the Northern Territory intervention in 2007 until the present day, his work has taken on increasing significance. In a period in which government policy continues to be shaped by ideological rather than by evidence and research, Jon Altman, like many other researchers in the field, found his expertise and work increasingly sidelined. As the thread of polemic that weaves through these articles shows, Altman’s insights, founded in his research and his experience within the very communities affected, has provided sound critique of the assumptions, impacts and unintended consequences of government dogmatism. His work has been ignored to the detriment of the people who have been subject to these policies.
Professor Altman has argued that the rhetoric of government, its insincere and disingenuous processes of consultation, and the consensus between the two major political parties and the conservative political press has become the dominant, unquestioned line. But underneath that ideological consensus are approaches that ignore the failures on the ground that Altman reveals and documents.
The title of this collection of essays is no accident. In the current climate, researchers such as Altman are not posing questions but defending research outcomes. Policy makers are not responding to what is working and what isn’t; they are ignoring any work that questions the ideological agenda of current government direction.
To the many of us who have followed Altman’s career and body of work, it is of no surprise that his predictions about the current state of Indigenous policy in Australia consistently prove to be correct. He brings considerable expertise, experience and intuition to all his deliberations and views.
Two quotes from two great men came to mind in reading this collection of essays and reflection pieces: George Orwell: “In a time of universal deceit, telling the truth is a revolutionary act” and Martin Luther King Jr.: “In the end, we remember not the words of our enemies but the silence of our friends.”
Altman, in the best sense of academic tradition, has been a fearless and unwavering observer and commentator, unwavering and unrelenting in his intellectual and humane approach. In the poisonous atmosphere in which critics of government policy – just as insidious from the Labor government as it is from the ultra-conservatives – have been silenced, Altman has been a forthright, honest and diligent commentator.
We are proud to be publishing this collection of critically important essays. We are confident that, over the passage of time, they will only increase in importance.
Prof Larissa Behrendt, Editor, Journal of Indigenous Policy and
Director, Jumbunna Indigenous House of Learning Research Unit University of Technology, Sydne
People on country, healthy landscapes and sustainable Indigenous economic futures
No full textChallenging doubts in public debates about the value of land rights and native title, Jon Altman demonstrates that Indigenous people living \u27on country\u27 generate economic, social and ecological benefits at local, regional and national levels. An emerging match between Indigenous aspirations to manage their country, policy concerns about Indigenous well-being, and healthy landscapes should ensure sustainable Indigenous futures - with appropriate institutional support and adequate resources
The political economy of a treaty: opportunities and challenges for enhancing economic development for Indigenous Australians
No full textWhat mechanisms might provide more resource rights to Indigenous Australians? How effective have treaties with Indigenous people in the Torres Strait and New Zealand been? And what are some of the relevant issues that these two cases raise? In this article, Jon Altman highlights the national benefit that might result from using "a treaty framework" to enable sustainable Indigenous economic futures, while also warning about some of the hurdles that Australian political economy and institutions might present
Beyond closing the gap: valuing diversity in Indigenous Australia
Full text linkIn his Apology speech the Prime Minister attempted to balance the symbolic with the practical while emphasising that ‘business as usual’ is not working. Ultimately though, the \u27Closing the Gap\u27 approach is business as usual that fails to value Indigenous difference and fails to accommodate Indigenous aspirations in all their diversity. Unless we get beyond CTG, the next phase in Indigenous policy making and program investments is as ‘destined to fail’ as previous approaches. This paper advocates for the pendulum to swing back, to accommodate and value diversity and difference rather than just statistical equality. In doing so, the author provides some reflexive comment as an academic on these policy swings. In 2005, Tim Rowse and Jon Altman wrote a piece on Indigenous policy that contrasted the contending approaches of economics and anthropology to Indigenous affairs policy: the first emphasising equality of socioeconomic outcomes, the second the facilitation of choice and self-determination. The former implies integration, the latter adherence to different and diverse life worlds. Over time, the author has used economics and official statistics to highlight socioeconomic disadvantage and neglect, while at the same time using anthropology to critique any approach that uses mainstream social indicators that only reflect the dominant society’s social norms. This paper will continue in the same vein using a dual disciplinary approach. However, without being over-reflexive, as an anthropologist of development he is clearly uncomfortable with the current dominance of the \u27Closing the Gap\u27 framework. This paper was presented at the Centre for Public Policy\u27s \u27Values & Public Policy\u27 conference in February 2009. Jon Altman is Professor and the inaugural Director of the Centre for Aboriginal Economic Policy Research established in 1990. He is currently researching Indigenous development and economic hybridity as ARC Australian Professorial Fellow. 
The Community Development Employment Projects scheme
No full textThe Community Development Employment Projects scheme employs around 35,000 Indigenous Australians and accounts for over one-quarter of total Indigenous employment. Jon Altman and Matthew Gray review the evidence on the social and economic impacts of the scheme, and argue that the scheme should continue to be supported and resourced
Indigenous cultural and natural resource management futures
No full textThis paper has a specific focus on lessons that the authors have learnt from working with Indigenous peoples engaged in cultural and natural resource management projects in northern Australia and New South Wales. It is based on action research currently being undertaken under the five-year research project People on Country, Healthy Landscapes and Indigenous Economic Futures (PoC) and a related three-year project investigating the socioeconomic benefits of Aboriginal people being involved in the sustainable management of their country in NSW. Authors: Jon Altman, Seán Kerins, Janet Hunt, Emilie Ens, Katherine May, Susie Russell and Bill Fogarty.  
Commercial development of Indigenous land
No full textJon Altman and Mike Dillon explore the role of government as risk manager for commercial development and resource management on Indigenous land, and outline the principles that must underpin any intervention program. They propose a new investment scheme to assist development and natural resource management on the growing Indigenous estate which ensures that commercial and social risks are shared equitably between government, private sector investors and Indigenous-owned corporations in order to avoid problems of adverse selection or moral hazard
Centre for Aboriginal Economic Policy Research [CAEPR] Book Launch with Jon Altman and Ian Viser QC
No full textANU Reporter Photos - ANUTech Foundation Ceremony, Centre for Aboriginal Economic Policy Research (CAEPR) Book Launch, Agreement with Nine Latin American Ambassadors, International Students Visiting Jabal, Paul Thistlewaite Memorial Scholarship etc. - Jon Altman, Ian Viser Q. C., Deane Terrell, Gi Han Kwon, Katherine Fewell, Terry O'Neill, Mark Staunton, Michael O'Neill, Gen Nowak & other
Monitoring 'practical' reconciliation
No full textJon Altman and Boyd Hunter examine changes in the socioeconomic status of Indigenous Australians during 1991-2001, a period that closely matches \u27the reconciliation decade\u27 using census data. Comparisons are made both of change in absolute wellbeing for the total Indigenous population, and of relative wellbeing between Indigenous and non-Indigenous Australians in five broad categories - employment, education, income, housing and health. The \u27scorecard\u27 shows that, in absolute terms, it is difficult to differentiate the performance of governments pre- and post-1996. But in relative terms - when comparing the relative wellbeing of Indigenous people as a whole with all other Australians - there is some disparity between the two periods, with the early period 1991-96 clearly outperforming the more recent period. While practical reconciliation forms the rhetorical basis for Indigenous policy development since 1996, there is no evidence that the Howard governments have delivered better outcomes for Indigenous Australians than their predecessors despite a period of rapid economic growth at the national level. It is of particular concern that some of the relative gains made between 1991 and 1996 appear to have been offset by the relatively poor performance of Indigenous outcomes between 1996 and 2001
Land rights and development reform in remote Australia
Full text linkThere has been escalating media coverage of the view that Indigenous economic disadvantage and housing and infrastructure shortages are linked to communal title to land resulting from land rights and native title. Jon Altman, Craig Linkhorn and Jennifer Clarke challenge the view that privatising or individuating this land might generate better economic and social outcomes for Indigenous people by reviewing the existing literature and by examining recently available statistics, especially on Indigenous housing need and affordability
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