Indigenous welfare policy: lessons from a community survey

Although Indigenous Australians only represent two per cent of the
Australian population, they have a high profile in the community as the
original inhabitants of the continent and because of the problems
associated with their poverty, dispossession and welfare dependence. In this
article we present a summary of research findings from a three-year study
conducted among Indigenous people living in and around the town of Kuranda in
Northern Queensland — about half an hour’s drive inland from Cairns.
According to the 1996 Census there were 203 Indigenous and 420 non-Indigenous
people living in the Kuranda postcode area. (The term ‘Indigenous Australians’ is
used to describe people of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander origin. In the
context of this study, the people interviewed were Aboriginal.) The aim was to
document the role of the welfare system in the Indigenous domestic economy and
to consider options for improving the delivery of welfare payments and services