Page 596 - Week 03 - Tuesday, 19 May 1992
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of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people in our society, socially, economically and culturally". I quote there from the overview of government responses.
The Federal Government has shown a commitment to the recommendations of the commission by allocating $4.4m to the Australian Bureau of Statistics for a national survey of Aboriginal people. This measure effectively implements recommendation 49 of the commission's report, as Mr Moore outlined. A workshop was recently held at the Australian National University to discuss this allocation of funds to the Bureau of Statistics and I would like to emphasise some of the comments put to that forum. The ANU Reporter has quoted Dr John Altman, director of the Centre for Aboriginal Economic Policy Research, as saying that the quantity and quality of statistical information on the Aboriginal population has declined for a number of reasons in the past few years. In a recent attempt to analyse the Aboriginal employment situation, he and a researcher were unable to find reliable data postdating the 1986 census.
Dr Altman and other participants in the workshop voiced a concern that, even with a royal commission recommendation ready to be acted on, there had never been any clear indication of what might be included in a survey of Aboriginal people. Dr Altman went on, in the ANU Reporter article, to say that the general view emerging from the participants was that before the special survey was undertaken the Bureau of Statistics should develop a clearer idea of the real data needs of Australia's indigenous population and policymakers. The actual recommendation asks that:
Proposals for a special national survey covering a range of social, demographic, health and economic characteristics of the Aboriginal population with full Aboriginal participation at all levels be supported. The proposed census should take as its boundaries the Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Commission boundaries. The Aboriginal respondents to the census should be encouraged to nominate their traditional contemporary language affiliation. I further recommend that the ATSIC national regional councils be encouraged to use the special census to gain an inventory of community infrastructure, assets and outstanding needs, which can be used as data for the development of their regional plans.
It appears that Dr Altman and the commission are in agreement on the point that Aboriginal people should have input into the drafting of this special census, and that there should be an inventory not only of the people affected but also of the ways in which Aboriginal communities are structured.
The ACT, I know, is not involved in the development of the census; but I think a role must be played by all State and Territory governments in ensuring maximum input for the local Aboriginal population, and the starting point for this is contact. While the Federal Government may have passage of this particular recommendation of the report into aboriginal deaths in custody, the ACT Government has a major role to play in ensuring that the voices of the regional ASTIC council and other Aboriginal groups are heard in the debate over the census, and that it provides real and valuable information that will, as Dr Altman calls for, assist both the indigenous population as well as policymakers.
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