Australian Journal of Social Issues最新文献

Within settler colonial societies around the world, the racialisation of settlers of colour as “invaders” exemplifies how invasion paradoxes operate on Indigenous lands that remain both stolen and unceded. The Reclaim Australia movement was active in 2015–2016 and frequently denied its racism as it protested the presence of Muslims within Australian society. Whilst Islamophobia is a key defining feature of this movement, this article focusses on Reclaim Australia's persistent expressions of anti-Indigenous racisms. In analysing this racist movement, I point out that it is not enough to observe that racist invasion narratives among settlers on stolen, unceded Indigenous lands are paradoxical. Rather, that a series of white possessive logics shape these racisms, as the movement produced two dichotomous narrations of Indigenous peoples that involved a commodified “Aboriginal friend” trope, or framed First Nations peoples as ungrateful “beneficiaries” of the colonial project that is Australia.

Aboriginal culture is both a strength and a protective factor for Aboriginal children; yet, we continue to see disparities in education, health and well-being outcomes. To improve outcomes for Aboriginal children and families, local cultural ways of knowing, being and doing need to be incorporated into policy and practice. The strength-based capability approach draws on the experiences, needs and values of people in context to understand the opportunities and freedoms to be and do what is culturally valued. Adopting a “capability approach,” First Nations peoples from the rural Riverland region of South Australia were involved in culturally safe yarning circles to explore aspirations for their children's well-being and safety. In doing so, a better appreciation of the personal, social, structural and environmental factors that impinge on the achievement of well-being and safety was possible. We highlight how a capability approach provides a valuable tool for engaging with and embracing metic knowledge in policymaking and practice. A more meaningful understanding of safety, well-being and “the good life” in a community is critical for ensuring that policy and practice efforts can be directed in ways that create outcomes desired by Community.

Non-binary and genderqueer identities are increasingly discussed in public discourse and academia, but there remains a dearth of academic literature centred on non-binary people's lives and experiences. When non-binary people are included in research, it is frequently as an additive to explorations of trans identities and subsumed under the trans umbrella or treated as categorically indistinct. Much has been written from a clinical perspective, but the social sciences tend to discuss non-binary identity conceptually or as a proxy in theoretical arguments. Of the emerging sociological literature on non-binary identity, much is from the United States or the United Kingdom. Thus, this scoping review engaged with the corpus of research on non-binary people in “Australia” to consider social change and policy needs. We found much about the negative health impacts resulting from discrimination and barriers, emphasising the structural and systemic nature of the existing gender binary. However, the majority of these papers include a focus on how non-binary people actively participate in the collective creation of community, identity and safe spaces for affirmation. Resilience, coping strategies and solidarity were key themes and offer important insights into how the barriers identified can be ameliorated.

People with disabilities are more likely to be homeless than the general population and experience additional barriers to accessing housing. Despite this, there is limited research exploring the intersection of homelessness and disability, or the impact of responses such as permanent supportive housing (PSH) from the perspective of people with disabilities. This paper reports on research that explored the experiences of tenants with disabilities in a single site mixed tenancy PSH setting and the extent to which the housing and supports they received addressed psychosocial, welfare and health needs. The research also explored experiences of accessing Australia's National Disability Insurance Scheme (NDIS) as well as other community supports designed to promote inclusion. We found benefits included a sense of stability and ‘home’ whilst challenges related to the limits of congregate housing for this tenant cohort and workforce capacity to manage significant complexity and competing needs. The findings highlight the need for trauma-informed practices and design, and commitment to workforce development and capacity consistent with tenant needs. We also identified significant challenges and barriers at the interface with the NDIS and other funded services with implications for more assertive in reach education, support and planning to promote community participation.

Defining safety and wellbeing measurements for Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander children and young people can be difficult due to its subjectivity. This article discusses findings from yarning circles held with Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples discussing these very definitions. It is argued through the findings; Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander knowledge must be incorporated when defining safety and wellbeing measures such as connection to culture, family and housing.

Living in residential aged care (RAC) can have deleterious effects on the health, well-being and social participation of younger people (<65 years of age). This research examined the barriers and enablers to leaving or avoiding RAC for Australian younger people who are not National Disability Insurance Scheme (NDIS) participants. It reports on the findings from semi-structured interviews with 16 younger people living in, or at risk of entering RAC and 12 family members. The research revealed that most participants were opposed to younger people living in RAC, and many of those who were already living in RAC were dissatisfied with their lives. However, some in RAC reported feeling satisfied, and expressed fear that their needs would not be met elsewhere. The barriers and enablers to leaving or avoiding RAC related to funding to access services, help to navigate funding and services, and the availability of services in rural and regional areas. To best support younger people, there is a need for increased funding for the services required to live outside RAC, and assistance to navigate funding and services. Initiatives that address hesitancy to move from RAC, and to build capacity to help younger people imagine life outside RAC are required.

Grandparents are an important source of childcare worldwide, but international patterns vary. We examine how demographic characteristics of parents, and of grandparents, factor into grandparent care provision considering the cultural assumptions and policy settings Australian families live within. Using the Household Income and Labour Dynamics in Australia survey, we identify determinants of both the demand for and the supply of grandparent childcare in Australia (4266 grandparents and 9822 parents). Results suggest that grandmothers and mothers, as much or more than fathers and mothers, balance their reciprocal participation in employment and childcare. University-educated grandmothers are more likely to provide regular childcare (at least once a week) and university-educated mothers are more likely to draw upon it, inconsistent with research in other countries. It appears grandparents are stepping in as both “mother savers” and “system savers,” suggesting a need for more public policy support for Australian working mothers to capitalise on their increasingly high educational attainment.

Partners of fly-in fly-out (FIFO) workers face increases in demands, for instance in care and family responsibilities, particularly in the absence of workers; however, little is known about how their daily life experiences influence their health across the FIFO work cycle. This study examined the within-person effects of workload, job control and social support on affective states and health behaviours of partners of FIFO workers. Forty-four (N = 44) partners of FIFO workers completed online diary surveys on affective states and health behaviours once a day for 28 consecutive days during on-and off-shift periods of the FIFO worker. Multilevel models were used to analyse day-level data. The results of the study demonstrated significant differences in partners' depressed affect and alcohol consumption during both on- and off-shift periods of FIFO workers. Daily increases in workload were associated with anxious affect, whereas daily increases in job control and social support were associated with low depressed affect and positive affect in partners of FIFO workers. Daily increase in social support was also found to be associated with an increase in daily alcohol intake. Interventions could support partners in managing the daily workload and encouraging the creation of social support networks in partners of FIFO workers.

In 2023, Australian voters defeated a constitutional amendment to establish a First Nations' Voice to Parliament. This representative body would have been empowered to make representations to parliament and executive government. It was proposed by First Nations people as the first stage in a Voice, Treaty, Truth process of political and constitutional reform. As the implications of this defeat are considered, it is instructive to examine what lessons New Zealand's politics and policies of Māori self-determination may contribute to local deliberations, including on the principles that could inform treaties such as those under consideration in the state of Victoria. The ongoing point of contention in both countries has profound implications for how and why policy is made, for whom and by whom. The point of contest is over who, in practical political terms, “owns” the state and, therefore, its policymaking systems? Are First Nations people shareholders in state authority, or should they reside always on its periphery? If not, what are the terms of their inclusion?

The Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Commission (ATSIC) has been described as one of the most comprehensive regional and national governance structures for Indigenous people in Australia. This paper looks briefly at its operational life between 1990 and 2005 and focusses on its abolition, arguing that this was an act of dispossession. The ATSIC was, for its time, a remarkable achievement for both the nation state and Indigenous people. Acting as an institution to both represent and deliver services to Indigenous people, the ATSIC model was, and could have remained, a powerful organisation for enacting critical change. Constructed and then removed by the nation state, the ATSIC's abolition dispossessed Indigenous people of a political framework dedicated to organising an Indigenous collective voice. This dispossession, different from earlier waves of dispossession from land, resources and cultural freedoms, can be understood by the application of critical Indigenous institutional analysis. Through its own structure and electoral representation, the ATSIC had made visible the quest for self-determination and gave Indigenous people decision-making powers not since replicated. Redirecting ATSIC's limited decision making back to government exposed the illusion of control. The ATSIC's abolition left a void in the growing capability of Indigenous people to self-determine and a gaping hole in Australia's national political imagination.