Close the Gap: the Great CAEPR Caper

OK, technically that post title makes no sense but I have always wanted to use it. The Centre for Aboriginal Economic Policy Research (CAEPR) at ANU is an island of evidence-based thinking in a sea of policy confusion.

Staff at CAEPR have produced a plethora of papers regarding overcoming indigenous disadvantage. They were also active in the period around Closing the Gap day in getting the message regarding Overcoming Indigenous Disadvantage (OID) out into the media.

Following are some links to some more academic analyses on Closing the Gap:

Nick Biddle from CAEPR tells the SMH we need a more urban focus to Close the Gap

"Because 75 per cent of the indigenous population lives outside of remote Australia, and the outcomes of those outside remote Australia are still substantially worse than the outcomes of the non-indigenous population, in order to close the gaps there's no way you can ignore urban Australia."


Professor Jon Altman from CAEPR considers the Closing the Gap progress after the apology in this piece printed on the Crikey website.


Professor Jon Altman from CAEPR writes that the Closing the Gap rhetoric buys into the Howard legacy.

"Despite its rhetoric, the government does not have a plan to tackle Indigenous disadvantage Australia-wide, and its policy framework for Closing the Gap is captured by 2008-09 commitments to the NT National Emergency; these commitments are all subject to ‘independent’ review and face funding uncertainty."


Janet Hunt from CAEPR writes in the National Indigenous Times that governance arrangements hold the key to closing the gap.

"Culturally legitimate and practically effective governance lies at the heart of improved Indigenous outcomes. Indeed, 'Closing the gap' between Indigenous and non-Indigenous Australia will remain a pipedream unless workable and legitimate governance arrangements are created and sustained in Aboriginal communities. We now have robust evidence of what such governance arrangements might look like, and how they can be developed."


Jon Altman, Nicholas Biddle and Boyd Hunter from CAEPR analyse the challenges of OID by
using available Australian Bureau of Statistics (ABS) data from the five yearly censuses to examine change in Indigenous socio-economic outcomes in absolute and relative (to the non-Indigenous population) terms. They also use observations from data collected in past censuses to estimate when the existing statistical gaps between Indigenous and non-Indigenous outcomes might close and make some general observations about what these findings might mean for government policy at the national level.