Indigenous welfare policy: lessons from a community survey

Abstract

[Extract] 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.