Australia struggles to bring equality to its indigenous population

This article starts by showing us some graphs that represent four different pledges of the “Closing the Gap” commitments made in 2008. The first graph shows the pledge of closing the life-expectancy gap within a generation by 2031. In this graph the blue dots represent the non-indigenous population and the red dots represent the indigenous population. We can see that this target is not on track because, even though the red lines are increasing in a very little measure, it is not enough to close the gap between the indigenous and the non-indigenous, whose life expectancy rate is around 11 points higher. The second graph represents the target of halving the gap in mortality rates for indigenous children under five within a decade by 2018. If we compare the distance between the two dots in 2008 we can see that the difference was very big (100 non-indigenous, 240 indigenous), but today this gap reduced in a great amount because it went from a difference of 140 points to 70 in 10 years, and it still has two more years to keep decreasing. The third pledge shown in the graph is halving the gap for indigenous students in reading, writing and numeracy within a decade by 2018. This target is marked as unclear because the percentage of year-5 students at or above minimum national standards went up around five points, which is not enough to halve this gap. The last graph shows the objective of halving the gap in employment outcomes within a decade by 2018. This target is marked not on track because the line for the indigenous people instead of increasing started decreasing almost 10 points, while non-indigenous people have a constant outcome that doesn’t decrease, making the gap much bigger.

This article shows an update of four of the seven pledges made in 2008 by the Coalition of Australian Governments (COAG) to reduce racial inequality. In this report we can clearly see that there are only two targets on track to be met: halving the gap between the indigenous and non-indigenous mortality rate of children under five, and increasing the percentage of indigenous students in reading, writing and numeracy capacities. The biggest problem of this targets that were not met is the life expectancy rate because it represents that indigenous Australians will die a decade earlier that non-indigenous Australians. Even though the country’s decision-makers pledged to spend $4.6 billion in a decade on initiatives and improvements for its indigenous population, they have failed to achieve their goals and empower the most disadvantaged citizens.

Overall there is a problem in the way the government is trying to help the indigenous Australians, but I also think that if there are $4.6 billions to help them grow, educate and have a better way of living, they might not be using their opportunities in the right way. In my opinion the life expectancy rate should be the number one objective for the Australian governments because it is the rate that shows in the most clear way the privileges and benefits that non-indigenous have in comparison to the indigenous population.

http://www.economist.com/blogs/graphicdetail/2016/02/daily-chart-8

Feb 10th 2016, 19:06 BY THE DATA TEAM