REFORMING INDIGENOUS WELFARE POLICY: SALUTARY LESSONS AND FUTURE CHALLENGES FOR AUSTRALIA FROM THE US EXPERIENCE 1

As countries across the world seek to reform their social security systems, the situation of indigenous populations within the changing welfare state is beginning to receive greater scrutiny. In both the USA and Australia, indigenous people are still disproportionately represented among welfare recipients and people in poverty. Both countries have welfare systems that have tended historically to treat indigenous welfare issues within the context of mainstream, national policy frameworks, albeit with adjustments by way of indigenous-specific components. Recently, however, significant changes, explicitly directed (in part) at Native Americans, have occurred in the USA. In light of the intractable problems of entrenched indigenous economic marginalisation in both the USA and Australia, there may be salutary lessons-both positive and negative-to be learnt by Australia from the US experiment. In Australia, the Coalition government has emphasised the need for welfare reform. Prominent Indigenous leaders are also challenging their own people to take greater responsibility for economic outcomes and for their high level of dependence on public transfers (see Ah Kit 2002; Pearson 2000). Several reviews have highlighted the implications for Australia of the USA’s experiment in welfare reform (see Burtless 2002; Ellwood 2002; Gray & Stanton 2002; McClure 2000a). Welfare reform in the USA began in the late 1980s and accelerated with the passage of the Personal Responsibility and Work Opportunity Reconciliation Act (PRWORA) in 1996. However none of the reviews have explored the more specific welfare initiatives that have been undertaken with Native American Indians, and the possible implications of those for Australian welfare reform focusing on indigenous populations (hereafter ‘Indigenous Australians’). This paper addresses that specific objective.