Social Issues - Closing the Gap Policy - Aboriginals and Torres Strait Islander Assessment Answer

CLOSING THE GAP POLICY

Introduction
Closing the Gap is a policy which was developed to address the differences between the Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander and non-Indigenous people. This policy was developed by the government to ensure that the disadvantages among the Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people in relation to health, life expectancy, child mortality and education are reduced. The Closing the Gap policy is developed based on the process policy model (Birkland, 2015). The process policy is developed on the basis of five steps
Problem identification The problem among the Aboriginals and Torres Strait Islander people have been identified in the Social Justice Report 2005, which concludes that there is high risk among them, as nearly one half of the population aged above 15 years smokes on daily basis, one in six people consumes alcohol at a risky level and more than half of the population do not participate in the sports activities. Moreover, it was identified that in 2002, 82.3 Aboriginals and Torres Strait Islander have at least one stressor. Furthermore, it had been identified that only 50 of them continue to year 12. The income level of the Indigenous is only 62 of the non-Indigenous people (Aboriginal amp Torres Strait Islander Social Justice Commissioner, 2005).
Problem formulation in this step, the policy proposal is developed by the government. To diminish this gap between the Indigenous and non-Indigenous, the Close the Gap campaign was formed, which was guided by a steering committee. Moreover, in the committee, more than 40 Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander and non-Indigenous health organizations were involved (Australian Indigenous HealthInfoNet, n.d.).
Problem legitimation The policies are endorsed through political actions. To endorse this policy, Prime Minister Kevin Rudd also announced the formation of Close the Gap Policy and National Indigenous Health Equity Council (NIHEC) in 2008 at the National Indigenous Health Equality Summit.
Policy implementation The policy is implemented with the help of agencies, bureaucracies. To implement the policy in different states of Australia, National Partnership Agreements (NPAs) was prepared between the Commonwealth of Australia and different states in the country. Different agreements such asClosing the gap national partnership agreement on Indigenous early childhood development, National partnership agreement on remote service delivery, National partnership agreement on Indigenous economic participation, National partnership agreement on closing the gap in Indigenous health outcomes and others were included in the Closing the Gap Policy (Holland, 2016).
Policy evaluation In this step, the policy is regularly evaluated and the reports are published. To evaluate the performance of Closing the Gap policy, a gathering was held in 2018 to note the development among the people due to this policy and plan the future steps to be taken for the development.
Need for the policy
The issues that resulted in the development of this policy are the differences in the literacy rate of Aboriginal and non-Indigenous, the major variance in the weekly income of each person, the difference in the employment rate. In addition, there were major differences in the health risk factors and personal stressors of aboriginal and non-Indigenous people. The Aboriginals and Torres Strait Islander were consuming more alcohol and were also not active with the physical activities. Also, the stress level among them was higher and 82.3 of them were experiencing at least one stressor. The other health determinants were also identified which were affecting the health condition of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people. Racism was reported among them, which was affecting their mental as well as physical health. The lack of control on the policies developed for the Torres Strait Islander and Aboriginals was also a determinant of poor health as the community governance was not effective. In addition, they were also experiencing poor health conditions due to lack of collective control in their lives and culture. Moreover, there was evidence that before the development of the policy, there was discrimination in the health facilities and the Aboriginals and Torres Strait Islander were less likely to undergo a major medical procedure. Due to these reasons and the discrimination against the Aboriginals and Torres Strait Islander, the policy of Closing the Gap was developed to maintain the status of equality among the non-Indigenous and Indigenous people (Saunders, 2015).
Agenda behind the policy
The agendas behind the development of the policy were
Increasing the life expectancy of aboriginals by 2031
Halve the gap between the child mortality rates of non-Indigenous and Indigenous by 2018
To ensure that 95 of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander children who are older than four years are enrolled in the early childhood education plan by 2025
To reduce the gap by 50 in writing, reading and numeracy by 2018
To reduce the gap by 50 in year 12 attainment rate by 2020
To reduce the gap by 50 in employment by 2018
To ensure that the gap is closed in the school attendance by 2018
The strategy was also developed to achieve goals such as an increase in the life expectancy rate, decrease the infant mortality rate, reducing the discrimination in the medical procedure, and improve the wellbeing of Aboriginals and Torres Strait Islander. In addition, the agenda also includes the strengthening of the infrastructure and improvement in access to medical services to them. Moreover, the key result areas were identified where the measures were based on the effective and responsive health care system and the policies for non-health factors which influence the health status (Indigenous Health Equality Summit, 2008).
Evidence of effectiveness
There is evidence which shows the effectiveness of the policy. The Department of the Prime Minister and Cabinet every year releases the report on Closing the Gap Policy. The report released by the Centre of Independent Study (CIS) also shows the development of the policy. The report released by Department of the Prime Minister and Cabinet in 2018 reveals that there is a decline in the infant mortality rate by around 66.7, the rate of Indigenous mother smoking during pregnancy also decrease but the gap between the Indigenous and non-Indigenous infant mortality rate still exists. However, the immune system of 5 years old Indigenous children is equivalent to the immune system of non-Indigenous children. Furthermore, the gap in preschool attendance by jurisdiction and remoteness is still recorded. There is a difference of 25.2 in the employment rates of non-Indigenous and Indigenous people between the age of 15 and 64 years. There is a gap of 10.6 years and 9.5 years in the life expectancy of male and female Indigenous when compared with the life expectancy of non-Indigenous male and female. Also, the mortality rate of Indigenous is higher than the non-Indigenous people. On the other hand, there is a decrease in the level of current smokers and an increase in the percentage of ex-smokers and never smokers among the Indigenous Australians (Australian Government, 2018). The CIS report reveals that the targets of halving the gap in child mortality rate by 2018, 95 of 4 years old Indigenous enrolment in the school by 2025 and halving the gap of 12-year attainment by 2020 have been achieved. However, the gap in the school attendance, literacy rate, employment and literacy still exists (Jacob, 2018).
Soundness of policy and Unforeseen effects
The Closing the Gap policy has been developed with the intention of diminishing the gap between the Aboriginals and Torres Strait Islander and non-Indigenous by providing equal opportunities and facilities to them. However, the consideration of gap metrics as the target is not feasible and also difficult to measure. The results of the collected data can be misinterpreted as the population of Aboriginals and Torres Strait Islander and non-Indigenous people does not increase with the same rate. In addition, the positive changes in both groups would show a lower decrease in the gap. Moreover, the non-health factor such as the culture which has an influence over the health of the Aboriginals and Torres Strait Islander cannot be calculated in the numbers. The policy should aim at increasing the life expectancy rate to a percentage until a period of time such as the aim should be increasing the life expectancy of Aboriginals and Torres Strait Islander to 80 years by 2030, which can provide a hard target (Jordan, 2018).
Conclusion
In conclusion of the above report, it can be inferred that Closing the Gap policy is developed to address the health and other issues of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander however, there are some shortcoming in the agenda setup which decreases the effectiveness of the policy. The policy has been developed on the basis of process policy where there are five major steps. These are problem identification, problem formulation, problem legitimation, policy implementation and policy evaluation. The need for the policy has also been identified due to increasing gaps between the services and facilities provided to Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander and non-Indigenous. Moreover, the effectiveness of the policy has been determined by the different reports released by Department of the Prime Minister and CIS which reveals that most of the agenda have not being met. This shows that the effectiveness of the policy and low and some changes in the agenda setup is required.

References
Aboriginal amp Torres Strait Islander Social Justice Commissioner (2005). Social Justice Report 2005. Retrieved from https//www.humanrights.gov.au/sites/default/files/content/social_justice/sj_report/sjreport05/pdf/SocialJustice2005.pdfAustralian Government (2018).Closing the gap Prime Ministers report 2018.Department of the Prime Minister and Cabinet. Retrieved from https//www.pmc.gov.au/sites/default/files/publications/ctg-report-2018.pdfAustralian Indigenous HealthInfoNet (n.d.).History of Closing the gap. Retrieved from https//healthinfonet.ecu.edu.au/learn/health-system/closing-the-gap/history-of-closing-the-gap/Birkland, T. A. (2015).An introduction to the policy process Theories, concepts, and models of public policy making. New York Routledge.
Holland, C. (2016). Close the Gap progress and priorities report 2016. Canberra Close the Gap Campaign Steering Committee. Retrieved from https//www.humanrights.gov.au/our-work/aboriginal-and-torres-strait-islander-social-justice/publications/close-gap-progressIndigenous Health Equality Summit. (2008). Close the gap. Retrieved from https//www.humanrights.gov.au/sites/default/files/content/social_justice/health/statement_intent.pdfJacob, C. (2018). A fresh approach to closing the gap.CIS. Retrieved from https//www.cis.org.au/app/uploads/2018/06/34-2-jacobs-charles.pdfJordan, K. (2018). Submission to the Closing the Gap refresh The need for structural reform to the current policy approach. Retrieved from https//closingthegaprefresh.pmc.gov.au/sites/default/files/submissions/dr_kirrily_jordan.pdfSaunders, P. (2015). Closing the gap the growing divide between poverty research and policy in Australia.Australian Journal of Social Issues,50(1), 13-35.

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