The Tjapukai Cultural Park (previously the Tjapukai Dance Theatre) located immediately north of Cairns, is an instructive case study reflecting both private sector employment and regional economic development. It has become well known internationally. Its commercial success is based on:

The provision of the right to negotiate is critical to future land management and resource development on claimed native title lands. It is also a key element of the recognition and protection of Indigenous native title rights to land. There has been mounting industry criticism concerning alleged delays and costs associated with the right to negotiate process. But there is also considerable confusion about how the right actually operates, and a lack of recognition of the outcomes achieved to date.

Native title

The High Court's Mabo judgment of 1992 recognised native title rights based on the traditions of the Indigenous people of Australia where they have maintained their connection with the land and where title has not been extinguished by acts of government. The resulting Native Title Act 1993 (NTA) provides for:

Indigenous participation in higher education has increased steadily in recent years, yet a closer look at those increases reveals significant differences when Indigenous students are compared with other Australian students.

The recent National Review of Education for Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Peoples (in 1995) called for research and analysis of the immediate and long-term complexities of building community-controlled education for Indigenous Australians.

In spite of over 20 years of Government promotion of self-determination in education as a pathway to better educational outcomes for Indigenous Australians:

Employment strategies aimed at raising the economic status of Indigenous people are also implicitly committed to raising occupational status. This is because of the link between poor economic outcomes for Indigenous people and their over-concentration in unskilled jobs.

One characteristic of the Indigenous population which makes it difficult to plan for the delivery of services such as health, housing, employment and education, is the fact that Indigenous people move a great deal. Frequent changes in location cause variation in the level of demand for services at different times in different places. To add to the difficulty, little is known about the details of this population movement as the census is not designed to measure it. Consequently, while the existence of short-term mobility is well-known from community-based case studies, few data exist.

Accountability in Aboriginal affairs has been receiving national prominence over recent months. The Coalition government proposes to move from what it terms 'the symbolic' to effective service delivery in Aboriginal affairs. There is an ongoing and sometimes hostile public debate about the accountability of the Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Commission (ATSIC) itself.

In the 1990s Indigenous households continue to experience high levels of poverty in comparison with other Australian households.

Characteristics of Indigenous households

Indigenous households are complex social and economic units. They differ in important ways from other Australian households:

Indigenous children and income poverty

Child poverty and employment issues are continuing concerns of government. This study confirms the commonly held view, that income poverty is much higher in the Indigenous than the non-Indigenous population.