Stronger Futures Policy On Building Strong Local Economies

Answer :

Stronger Futures Policy on building strong local economies and increasing job opportunities

Introduction 

The Stronger Futures Policy was introduced in the year 2011 and it primarily focuses to develop the condition and the situation of the aboriginal people in the Northern Territory of Australia. To understand the activity of policy and to critically analyse the policy the part economic development and the job opportunity from the policy have been considered. The paper will effectively discuss the policy and also the campaign activity performed by the government of Australia. The paper will also discuss regarding the response of the communities towards the policy and the participation of people in this policy. 

Policy 

The Stronger Futures Policy is considered to be the multi-layered social policy of the Australian Government that is associated with the population of aboriginal in the Northern land. In the year 2011 the policy was introduced in the Australian parliament (Closingthegap.pmc.gov.au, 2018). The policy considers the vast area where it intends to address the primary challenges that took place within the aboriginal communities of the northern land like the unemployment, alcohol abuse, school enrolment, community safety, child protection, food security as well as the housing along with the land reform. One of the major parts within this massive policy is the creation of the local economies as well as the job opportunity in the country for the aboriginal people. This is due to the fact that unemployment has become the central problem within the Northern land. The Government by addressing the Stronger Futures Policy has provided the job package of almost 19.1 million in funding (Cunneen, Allison, and Schwartz, 2014). Moreover, the government has the plan to introduce 50 new ranger positions to make the people work in the country program. The policy also shows that the government will provide effective job support to the indigenous community for the development of the economic condition in the Northern land.

Rationale 

The policy is introduced to reduce the gap between the aboriginal people and the Australians. Due to this policy, the government with the help of the local communities can effectively build the stronger local economies by increasing the job opportunities for the aboriginal people (Pmc.gov.au, 2018). The primary reason for the introduction of the campaign or the movement in Northern territory is due to the fact that the condition of the indigenous people was critical. Creation of the stronger futures for the aboriginal communities in Australia is highly essential for the economic development of the people and the country. The primary reason or the target of the target of the campaign is to provide job facilities to the aboriginal people (Schultz, Abbott, Yamaguchi, and Cairney, 2018). The movement also wanted to reduce the rate of unemployment for the indigenous people and for that numerous activities and steps have been considered by the Australian government under the policy of Stronger Futures Policy.

The movement also targets most of the local communities and the organisation to reduce the discrimination and create job opportunity for the indigenous people. It is the fact that people for their development and their improvement required suitable and higher level of economic condition (Amin, 2017). The movement or the campaign have to face numerous obligation from the Amnesty International and even most of the Christian Church criticised the campaign. The success possibility of the movement can be understood from the activities of people that they want to develop the Northern Territory and enhance the job facilities. It can be understood from the numerous facts that the success possibility of the policy is huge but it will require some time as in this process the gap reduction between the two communities is the essential factor (Gilroy, Donelly, Colmar, and Parmenter, 2016). The policy deal with the job opportunity and for that local communities have to provide their support for the successful development of the campaign. 

Contents and Methods

The government of Australia is supporting as well as creating the local job for the aboriginal people. The method for achieving the target was quite complicated due to the discrimination of people towards the aboriginal communities. The process is gradually developing where the indigenous people are getting the job role to provide school meal in the local area and also employing the people for the job of night patrol (The Conversation, 2016). The local traineeship is also provided to the people so that they have the ability to perform numerous activity in their locality and enhance the economic condition of the community. In this process, the government will eventually identify the job that could be suitable for the aboriginal people in the traineeship. The government is also supporting for the small business in the area to develop the economic condition and to provide the maximum number of job opportunities to the people (Gwynne et al., 2016). People are highly responding to the activities and the development of policy for enhancing the value and the effective working function. It is the fact that after the implementation of the policy aboriginal people got the chance to work in the local communities and also in the school and other working areas.  

Community Participation in Design and Operation 

The Stronger Futures Policy helps the country to develop their vision 2020 by enabling suitable and effective working function to all the indigenous people in the Northern Territory. The policy has to face numerous criticism and also at the same time they got support from the various people and communities in the area (Kline, and Moretti, 2014). It can be seen that the range of other employment needs to be operation side-by-side with the community development and the employment project for maximising the pathway towards the employment. This is the process that the policy needs to develop within the area which involves not only the direct employment by enhancing the job seeker network but they are also providing the innovative program which effectively encourages the aboriginal enterprise to maintain the management initiatives (Franklin et al., 2016). The local community and also numerous other communities have effectively provided their support for the implementation of the policy within the area. 

Job or employment is a vital aspect for the development of economic condition and also to enhance the living standard of the people. Having the job help the people to improve their wellbeing as well as it develops self-confidence among the people (Butler, Demski, Parkhill, Pidgeon, and Spence, 2015). Job or employment also help to make the local communities and the economies much stronger. Aboriginal people wanted to do a job and get the suitable wages just like the other people and for that numerous communities and even the government have considered to help them to maintain their activity. In this process, the government is trying to enhance the job facilities in the local area and also to build the small business within the country (Rix, Moran, Kapeen, and Wilson, 2016). Governments are providing more than 19 million for the development of job opportunity and also huge support for providing the traineeship to the aboriginal people. 

The government of Australia with the help of local communities are also providing the vocational training as well as the employment center to the aboriginal people so that they can imp[rove their skill and knowledge regarding the working phases. The training facilities have helped almost 7600 indigenous people to get the job within the country in the year 2017 (Fogarty, Riddle, Lovell, and Wilson, 2017). The movement is gradually getting support from the local communities and also the aboriginal people are in the process of developing their concept and their idea regarding the enhancement of the working function. The government of Australia has also announced almost 55.7 million dollars to close the gap within the employment within the community for the coming year. The unemployment rate of the country for aboriginal people in 2016 was considered to be 18.4% which is almost 2.7 times more than the non-indigenous people unemployment rate (Ivers et al., 2016). Due to this condition, the participation rate of the people also needs to be developed that primarily compare the labour force with the total working age of the population. The participation rate for the aboriginal people was 57.1 in the year 2016 which with time have gradually increased over the years.

The employment rate in term of gender is another aspect of the policy which shows that the aboriginal women are not considered to be fit for a job. The view and the concept of people in women employment are gradually changing with the enhancement of the policy for making stronger and better future. The indigenous women have also started to take interest in the job opportunities provided by the company where the percentage of women employee has increased to 44.8% in the year 2016 (d'Abbs, 2015). The participation rate of the women within the development process of employment and the economic condition has also increased to 53.9% in the year 2016. The activity and the campaign of Australian government show the fact that the development of economic condition and the community is performed with the help of suitable job opportunity to the people (Snyder, and Wilson, 2015). The economic development and the employment program got numerous support from the people and they tried to enhance their facility and their working function within the country. The entire movement of the policy is directly dealing with the valuable and suitable aspect of the government and the local communities.

Criticism of the campaign 

The policy after the five years of its introduction still the Northern Territory Emergency response continues to divide the opinions on the way that has been forwarded for the aboriginal policy. It can be seen that since the dramatic introduction of the campaign the federal Government policy discourse towards the aboriginal people have shifted. The policy shows the emergency response for the development of effective process within the field but with the gradual movement, the policy shifted their view from the job placement and the employment of the aboriginal people to the closing the gap policy within the country (Zhao et al., 2017). The policy shows that the aboriginal people get a suitable and appropriate job within the country but the primary fact that is that without suitable education system providing the job facilities is quite impossible. The government in this part of Stronger Futures Policy regarding job and economic development show announced to provide traineeship and other development process but the fact is that this creates more issues within the community (Crawford, and Biddle, 2018). People are unaware of the activity and for that, the participation rate is also low. The government has failed to recognize the local issue that took place within the country regarding aboriginal people. Moreover, it fails to follow a collaborative approach while addressing various related factors of unemployment. Furthermore, there is a lack of a proper consultation process to identify meaningful directions for the community development through improvement of job opportunities for the Aboriginals in the Northern Territory. It is not adequate to focus on unemployment but also to link the income management measures to help people get secured while reducing the humiliating and harmful nature of compulsory income management system. 

The policy of Stronger Futures is considered to be disempowering, then damaging as well as doomed to fail and all this is due to the fact that government of Australia forced the activity without understanding the need and the concern of the people within the country. The campaign of the government for the development of suitable and effective economic condition to the aboriginal people is not performed in an effective and suitable way. The policy performed by the government have created numerous disturbance within the people and their activity for the development of effective and suitable economic condition in the world (Moorcroft, 2016). It can be seen that the Stronger Futures Policy associated with the job and the employment rate have eventually shifted their focus from the people and tried to develop the community by various means (Bennett, 2015). The government is providing training to the people but the scope of getting a job and facilities are still not suitable for the aboriginal people within the country. The situation is not entirely correct or being developed within the field and for that, it is highly essential to enhance the working function and the activity of the community.

Conclusion 

The paper concludes the fact that Stronger Futures Policy on the economic development and the job opportunity is suitable for the aboriginal people but in this, the participation of the people along with the local communities is highly essential. The paper also concludes that the policy is being utilised for providing effective training and job facilities to the indigenous people of Australia. Moreover, the policy is effectively utilised within the country for the development of the economic condition of the people as a job provides the self-confidence and the well being among the people. To improve the situation, it is recommended to follow a consultative approach where the people being affected by the program or initiatives are allowed to discuss their expectations from such programs. There must be a focus on reducing alcohol practices through community led and managed initiatives that is directly related to unemployment rates in the community. A culturally appropriate public education and support program can help in improving effectiveness of the policy.