Articles by: Jon Altman

Reviving the settler-colonial project in remote Indigenous Australia. It is becoming increasingly common for the Australian governments to announce unpopular policy reform late on a Friday or early on a Saturday with a judicious 'exclusive' pre-release to The Australian newspaper. And so it was on 6 December 2014 when proposals to radically reform the Remote Jobs and Communities Program (RJCP) from 1 July 2015 were announced: 'Remote dole rules [to be] twice as tough' screamed…

On 20 October with muted fanfare, Jenny Macklin, Minister for Families, Housing, Community Services and Indigenous Affairs (FaHCSIA) launched the much-anticipated Indigenous Economic Development Strategy 2011-2018 (IEDS). The IEDS has been four years in the making and was now the responsibility of a triumvirate of Ministers including Mark Arbib, Minister for Indigenous Employment and Economic Development and Chris Evans, Minister for Tertiary Education, Skills, Jobs and Workplace Relations. Fittingly perhaps, given its content, the IEDS…

As 2011 unfolded, some reflexive summer copy appeared in 'The Australian' on disappointingly slow progress in Indigenous development in remote Australia. For several years now 'The Australian' has taken a lead role in advocating for intervention, championing the decisive actions taken in 2007 in the Northern Territory under the policy umbrella of a 'national emergency', and strongly editorialising and commentating on the need for forms of individual responsibility, private home ownership, education, employment and business…

As the Senate inquires into the Queensland Wild Rivers Bill, Jon Altman argues the case for Aboriginal resources rights across Australia.