Background Note
Commonwealth Indigenous-specific expenditure 1968–2006
Online only issued 8 August 2007
John Gardiner-Garden
Social Policy Section
Malcolm Park
Statstics and Mapping Section
Introduction
This Background Note presents graphs, tables
and commentary on the subject of identifiable Commonwealth expenditure
in the area of Indigenous Affairs – expenditure which we have termed ‘Indigenous-specific’
as, although it may come through any portfolio, it is always through programs
or program components specifically addressing Indigenous issues or needs.
Links to tables will open the relevant table
in an Excel spreadsheet. All of the tables and charts referred to are
in this one spreadsheet and they can be accessed via the tabs along the
bottom of the screen in Excel. There is no need, therefore, to return
to this page to access another table.
Historical overview
Identifiable Commonwealth expenditure in the
area of Indigenous Affairs began with the establishment of the Office
of Aboriginal Affairs soon after the landmark referendum in 1967. It was
relatively low in the first few years but increased significantly with
the creation of the Department of Aboriginal Affairs soon after the Whitlam
Government came to office in December 1972, and continued to grow through
the 1980s.
In 1990 the Department was replaced by the
Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Commission (ATSIC) and, except for
a slight dip in 1993–94, expenditure continued to rise throughout the
1990s. ATSIC expenditure as a proportion of total Indigenous expenditure
started, however, to fall in the mid–1990s. This was a result of areas
such as health and land acquisition being shifted out of ATSIC and some
areas that remained within ATSIC receiving a funding cut following the
1996 Budget.
Although overall expenditure continued to
rise from the late 90s onward, it is difficult to compare earlier figures
with those from later years because in 1998 there was a move from cash
to accrual accounting and from 2000–01 the annual Ministerial statements
on Identifiable Commonwealth Expenditure on Indigenous Affairs used different
categories for representing expenditure. Tracking expenditure becomes
even more complicated from 2002, as successive administrative rearrangements
led to the demise of ATSIC and the staged transfer of its funding and
responsibilities through, and to, a range of other agencies.
Table 1: Identifiable Commonwealth Expenditure
on Indigenous Affairs, 1968–69 to 2006–07, Nominal and real dollars; percentages;
per capita
The trend in expenditure
Converting the nominal expenditure to real
terms(1) shows a rising trend over the period, which means
that the increases in expenditure have been more than the increases in
inflation (see Table 1 and Chart 1). In real terms, identifiable Commonwealth
expenditure in the area of Indigenous Affairs saw a dramatic rise and
fall in the early to mid 1970s – falling from $909 million in 1975–76
to $575 million in 1978–79 – and it did not then pass the 1975–76 level
until 1983–84 ($924 million). The mid 1980s onwards has seen an almost
uninterrupted rise in real expenditure, apart from small and quickly recovered
drops in the mid 1990s and 2005–06.
Identifiable Commonwealth Indigenous-specific expenditure expressed as
a percentage of total Commonwealth expenditure shows a similar pattern
of growth. The mid 1970s saw a sharp increase followed by a sharp fall,
then followed by almost continuous growth from 1978–79 to now (see Table
1 and Chart 2). In 1968–69 identifiable Commonwealth Indigenous-specific
expenditure accounted for only 0.18 per cent of total Commonwealth expenditure.
This rose to an estimated 1.58 per cent in 2006–07.
Plotting identifiable Commonwealth Indigenous-specific expenditure as
a percentage of Gross Domestic Product (GDP) shows a pattern in recent
years different to the indicators discussed above. From the early 1990s
Indigenous-specific expenditure as a percentage of GDP has stabilised
at around one third of one percentage point and, therefore, does not show
the continuous rise as seen in real expenditure and as a percentage of
total Commonwealth expenditure. Essentially this can be explained by the
economy (measured by DP) growing at a faster rate than total government
expenditure (see Table 1 and Chart 2).
Per capita expenditure
There are two possible sets
of Indigenous population data that per capita expenditure figures can
be derived from, and both are problematic.
Five–yearly Census data
covers the whole of the period of Aboriginal Affairs expenditure. However
Census counts are not considered a reliable indicator of the true size
of the Indigenous population over this period (the data show periods of
low and high growth which cannot be accounted for by births and deaths).
As such, the per capita expenditure figures which are derived from these
data and presented in Table 1 should be used with caution. In particular
it is strongly advised that these figures not be used for an analysis
of trends over the period.
The ABS has used data from
the 2001 Census to produce estimates and projections of the Indigenous
population which are considered more reliable than the Census figures,
but which only cover the period 1991-2009. Furthermore, because of the
difficulty in predicting the Indigenous population, both high and low
projections were produced from 2002. For the period covered, and regardless
of whether high or low projections are used, these data again show a rising
trend in per capita identifiable Indigenous specific expenditure, though
yearly fluctuations are quite volatile (see Table 2 and Chart 3).
Table
2: Experimental estimated and projected Indigenous population and real
expenditure per capita, 1991-2006
Further complicating the
task of estimating per capita expenditure is the fact that a lot of Indigenous-specific
expenditure has not been simply 'on top of' that which Indigenous Australians
might benefit from by being Australians. A large proportion of it has
substituted for expenditure through mainstream assistance programs (e.g.
Community Development Employment Projects for Newstart, Community Housing
for housing under the Commonwealth-State Housing agreement, Aboriginal
Legal Aid for general legal aid, Aboriginal Medical Services for Medicare
supported services). A further amount has been for services which are
arguably the responsibility of other levels of government (e.g. State
or Local). At the same time, Indigenous Australians have often utilised
mainstream services and benefits at a lower rate than other Australians
(e.g. Pharmaceutical Benefits and Aged Care).
To produce meaningful per capita expenditure figures, detailed
consideration-filled studies of single-portfolio areas need to be conducted.
Some examples of such are:
Detailed expenditure tables
The following tables provide
the most detailed expenditure data available. The data are drawn from
various sources, but most notably those discussed in the sources listed
below.
Table 3: Identifiable Commonwealth Expenditure
on Indigenous Affairs, 1968–69 to 1989-90 ($ millions—cash basis)
Table 4: Identifiable Commonwealth Expenditure
on Indigenous Affairs, 1990-91 to 1999-2000 ($ millions - cash then accrual
basis)
Table 5: Identifiable Commonwealth Expenditure
on Indigenous Affairs, 2000-01 to 2004-05 ($)
Table 6: Australian Government Indigenous
Expenditure - portfolio level, 2005-06 to 2007-08 ($'000)
Sources
Compilations of Commonwealth Indigenous-specific expenditure data
Expenditure data for late 1960s to late 1980s
can be found in Appendix 15 of the Aboriginal Affairs Department, 1988-89
Annual Report, and in J.C. Altman and W.Sanders, From exclusion to
dependence: Aborigines and the welfare state in Australia,
Discussion Paper No. 1/1991, Centre for Aboriginal Economic Policy Research.
In 1991 and 1992 expenditure tables were included
in the Budget Related Paper No.7, Social Justice For Indigenous Australians,
circulated by the Hon. Robert Tickner, Minister for Aboriginal Affairs
and Minister assisting the Prime Minister for Aboriginal Reconciliation).
From 1993 and 1995 expenditure tables were
included in an annual, but no longer officially Budget Related, Social
Justice For Indigenous Australians, circulated by the Hon. Robert
Tickner, Minister for Aboriginal Affairs.
There was no equivalent compilation released
in 1996 or 1997, but in 1998, Senator Herron, Minister for Aboriginal
and Torres Strait Islander Affairs, released Commonwealth Programs
For Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Peoples 1995-1996,
and Addressing Priorities in Indigenous Affairs an expenditure
compilation that also included actual expenditures for 1995-96 and 96-97
and estimates for 97-98 and 98-99.
From 1999 to 2002 the Government released
at budget time expenditure compilations in the form of a series of Ministerial
statements:
- A Better Future for Indigenous Australians, Statement by Senator
the Honourable John Herron Minister for Aboriginal and Torres Strait
Islander Affairs, 11 May 1999 .
- The Future Together, Indigenous-Specific Measures in the 2000-01
Budget, Statement by Senator the Honourable John Herron Minister
for Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Affairs, 9 May 2000.
- Our Path Together, Statement by the Honourable Philip Ruddock,
MP Minister for Immigration and Multicultural and Indigenous Affairs,
22 May 2001. http://www.budget.gov.au/2001-02/minst/html/atsic-13.htm#P297_65117
- Indigenous Affairs 2002-03, Statement by the Honourable Philip
Ruddock, MP Minister for Immigration and Multicultural and Indigenous
Affairs, Minister Assisting the Prime Minister for Reconciliation, 14
May 2002. http://www.immi.gov.au/budget/indigenous02.pdf
In 2003 Minister Vanstone simply included
Indigenous-specific expenditure in a Budget time press release kit. Her
2003 release only included overall expenditure, but the 2004 and 05 expenditure
included more of the detail of the kind that had been in earlier Ministerial
statements. See http://www.atsia.gov.au/budget/budget04/chart_spreadsheet.pdf and
http://www.atsia.gov.au/budget/budget05/SectionF.pdf
.
From 2006 there has been no single cross-portfolio
compilation of Indigenous-specific Commonwealth expenditures. Instead
portfolio specific summaries of ‘Australian Government Indigenous Expenditure’
(AGIE) have been included in nearly all the annual Portfolio Budget Statements.
Indigenous population data
Australian Bureau of Statistics (ABS), Australian
Historical Population Statistics 2006 (3105.0.65.001), Table 9.
ABS, Census 2006: QuickStats
Australia, accessed on 27 July 2007.
ABS, Experimental
Estimates and Projections, Indigenous Australians, 1991 to 2009
(3238.0).
GDP and Implicit Price Deflator data
ABS, National
Income, Expenditure and Product, March 2007 (5206.0)
Australian Government, Budget Strategy and
Outlook 2007-08: Budget Paper No. 1, 8 May 2007.
Total Commonwealth expenditure data
Australian Government, Budget Strategy and Outlook: Budget paper No.
1, 1999-2000 and 2007-08
editions - Historical Australian Government Data.
[1] The nominal expenditure (what is spent each
year) adjusted to remove the effect of inflation and expressed in 2006-07
dollars using the Implicit Price Deflator (IPD) for Non-Farm GDP. Essentially
these figures are the expenditure of previous years expressed in current
dollars, enabling a more useful comparison over time.
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