The role of discrimination and the exclusion of Indigenous people from the labour market
Boyd Hunter
Australian National University (ANU)
Contact Email:   Boyd.Hunteranu.edu.au

There is a gulf between the wide-spread perception of discrimination against Indigenous Australians and the scholarly writings. Empirical studies of Indigenous wages tend to emphasise the importance of education and other measurable factors in determining disadvantage. The problem with this position is that focusing on measurable factors involves an implicit bias against factors that are difficult to measure, such as discrimination and culture. This paper mounts a case that much empirical work on Indigenous Australians has unwittingly perpetrated the myth that education and other socioeconomic outcomes are more important than discrimination and history. In the rush to quantify Indigenous disadvantage, existing empirical studies are implicitly biased against finding racial discrimination. By overemphasising the role of education and other endowments, empirical studies have created a public debate where practical reconciliation is given priority over a rights based agenda. In addition to providing an overview of cases of labour market discrimination pursued under the Racial Discrimination Act 1975, this paper uses a recently developed statistical technique to explore the extent of potential discrimination against Indigenous workers looking for jobs. The findings confirm that discrimination appears to manifest itself in an inability to find jobs, rather than depressing the wages received.

Paper Download Information (if available):

Paper71.pdf

Copyright © 2003 Social Policy Research Centre.