ABSTRACT
The conditions of Aboriginal people on remote settlements in northern and central Australia are very much worse than for non-Aboriginal people in the same regions, let alone in the rest of Australia. The lifetime outcomes of Indigenous Australians in those settlements, as revealed by headline indicators of health, income, education and home ownership, for example, are far worse than for Australians generally. Life expectancy for Indigenous males is 20.9 years less than for non-Indigenous males, and 24.7 years less than their non-Indigenous counterparts for Indigenous females; median gross weekly individual income is $372 less for Indigenous people than for non-Indigenous people; and home ownership is 15.2 per cent for Indigenous people versus 52.1 per cent for non-Indigenous people (SCRGSP, 2005). These discrepancies are especially pronounced for Aboriginal people living on remote communities in outback Australia (Productivity Commission, 2003; SCRGSP, 2005).
