Introducing Indigenist Critical Policy Analysis: A rights-based approach to analysing public policies and processes
Our summary
Institutional racism within Australia, grounded in the country’s settler-colonial structure, has sidelined Indigenous interests in public policymaking since federation. In an attempt to redress this, the United Nations Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples (UNDRIP) was endorsed by the Australian government in 2009. UNDRIP is an authoritative international standard that could inform the ways that governments engage with Indigenous peoples and protect their rights.
This paper introduces Indigenist Critical Policy Analysis (ICPA). While mainstream policy evaluation assesses whether policies and processes have met the governments stated objectives, ICPA assesses whether they uphold or violate Indigenous rights. ICPA involves reviewing policy documents against the key principles and specific Articles of UNDRIP.
Presenting a worked example of ICPA, the NSW Regional Health Strategic Plan 2022–2032 is assessed against the five phases:
- Orientation;
- Close examination;
- Determination;
- Strengthening practice; and
- Indigenous final word.
This analysis finds that the Strategic Plan is poorly aligned with UNDRIP. Specifically, there is little evidence that Indigenous values influenced or held any authority in the process. ICPA offers a practical approach to analysing policy for compatibility with Indigenous rights under international law that could be used by Indigenous organisations and policymakers.
Introduction
The question of how public policies and processes are assessed in relation to the needs of Indigenous peoples is a challenging one (McConnell et al., 2020; Sanders, 2023; Street et al., 2020; Sullivan et al., 2023). What makes for good or bad policy? How should success or failure be judged? These questions are challenging, particularly in the context of Indigenous affairs. There is a consensus that policies affecting Indigenous peoples are often ineffective; there is insufficient evidence, especially from Indigenous perspectives to discern which policies work and which do not (Productivity Commission, 2020b, 2020c, 2024).
To address this challenge, this paper introduces an approach called “Indigenist Critical Policy Analysis” (ICPA). It offers a framework for assessing public policies and processes from an Indigenist standpoint, aligning them with the United Nations Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples (UNDRIP) (United Nations, 2007). ICPA can help to demonstrate how standard policy structures sideline Indigenous interests and provide evidence to support transformations in government processes such as those called for by the Priority Reforms outlined in the National Agreement on Closing the Gap 2020 (CTG Agreement 2020) (Australian Government, 2020).
ICPA assists analysts to identify areas of public policies and processes that may not serve Indigenous peoples, or to highlight examples of best practice for replication. In addition to articulating a framework for conducting an ICPA, this paper seeks to demonstrate its utility by applying it to an Australian case study, the NSW Regional Health Strategic Plan 2022–2032 (the Strategic Plan).
Before doing so, this paper briefly provides an overview of the opportunities for a change in approach to policymaking processes in Australia. It describes the socio-political and historical contexts of policymaking in Australia and provides a critique of the existing mechanisms for assessing policy processes. It concludes with suggestions regarding policy development practices that may support the efforts of Indigenous and non-Indigenous actors within and outside of governments to develop policy that meaningfully engages with Indigenous peoples.
Natalie Bryant – an Aboriginal woman from the Yuin Nation in NSW - is a Sir Roland Wilson Pat Turner PhD Candidate at the Centre for Indigenous Policy Research at the Australian National University.