This course will explore public policy towards Indigenous Australians in recent years and also, to some extent, historically.

The idea of competing principles in Indigenous policy and its practice will be identified and how the balancing of these might vary both historically and geographically. The roles of specialists and generalists, and of ideology and moralism in Indigenous policy will also be discussed.

The course will then examine a number of policy sectors which are central to recent debates in the Indigenous policy arena: income support, alcohol, child protection and criminal justice, health, housing, land, youth and education. Different sectors will be used to think about various aspects and patterns of Indigenous policy processes, such as relations between Indigenous -specific and general policy mechanisms. A guest lecturer will also explore ideas around the policy implications of mobility.

Recent experiments in 'mainstreaming' and whole-of-government policy will also be explored, both for their strengths and limitations. Finally we will look at the ideas of failure and success in Australian Indigenous policy and develop the idea that they are linked to different rhetorical registers.

At the end of the course students should be able to:

•  engage in informed debate about Australian government policy and practice towards Indigenous people; and
• for those working in organisations involved in the Indigenous policy arena will have some enhanced tools for thinking about what is going on around them.