Thesis (Ph.D.) - University of Queensland, 2002. / Includes bibliography.

Thesis (Ph.D.)--University of Nebraska-Lincoln, 2006. / Title from title screen (site viewed on Nov. 22, 2006). PDF text: ii, 216 p. : col. ill., maps ; 1.09Mb. UMI publication number: AAT 3215320. Includes bibliographical references. Also available in microfilm and microfiche format.

Thesis (Ph.D.) - University of Queensland, 2007. / Includes bibliography.

This thesis concerns the relationship between ideology, values, beliefs, politics, language, discourses, public policy and health outcomes. By examining the origins of federal health policy concerning Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Peoples 1972-2001 I have explored the idea that the way a problem is constructed through language determines solutions enacted to solve that problem, and subsequent outcomes. Despite three decades of federal policy activity Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander children born at the start of the 21st Century could expect to live almost 20 years less than non-Indigenous Australians. Explanations for the gap include that the colonial legacy of dispossession and disease continues to wreak social havoc and that both health policy and structures for health services have been fundamentally flawed. The research described in this thesis focuses on the role of senior Federal politicians in the health policy process. The research is grounded in theory which suggests that the values and beliefs of decision makers are perpetuated through language. Using critical discourse analysis the following hypotheses were tested: 1. That an examination of the language of Federal politicians responsible for the health of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Peoples over three decades would reveal their beliefs, values and discourses concerning Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Peoples and their health 2. That the discourses of the Federal politicians contributed to policy discourses and frames in the Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander health policy environment, and 3. That there is a relationship between the policy discourses of the Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander health policy environment and health outcomes for Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Peoples. The hypotheses were proven. I concluded that there was a relationship between the publicly-expressed values and beliefs of politicians responsible for health, subsequent health policy and resulting health outcomes. However, a model in which theories of discourse, social constructions of people and problems, policy development and organisational decision-making were integrated did not adequately explain the findings. I developed the concept of &quotpolicy imagination&quot to explain the discrete mechanism by which ideology, politics, policy and health were related. My research suggests that the ideology and values which drove decision-making by Federal politicians responsible for the health of all Australians contributed to the lack of population-wide improvement in health outcomes for Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Peoples in the late 20th Century.

Bibliography: leaves 268-283. / viii, 284 leaves : maps ; 30 cm. / Title page, contents and abstract only. The complete thesis in print form is available from the University Library. / Thesis (Ph.D.)--University of Adelaide, Dept. of Anthropology, 1995

No description available.

No description available.

The thesis examines different forms of Australian setter-nationalism, and their impact upon settler/indigenous relations. I examine the way that the development of specific forms of settler national consciousness has influenced the treatment of, thought about, and feeling towards the indigenous as a people or peoples. I claim that discourses of the nation operate, in an ongoing way, as shaping forces in everyday and public policy responses to the collective situation of Australia's indigenous peoples, and to the perception of their place in Australian society.

Self determination has been recognised as a basic human right both internationally and, to an extent, locally, but it is yet to be fully realised for Aboriginal Peoples in Australia. The assertion of Aboriginal community control in Aboriginal health has been at the forefront of Aboriginal peoples' advocacy for self determination for more than thirty years. Aboriginal Community Controlled Health Services and their representative organisations have been the site of considerable resistance and contestation in the struggles involved in trying to improve Aboriginal health experiences. Drawing on some of these experiences I explore the apparent inability of policy and decision makers to listen to systematic voices calling for change from the Aboriginal Community Controlled Health sector. It is government inability to act more fully on clear and repeated messages that is a source of much disquiet within representative Aboriginal organisations. Such disquiet is grounded in a belief that colonial notions continue to influence decision making at policy, practice and research levels resulting in a significant impediment to the realisation of self determination and associated human rights in Aboriginal health matters and Aboriginal Affairs more broadly.

Thesis (Ph.D.) -- University of Western Sydney, Hawkesbury, 1999. / Bibliography : leaves 322-339.