Identity Frauds
Exploring the box ticker phenomenon which is not an exclusive Australian issue
Adjunct Professor Vicki Grieve-Williams is one of a few Australian born scholar who is exploring the box ticker phenomenon which is not an exclusive Australian issue.
By 2031, the Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander (ATSI) population is projected to increase to 1 million.
The ATSI population has a relatively young age demographic with a median age of 22.9 years in 2016 (37.8 years for the non indigenous population):
· up to 443,700 people in major cities, at an average annual growth rate of between 2.4% and 2.7% a year
· by 488,300 people in inner and outer regions, at an average annual growth rate of between 1.9% and 2.2% a year
· by 68,400 people in remote and outback regions, at an average annual growth rate of between 0.6% and 0.8% a year
The ATSI population in the ACT is projected to be the fastest growing with an average of between 2.7 per cent and 3.0 per cent a year. This is followed by Brisbane between 2.6 per cent and 2.9 per cent, Victoria (excluding Melbourne) between 2.4 per cent and 2.8 per cent. Katherine is the only Indigenous region where the ATSI population is projected to decrease between by 2031.[1]
According to ABS there were 798,400 indigenous people in Australia in 2016. Three quarters of indigenous population lived in NSW, Qld and WA. Among the Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander population in 2016, 91% of people (727,500 people) identified as being of Aboriginal origin only, 5% (38,700) were of Torres Strait Islander origin only and 4% (32,200) were of both Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander origin. The indigenous population increased by 19% between 2011 and 2016.[2] The most recent census found 40,000 Australians were apparently listed as Aborigine, meaning many had switched identity. This could not be explained in the birth rate.
In the 1980s the Commonwealth Aboriginal Affairs suggested a three part working definition for recognition of Aboriginality status, ‘An Aboriginal or Torres Strait Islander is a person of Aboriginal or Torres Strait Islander descent who identifies as an Aboriginal or Torres Strait Islander and is accepted as such by the community in which he (or she) lives.’
Only a few court cases have considered the definition, with one of the more important decisions made in 1998 Federal Court judge, Ron Merkel related to a dispute about the Aboriginality of candidates in a Tasmanian ATSIC election. Merkel said proof was often difficult because of lack of records and years of denial of Aboriginal descent because of racism, ‘Accordingly oral histories and evidence as to the process leading to self-identification may, in a particular case, be sufficient evidence not only of descent but also of Aboriginal identity,’
Merkel insisted the onus was on Aboriginal communities to establish identity. This is not fair because Aboriginal people have nowhere to report it. The government needs an appropriate authority to assist identity reporting. It is not true there are no records. John McCorquodale said there were 700 different pieces of legislation dealing with Aboriginal people. In fact, the record keeping of aboriginal people was particularly detailed:
From my analysis of 700 separate pieces of legislation dealing specifically with Aborigines or Aboriginal matters - or other seemingly non-Aboriginal matters - no less than 67 identifiable classifications, descriptions, or definitions have been used from the time of European settlement to the present.[3]
Aboriginality has become politically charged, as are most issues involving Aboriginal affairs. This acts against the interests of those it argues to benefit. The Australian Law Reform Commission (ALRC) sights a reference from legal historian, John McCorquodale again who reported that since the time of white settlement, governments have used no less than 67 classifications, descriptions and/or definitions to determine who is an Aboriginal person.[4]
Aboriginal identification is bound to be emotive. In 1986, an ALRC Report discussed the definition of Aborigine and the recognition of Aboriginal customary laws. It noted early attempts to devise a definition tended to concentrate on descent, without referring to other elements of Aboriginality. Problems arose in deciding whether descendants of unions between Aborigines and settlers were to be regarded as an Aboriginal person or the purposes of various restrictive or discriminatory laws. In applying these restrictive laws, tests based on quantum of blood were commonly applied.
References
[1]The Australian Bureau of Statistics, Estimates and Projections, Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Australians, Estimates and projections of the Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander population for 2006 to 2031, https://www.abs.gov.au/statistics/people/aboriginal-and-torres-strait-islander-peoples/estimates-and-projections-aboriginal-and-torres-strait-islander-australians/latest-release
[2]The Australian Bureau of Statistics, Estimates of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Australians
Contains 2016 Census-based final estimates of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander and non-Indigenous Australians for various geographies, https://www.abs.gov.au/statistics/people/aboriginal-and-torres-strait-islander-peoples/estimates-aboriginal-and-torres-strait-islander-australians/latest-release
[3] Ibid
[4]John McCorquodale, McCorquodale, J. (1986). The legal Classification of Race in Australia, Aboriginal History, 10(1/2), 7-24, at p.9
http://press-files.anu.edu.au/downloads/press/p71821/pdf/article024.pdf