Copyright A. Lathouras, C. O’Connor and G. Frawley. Peer reviewed Journal Article first published in New Community, Vol.21 (3)(83), pp. 26-31. 2023.

Abstract: If critical community development is committed to the pursuit of social justice and human rights, then a structural analysis of the root causes of oppression should be foregrounded. This then informs citizen advocacy to work towards social change. Moreover, practice in communities is shaped by social policy as it impacts the welfare of a nation’s citizens. The laws of the land comprise mechanisms for distributing society’s resources, and social policy is underpinned by values, driven by political objectives, and maintained by discursive practices. Drawing on Carol Bacchi’s (2009) critical approach to social policy analysis, this article presents two case study stories where social work students applied a structural analysis to examine the effects of social policy on First Nations communities. This analysis complements a critical approach to community development practice and guides progressive action. 

Introduction

At the University of the Sunshine Coast (UniSC), all social work students complete the courses: Community Development and Social Action and Critical Social Policy Analysis. The first author teaches both, and where theory intersects, critical approaches to both practices are foregrounded. The community development course draws from ideas in the critical tradition as articulated by Margaret Ledwith (2011). This is where practice seeks to build social solidarity and provide a lens through which existing societal structures are examined, enabling more egalitarian, supportive, and sustainable alternatives. Drawing from the Freirean tradition of community education (Freire, 1970 & Freire, 1974), and as radical educators, practitioners facilitate processes that empower people to analyse their lived experiences and collectively act in the hope of transforming those experiences.

For the context of social policy analysis, we gain inspiration from Saul Alinsky’s seminal text Rules for Radicals (1971). Alinsky called for a “reformation”, the process where masses of people reach a point of disillusionment with past ways and values and then, together, organise, build power, and change the system from within (Alinsky 1971:114). Discussing the importance of social democratic reform through citizenship, Alinsky (1971:115) was “desperately concerned” that masses of people, through lack of interest or opportunity, are resigned to live lives determined by others. He argued that, 

The spirit of democracy is the idea of importance and worth in the individual, and faith in the kind of world where the individual can achieve as much of his (sic) potential as possible…. Separation of the people from the routine daily functions of citizenship is heartbreak in a democracy (Alinsky 1971:115).  

Active citizenship can be traced back to the ancient Greek concept of agora, a site of political assembly, an interface between the public and private spheres of social life. In contemporary times, community development can be seen as an expression of “the political and politicized assembly of an active citizenry in civil society”, or a form of politics whereby citizens participate in civil society through communicative action to directly socialise policy issues (Geoghegan & Powell 2009:431).

Critical Social Policy Analysis

In the coursework at UniSC, we draw on Carol Bacchi’s (2009) theory to directly socialise policy issues. In her “What’s the problem represented to be?” approach to critical social policy analysis, Bacchi’s central thesis is that policies give shape to “problems” in society. Government cannot get to work without first problematising its territory, assuming the existence of problems that need to be ‘fixed’. Problematising is how something is represented as ‘a problem’, and social policy reflects what government thinks needs to change. Drawing on post-structural theories, where language or discourses are full of ideology and beliefs, these speak to and uphold one’s ‘truth’. Bacchi (2009) posits these are contested with taken-for-granted assumptions or presuppositions and can be interrogated with other possible standpoints. 

Bacchi’s six-question framework helps us with the interrogation:

• Q1. What’s ‘the problem’ represented to be, or what’s the ‘problem representation’? Social policy students are encouraged to think from the policy writer’s perspective about the purpose of a policy, its vision, mission, and objectives.
• Q2. What presuppositions or assumptions underlie this representation of the problem? Students are encouraged to put themselves in the shoes of the government and interrogate this question bothappreciatively and critically. For example, most social policies have strong social democratic and neoliberal underpinning ideology and language.
• Q3. How has this representation of the problem come about?
• Here students are encouraged to research the history of a chosen policy area, not from a ‘version control’ perspective, but from the perspective of how society’s attitudes and values have changed over time. For example, in a few short decades, we have gone from separating from society and institutionalising people with chronic disability; to deinstitutionalisation processes in the 1980s with block funding to NGOs; to the current National Disability Insurance Scheme where many people are in control of their own funding packages.
• Q4. What is left unproblematic in this problem representation? This is where students are encouraged to draw from contemporary grey literature, including peak body reports and submissions to make arguments about what is silenced by the problem representation, or the way government has framed the issue.
• Q5. What effects are produced by this representation of the problem?
• Drawing on 500 hours of field education experience, students use their practice wisdom to name the effect on the people or end-users of the policy, both service users and fellow practitioners.
• Q6. How could the problem representation be questioned, disrupted, and replaced? Here the tutors use a range of creative teaching techniques to help students think outside the box, and about how we can transcend the most deleterious effects of a policy on end-users or practitioners.  

Employing “authentic” assessment processes, which reaffirm the role of higher education in contributing to social justice (McArthur, 2023), students do a simulated policy advocacy presentation and write a simulated policy reform submission to government about the specific policy they’ve researched. The course this year has provided a sense of purpose and social work activism to final year social work students, Cheryl and Grace, co-authors of this paper. Below, each tells their story of applying Bacchi’s framework to social policy impacting on First Nations peoples. 

Cheryl’s Story – Close the Gap

With a legal background and a passion for community development work, recently I investigated an environmental issue impacting Indigenous inequality in Australia. I focused on the Close the Gap (CTG) Implementation Plan 2023, specifically Outcome 1, “Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander People enjoy long and healthy lives” and 9b, “Safe and reliable water for remote and regional First Nations Communities”. Under the recently elected Labor government, the 2023 version of the Close the Gap social policy seems collaborative with First Nations people, which is a significant improvement over past efforts by various governments. Since writing the 2005 Social Justice Report, Professor Tom Calma AO, argues progress has been made toward achieving health and life expectancy equality for Aboriginal and Torres Strait Island peoples (Australian Indigenous Health Info Net, nd). However, the 2020 Close the Gap report highlighted that:

• The Indigenous child mortality rate was 141 per 100,000 which is twice that of non-Indigenous children (Australian Government, 2020b).
• Life expectancy at birth was 71.6 years for Indigenous males and 75.6 years for Indigenous females. In comparison, the non-Indigenous life expectancy at birth was 80.2 years for males and 83.4 years for females (Australian Government, 2020c).
• During 2015 and 2017 the lowest life expectancy occurred in the Northern Territory (66.6 years for males and 83.4 years for females) (Australian Government, 2020c).

Concerning Outcome 1 of the policy, one of the current commitments is the funding of 30 four-chair haemodialysis units and two dialysis treatment buses throughout Australia. Because of a 2022 report by Water Services Association of Australia (WSAA) which identified 500 Indigenous communities lacking drinkable water due to elevated levels of uranium, arsenic, fluoride, and nitrate above Australian drinking water guidelines, CTG’s Outcome 9b allocates $150 million to the National Water Grid Fund for targeting clean drinking water access in Australian rural and remote communities. The report also found that regular water quality testing in these communities does not occur (WSAA, 2022). 

Initially conducting research for an environmental issue concerning Indigenous Australians, I was able to tie the two outcomes together (1 and 9b), which in the reading of CTG policy, did not appear to be connected.  Outcome 1 was only addressing symptoms by providing more dialysis units, not mentioning, or looking at the probable causes of increasing numbers of chronic kidney disease (CKD).

My preliminary research found evidence highlighting the lack of safe, clean water in the remote Aboriginal community of Laramba, Northern Territory and how despite community efforts to eliminate what they suspected was contaminated water via a court case, there were no laws requiring landlords to provide safe water (ABC News 2022a). Subsequently, the community lost the case. Ultimately, it took 15 years from when concerns were first raised by the Laramba community regarding their water supply before the Northern Territory government constructed and opened a water filtration plant for the community in April 2023 (Northern Territory Government and Information Services, 2023).

The present Australian Drinking Water Guideline level for uranium is 0.02mg/l and current testing reveals that the uranium level in the Laramba water supply has now dropped from between 0.029mg/l – 0.055mg/l to 0.01mg/l (Northern Territory Government and Information Services, 2023) because of the new filtration system.

In the remote Aboriginal community of Kiwirrkurra, Western Australia, the dialysis clinic had to be closed for two years due to contaminated water, and community members needing lifesaving haemodialysis had to travel 800 kilometres for treatment (Purple House, nd; ABC News, 2022b). The Kiwirrkurra article led me to Purple House, a non-profit Indigenous-run health organisation based in Alice Springs that provides haemodialysis treatments in clinics and services remote areas by bus. I spoke with Mr Michael Smith, bio-medical engineer at Purple House, who had invented and won an award for developing a reverse osmosis filtration system that had enabled the Kiwirrkurra clinic to re-open. Even though the clinic had re-opened, the community still did not have safe drinking water and it was reported that 700 bottles of water were being shipped in each week, creating a mountain of rubbish (ABC News, 2022b).

I had several conversations with Mr Smith concerning water quality in remote areas, the high volume of clean water required for haemodialysis treatments and the links between rancid tasting water, the substitution of drinking water for sugary drinks, diabetes, and subsequently CKD. Based on information provided by Mr Smith it is estimated that one patient requiring haemodialysis (3 treatments lasting between 3 to 5 hours per week), requires a total of 70,200 litres of clean, safe water per year. We also discussed the cost of commissioning and installing 20 reverse osmosis filtration systems in the remote communities that Purple House services, so that haemodialysis treatments could occur effectively within communities without community members needing to relocate or travel long distances.

Further research into chronic kidney disease (CKD), revealed that concerns have been growing among healthcare providers, affected community members and leaders regarding the increasing cases of diabetes and CKD in remote Aboriginal communities for quite some time (Rajapakse et. al., 2019; Pan, Owen & Oddy, 2021; Australian Bureau of Statistics, 2019). It was revealed that CKD has a probable cause associated with unpalatable or contaminated groundwater (Rajapakse et.al., 2019). Sugar-sweetened beverages, when substituted for water in communities where the water is rancid and undrinkable, have proven to create obesity which then leads to diabetes, renal failure, and other health issues (Gajjala, 2015; Hormones Australia Endocrine Society of Australia, 2018; Pan, Owen & Oddy, 2021).

Moreover, diabetic nephropathy is the most common type of kidney disease found in pregnant women (Fischer, 2007). A study in 2015 revealed that pregnancy in those with kidney disease had 52 per cent increased odds of preterm delivery and 33 per cent increased odds of caesarean delivery (Kendrick et. al., 2015). Infants whose mothers had kidney disease had 71 per cent increased odds of needing admission to neonatal intensive care units or death, and kidney disease in mothers created a 2-fold increased odds of low birth weight (Rajapakse et al 2019). Maternal kidney disease substantially increases the incidence of “death, foetal prematurity, and low birth rate” (Fischer 2007, p. 135). The Australian Institute of Health and Wellbeing also state that 57 per cent of Indigenous infant deaths that occurred between 2015 and 2019 were due to prenatal conditions (Australian Government Institute of Health and Welfare, 2023).

By using Bacchi’s (2009) framework, I found a situation of symptoms only being addressed in the policy and no evidence that the government was linking the connection I could see between the lack of safe, clean water and the high rates of CKD occurring in Western Australia, where it is endemic (Rajapakse et al., 2019), and in the Northern Territory. The lack of clean, safe water in the remote communities of the two jurisdictions is not news to federal or state governments as there has been an ongoing health crisis due to unsafe water that multiple reports have brought to their attention over the years. Yet it is only now that the State and Federal Governments are beginning to address the water issues.

Employing Bacchi’s question six about how the problem representation could be questioned, disrupted, and replaced, I made two recommendations. The first was to invest $1 million of the $150 million currently allocated in Outcome 9b of the CTG policy, to the National Water Grid Fund to install reverse osmosis filtration systems at the 20 sites Purple House services. If enacted, this would ensure safe and reliable water for those remote First Nations communities. The second recommendation was to immediately commence water quality testing in the 500 communities the WSAA has identified as having undrinkable water. If enacted, this would provide both the State and Federal Governments with a priority list of communities where water treatment processing plants need to be constructed.

Grace’s Story – Domestic and Family Violence Prevention

The social policy I analysed was the Queensland Domestic and Family Violence Prevention Strategy 2016-2026. This prevention strategy provides a framework for government to act against domestic and family violence and has four subsequent action plans, with the most recent action plan addressing coercive control (Queensland Government, 2016). The reason I chose to analyse this policy is because the Queensland Government plans to legislate coercive control by the end of this year, therefore highlighting the need for a current structural analysis of the problem. The Strategy has a vision of creating a Queensland free from domestic and family violence. Specifically, an objective is to legislate and criminalise coercive control by the end of 2023 with the overall aim of eliminating domestic and family violence.

My research found that compared to men, women are three times more likely to experience domestic and family violence, with one woman being murdered every week by a partner (Our Watch, 2023). Moreover, First Nations women are disproportionately more likely to experience domestic and family violence and are eleven times more likely to be killed due to family violence compared to non-Indigenous women (Commonwealth of Australia, 2022).  

A key characteristic of intimate partner homicide is a relationship in which coercive control is used to isolate and control the woman by a range of mechanisms, most of which are invisible to the public (Boxall et al., 2022). Drawing on Bacchi’s question three, I understand that historically, Australia has had a culture deeply engrained with normalising violence against women and maintaining silence about what happens in the private realm (of the home) (Piper, 2019). This culture has normalised domestic and family violence, so much so one can buy a singlet called the ‘wife beater’. Radical feminist discourse suggests the root cause of women’s oppression is in patriarchal gender relations (Pilcher & Whelehan, 2017; Damant et al., 2008), and this informs my belief that in the private realm a woman’s life is where the relationship itself is used as a mechanism of subordination. Furthermore, I now recognise Australia as a patriarchal society that supports this dominant ideology which is used to sustain the isolation of women to the private realm by limiting their ability to participate in the community. This has created a cultural norm in which women stay home and raise children while male partners go out and work (Baxter, 2018). In some households, this can turn a relationship into one of dependency and subservience creating ideal conditions for coercive control to take place (Stark, 2012).

However, I identified that this gendered structural analysis of domestic and family violence does not consider the detrimental socio-economic and cultural impacts of colonisation on First Nations women, impacts that contribute to their experiences of domestic and family violence. These include intergenerational trauma, economic exclusion and dispossession of land and family (Australia’s National Research Organisation for Women’s Safety [ANROWS], 2023). Evidence suggests that 70% to 90% of First Nations women in prison have experienced domestic and family violence either as a child or an adult (Commonwealth of Australia, 2022). First Nations women are overly represented in the criminal justice system and are often misidentified as the person who uses violence (Commonwealth of Australia, 2022). Furthermore, retaliation for their own protection or the protection of their children or misidentification due to racial stereotypes often leads to co-responding protection orders being placed against the victim-survivor (Commonwealth of Australia, 2022). Therefore, the intersection between gender inequality and racial inequality highlights that domestic and family violence can be much more than a cultural issue (ANROWS, 2016). 

Drawing on Bacchi’s question four about what is left problematic with government’s framing of a policy issue, I identified that consultation with First Nations women on this issue and the legislation of coercive control is imperative for Government to understand how this could create further harm to First Nations communities if not properly implemented. The discourse used within the prevention strategy suggests that the behaviours around coercive control need to change. Although this creates an assumption that the community has a comprehensive understanding of coercive control and are therefore capable to commit to change. Additionally, the 2021 National Community Attitudes Towards Violence Against Women Survey shows that 41% of respondents believed that domestic and family violence is committed equally by men and women (ANROWS, 2021). This suggests that the community is still unaware of unequal gender relations and how this influences domestic and family violence.

Additionally, there is an assumption that the criminalisation of coercive control will address the help seeking behaviours of women experiencing domestic and family violence, although the evidence suggests that rates of help seeking are higher for women who experience coercive control as well as physical and/or sexual abuse, rather than just coercive control (Boxall & Morgan, 2021). Furthermore, it is evident that the current systems we have in place are inadequate to support victim-survivors, with service organisations and law enforcement already overrun and struggling to keep up with rates of domestic and family violence (Burt & Iorio, 2023). Our systems that support victim-survivors of domestic and family violence have been structured as crisis responses that offer immediate safety planning, accommodation, and case management. This support is happening after the violence has already occurred with most services meeting woman who are at ‘rock bottom’ and already in grave danger.

After I researched similar social policy in other countries, I discovered that although England and Wales criminalised coercive control in 2015 the understanding of what constitutes coercive control and the ability to recognise it is still unclear. This impacts the practices and responses of service delivery. Additionally, missed or under reporting of coercive control has led to inadequate assessments of risk, resulting in victims being overlooked and murdered (Robinson, Myhill & Wire, 2018). I believe, therefore, a robust approach to re-structuring and re-defining domestic and family violence is needed.

During my policy advocacy presentation and review submission, I made a recommendation to governments to establish a nationwide definition of coercive control enabling a shared understanding and an unambiguous approach to responding to coercive control. Defining coercive control will encompass all forms of nonphysical violence, and will provide law enforcement, the community, and legal systems with a clear definition to respond effectively and lessen the deleterious impacts of this issue facing First Nations women.  

Conclusion

Bacchi’s critical questioning framework for policy analysis draws on social construction theory, about what we take to be ‘fixed’ reality is actually contextual, historical and changing. It also draws on feminist body theory and acts as a counterbalance to focus on people’s perceptions, ensuring that lived experience receives due recognition. Grace and Cheryl’s stories of social policy analysis provide an excellent example of how practitioners could use the framework and work with communities to develop their own structural analysis about the root causes of ongoing disadvantage. The issues raised by them paint a damning picture of a vulnerable population group whose voices are not yet being given space at the policy-making table. 

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