The Pros And Cons Of Aboriginal And Torres Strait Islanders

Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islanders experience many disadvantages compared to most of the Australian population. The Indigenous people of Australia experiences vast inequality compared to non indigenous Australians including a significantly shorter life expectancy, higher rate of infant mortality, lower levels of health and poorer levels of education and employment. Since the colonisation of Australia by the British in 1778, Indigenous Australians have experienced significant disadvantage, discrimination and injustice. There have been a variety of legal and non legal responses to combat this issue, legal responses including The Intervention, Declaration on the Rights of INdigenous People and the Land Rights Legislation and non legal responses

The terms of this intervention apply only to Indigenous people hence treating them differently to non-Indigenous people. Even though the intentions of the legislature are to help Indigenous people, one the consequence of this Act was it removed independence and freedom of Indigenous people. The Intervention was a legal response to disadvantages faced by Indigenous people but was extremely ineffective as it had the opposite effect because it did not meet the needs of the Indigenous society. It created further mass unemployment and exploitation, increased youth suicide in communities, increased incarceration rates among the communities and has little to no improvement in things like housing. The Indigenous community needed more support and acceptance to tackle disadvantage but instead experienced discrimination and had rights

This Act allowed blocks of land in the Northern Territory to be granted to land trusts if traditional Indigenous Australian land ownership was proved. This resulted in almost 50 per cent of Northern Territory land being returned to Aboriginal peoples. Some State governments followed the lead of the Australian Government and introduced their own land rights legislation including The Aboriginal Land Rights Act 1983 (NSW). This act allowed for the transfer of former reserves or Trust lands to the ownership of local Aboriginal land councils. The Act also provides for claims to be made by land councils of claimable Crown land excluding land that is lawfully used or occupied, or needed either for an essential public purpose or residential purposes. The land rights legislation has been effective in helping combat Indigenous disadvantage in Australia. It meet society's needs because it returned a lot of Indigenous traditional land helping to enrich culture and rebuild their confidence. It was also able to help rebuild and develop the connection Indigenous people have with the Land by restoring areas to the Indigenous people and allowing for this connection to happen. By assisting the Indigenous society in doing this, this Legal response is effective because it means the disadvantage they faced due to loss of connectedness with the land can be