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How the Social Determinants of Indigenous Health became Policy Reality for Australia's National Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Health Plan

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  28 May 2018

MATTHEW FISHER Open the ORCID record for MATTHEW FISHER [Opens in a new window] ,
SAMANTHA BATTAMS ,
DENNIS MCDERMOTT ,
FRAN BAUM  and
COLIN MACDOUGALL
MATTHEW FISHER
Affiliation:
Southgate Institute for Health Society and Equity, Flinders University of South Australia, Sturt Rd, Bedford Park, South Australia 5042 Centre of Research Excellence in the Social Determinants of Health Equity, Flinders University of South Australia, Level 2, Room 2.06 Health Sciences Building, Registry Road, Bedford Park SA 5042 email: matt.fisher@flinders.edu.au
SAMANTHA BATTAMS
Affiliation:
Southgate Institute for Health Society and Equity, Flinders University of South Australia, Sturt Rd, Bedford Park, South Australia 5042 email: sam.battams@flinders.edu.au
DENNIS MCDERMOTT
Affiliation:
Centre of Research Excellence in the Social Determinants of Health Equity, Flinders University of South Australia, Level 2, Room 2.06 Health Sciences Building, Registry Road, Bedford Park SA 5042 The Poche Centre for Indigenous Health and Well-being, Flinders University of South Australia, Sturt Rd, Bedford Park, South Australia 5042 email: dennis.mcdermott@flinders.edu.au
FRAN BAUM
Affiliation:
Southgate Institute for Health Society and Equity, Flinders University of South Australia, Sturt Rd, Bedford Park, South Australia 5042 Centre of Research Excellence in the Social Determinants of Health Equity, Flinders University of South Australia, Level 2, Room 2.06 Health Sciences Building, Registry Road, Bedford Park SA 5042 email: fran.baum@flinders.edu.au
COLIN MACDOUGALL
Affiliation:
College of Medicine and Public Health, Flinders University of South Australia, Sturt Rd, Bedford Park, South Australia 5042 email: colin.macdougall@flinders.edu.au
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Abstract

The paper analyses the policy process which enabled the successful adoption of Australia's National Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Health Plan 2013–2023 (NATSIHP), which is grounded in an understanding of the Social Determinants of Indigenous Health (SDIH). Ten interviews were conducted with key policy actors directly involved in its development. The theories we used to analyse qualitative data were the Advocacy Coalition Framework, the Multiple Streams Approach, policy framing and critical constructionism. We used a complementary approach to policy analysis. The NATSIHP acknowledges the importance of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander (hereafter, Aboriginal) culture and the health effects of racism, and explicitly adopts a human-rights-based approach. This was enabled by a coalition campaigning to ‘Close the Gap’ (CTG) in health status between Aboriginal and non-Aboriginal Australians. The CTG campaign, and key Aboriginal health networks associated with it, operated as an effective advocacy coalition, and policy entrepreneurs emerged to lead the policy agenda. Thus, Aboriginal health networks were able to successfully contest conventional problem conceptions and policy framings offered by government policy actors and drive a paradigm shift for Aboriginal health to place SDIH at the centre of the NATSIHP policy. Implications of this research for policy theory and for other policy environments are considered along with suggestions for future research.

Type
Article
Information
Journal of Social Policy , Volume 48 , Issue 1 , January 2019 , pp. 169 - 189
Copyright
Copyright © Cambridge University Press 2018 

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