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people’s wellbeing (see section 11.1 for detailed discussion). The IBA (2003) notedthat the number of Indigenous people who are self employed as a proportion of theIndigenous labour force is significantly lower than for the rest of the population.Australia’s Indigenous people also lag behind New Zealand’s Maori people in termsof self employment. Those Indigenous people who are self employed tend to beemployed in trade and lower skilled occupations such as plant and machineryoperators and labourers (Hunter 1999).There are several reasons for low rates of self employment and ownership ofenterprises for Indigenous people in Australia. Hunter (1999) has noted thatgovernments have typically emphasised business opportunities at the Indigenouscommunity level rather than self employment. Indigenous people are more likelythan non-Indigenous people to have poor education and training in relation tobusiness enterprises (see sections 3.3, 3.4 and 11.4). For a variety of reasons,Indigenous people can have difficulty accessing capital and infrastructure andbusiness opportunities are often limited in remote areas.This Report includes data on self employment for Indigenous and non-Indigenouspeople living in non-remote areas. These data are from several ABS surveys,including the 2001 National Health Survey: Aboriginal and Torres Strait IslanderResults (NHS(I)), the 2004-05 National Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander HealthSurvey (NATSIHS), and the 2001 and 2004-05 National Health Surveys (NHS).Data on self employment for remote and very remote areas were not collected inthese surveys. The most recent nationally comparable data that can be reported forthe Indigenous self employment and business indicator are the ABS 2001 Censusdata that were published in the 2003 Report.For people living in non-remote areas, in 2004-05:• The age standardised rate of self employment (comprising employers and ownaccount workers) among all employed Indigenous people was much lower thanfor non-Indigenous people regardless of sex, age and remoteness area(table 11A.2.1).• For non-Indigenous people, men (14.9 per cent of total employed) were morelikely to be self employed than women (10.6 per cent of total employed)(table 11A.2.1).• There was no statistically significant difference in the self employment ratebetween Indigenous men and women (table 11A.2.1).11.18 OVERCOMINGINDIGENOUSDISADVANTAGE 2007