Ethical Complexity and Service Delivery in Remote Indigenous Communities

The scale and scope of disadvantage in remote indigenous communities means that ethical dilemmas are day-to-day realities for practitioners. Persistent hardship, disadvantage and discrimination - amid omnipresent policy initiatives aimed at combating them - exacerbate these dilemmas and are a perennial source of workplace tension. Frequently these tensions escalate to the point of unworkability among those tasked with collaborating in the interests of the community. Under the guise of accountability or advocacy of justice, and backed by the (perceived) power of the state, conflict among practitioners often leads to factionalism, standoffs and can escalate to bullying, harassment, violence and lawsuits. This article proposes a simple heuristic for ethical deliberation among those working in remote Indigenous community governance. Drawing on deontological and consequentialist ethics, as well as the policy literature, it provides a framework to structure conversations on ethics in decision-making.