Policymaking is increasingly being recognised as a value-laden process in which social problems are not simply identified and measured, but discursively produced. The current study examined how the problem of Indigenous disadvantage is produced within the original Closing the Gap policy framework, to identify underlying assumptions and problem representations. Bacchi's “What's the Problem Represented to be?” approach was used as the analytic framework, with critical discursive analysis used for a fine-grained discourse analysis. Findings indicate that the problem of Indigenous disadvantage is produced in culturally limited terms, demonstrates lifestyle drift and relies on deficit-based narratives of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Australians, which collectively work to produce disadvantage as a product of individual behaviours, and problematises Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people as inherently dysfunctional. Potential lived effects of these discourses are discussed, and future areas of research are identified.

中文翻译：

---

缩小差距：研究原住民和托雷斯海峡岛民劣势问题在政策中的表现

政策制定越来越被认为是一个充满价值的过程，在这个过程中，社会问题不仅被简单地识别和衡量，而且是通过话语产生的。目前的研究检查了原住民劣势问题是如何在最初的缩小差距政策框架内产生的，以确定潜在的假设和问题表征。Bacchi 的“问题是什么？” 方法被用作分析框架，批判性话语分析用于细粒度的话语分析。调查结果表明，土著劣势问题是在文化限制的条件下产生的，表现出生活方式的漂移，并依赖于澳大利亚土著和托雷斯海峡岛民基于赤字的叙述，这些人共同致力于将劣势作为个人行为的产物，并将原住民和托雷斯海峡岛民视为天生功能失调的人。讨论了这些话语的潜在生活影响，并确定了未来的研究领域。