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-dayrealities for practitioners. Persistent hardship, disadvantage and discrimination - amid omnipresent policy initiativesaimed at combating them - exacerbate these dilemmas and are a perennial source of workplace tension. Frequentlythese tensions escalate to the point of unworkability among those tasked with collaborating in the interests of thecommunity. Under the guise of accountability or advocacy of justice, and backed by the (perceived) power of thestate, 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 remoteIndigenous community governance. Drawing on deontological and consequentialist ethics, as well as the policyliterature, it provides a framework to structure conversations on ethics in decision-making.