E/CN.4/2002/24/Add.1 page 26 55. The authors concluded the following about expenditure in each of the four areas considered: (a) Education. Public expenditure on education is 18 per cent higher per capita for Indigenous people than for non-Indigenous in the 3-24 age group. Equity considerations require that there be additional expenditure on the education of Indigenous Australians, and this difference per head is a “very modest contribution” to reducing Indigenous disadvantage; (b) Employment. Public expenditures on programmes for the unemployed are 48 per cent higher per unemployed Indigenous person than per non-Indigenous unemployed person. Part of this difference is explained by higher levels of long-term unemployment and higher average costs of employment programmes for Indigenous people, as well as the reliance upon Community Development Employment Projects (CDEP). The level of disadvantage faced by Indigenous people, the difficulties of maintaining employment levels for the rapidly expanding Indigenous population entering working age and the multiple objectives of the CDEP suggest that the margin “is not excessive”; (c) Health. The authors note that total funding per head, which includes privately and publicly funded health care, is 8 per cent higher for Indigenous people. Given the health status of Indigenous people, “allocation of public expenditure according to the need would almost certainly put more resources into health services for Indigenous people”; (d) Housing. Housing benefits expressed on a per capita basis indicate that non-Indigenous people received between 9 and 21 per cent more benefits than Indigenous people. Given the greater housing needs of Indigenous people, existing policies are “inequitable and inadequate” and this justifies “increased resources being put into programmes directed specifically towards addressing their housing needs”. These figures, when compared to the levels of disadvantage highlighted above, tend to indicate that while there are government funding and programmes aimed at redressing Indigenous disadvantage, they are clearly not sufficient to raise Indigenous people to a position of equality within Australian society. International human rights principles provide justification for giving higher priority to Indigenous disadvantage and for taking steps, or further steps, to redress this disadvantage and achieve equality of outcome. 56. The Commissioner expresses a further concern relating to the Australian Government’s policy aimed at eliminating the unfavourable situation in which Indigenous Australians find themselves; it relates to the misconception that Indigenous people are better treated than non-Indigenous people because of the relative amount of resources assigned to them, when in fact more resources are needed in order to be able to improve the situation. 57. The following indicators determined on the basis of the 1996 census reflect the situation of Aboriginals: