This paper was presented by Anne Evans and Kim Johnstone at the 'Social Science Perspectives on the 2008 National Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Social Survey' conference, 11-12 April 2001, The Australian National University, Canberra. The session title was 'Demography and substance abuse'.

Ann Evans is a Fellow in the Australian Demographic and Social Research Institute at ANU. Her primary research interest lies in the area of family demography. She is currently undertaking research on cohabitation, relationship formation and dissolution, fertility and contraception, young motherhood and transition to adulthood.

Kim Johnstone is a demographer who is near completion of her PhD at the Australian Demographic and Social Research Institute, ANU. Her research focuses on contemporary Indigenous fertility in the Northern Territory, which has required forensic analysis of the available data alongside trend analysis. Kim has over 15 years experience working in Australia and New Zealand. She has worked for universities, government and non-government organisations and a main focus of all her work has been using knowledge of population dynamics to inform evidence-based policy development and implementation.

Concluding commentary is by Tetteh Dugbaza, Indigenous Data Gaps Unit, Australian Institute of Health and Welfare.

An audio recording and presentation slides from the session can be downloaded below.