Gavin Ritchie talks to Guardian Australia about the disadvantage faced by Indigenous Australians as part of the Fair Go? series. Ritchie says he was on Newstart and for the past three years he has been on the disability support pension. 'I will always run out of money before my next pay,' he says. 'When I was on Newstart I would pay my rent and I had $320 to last me a fortnight. That's ridiculous'. He says he has trained himself to subsist 'on next to nothing' and recounts the racist abuse he endured as a child. 'Indigenous people anywhere, their rights, their safety, their happiness, I believe, should be of paramount significance to everybody,' he says. 'Billions of dollars have been made in this country in 200 odd years. My people are still chained firmly to the lowest rung in the socioeconomic ladder.'

• For Indigenous Australians, the concept of a 'fair go' is meaningless