Tag: Welfare

The Chair of the Central Land Council, Robert Hoosan, today welcomed the passage of legislation to abolish the cashless debit card (CDC) as an important step in the transition to end compulsory income management.

The cashless debit card will end in the Northern Territory next year, but a system of compulsory income quarantining will continue for at least a further 12 months after that.

“We at CLC strongly welcome abolishing the cashless debit card,” Mr Hoosan said. “On top of that, we want to see an end to all forms of compulsory quarantining of welfare money, but this has to be done carefully, making sure that people get good information and support so they understand the changes.

“The Government needs to consult properly with the community controlled Aboriginal organisations and with communities to co-design a new system with us so people can choose what is best for themselves.”

Mr Hoosan said this could allow for voluntary approaches to income management and should include investment in culturally appropriate financial counselling in languages people understand.

Compulsory income management was first introduced in the NT in 2007 as part of the Howard Government Northern Territory Intervention and was exclusively imposed on Aboriginal people. Mr Hoosan said that 15 years of income management had hurt Aboriginal people and caused a lot of harm.

“The Intervention and income quarantining really hurt Aboriginal people. It was racially-based and it stigmatised and shamed people. All the research done over the years has not produced any evidence to show that income management gave any benefit to solve social problems. It’s time to get rid of it.

“We want to see the money that has been spent on controlling people put into positive investments, and strategies that have good evidence to help people get treatment for alcohol and drug problems.

“And we want a new approach for remote employment and getting people off welfare and into local jobs that are good for communities, like the Aboriginal Peak Organisations NT proposal for a Remote Development and Employment Scheme to replace the failed CDP,” Mr Hoosan said. “That’s the future we want.”

Cashless Debit Card: Vote NO

The Central Land Council, as a member of the Aboriginal Peak Organisations NT (APO NT) alliance, has made an eleventh hour appeal to Senator Rex Patrick to vote against the Cashless Debit Card rollout in the Northern Territory. The bill, if passed in the Senate later today, will impose the scheme on 23,000 people in the Northern Territory – 82% of people whom are Aboriginal and living in very remote communities. The CLC’s opposition to the Cashless Debit Card is unequivocal and unchanged. The bill is discriminatory and will perpetuate compulsory income management in the NT without evidence or adequate review. It is a punitive hangover from the 2007 NT Intervention, which was and continues to be fiercely opposed by Aboriginal residents of the NT.

The CLC supports income management as a voluntary measure for those experiencing hardship who may value the structure it can provide during difficult times, or as a measure for individuals considered to be at high risk and vulnerable by Aboriginal controlled health organisations. What Aboriginal people want is a pathway out of poverty and into real training and employment, not an endless cycle of punitive government interventions that are not proven to be effective. Closing the Gap will only be achieved through positive programs and resources that assist people to improve their lives and emphasise Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander self-determination.

We have urged Senator Patrick today to consider APO NT’s Remote Jobs Package that, if implemented, will go a long way to creating employment pathways in the NT – a more enduring, positive legacy than the one presented by the CDC expansion.

Inquiry into remote food security and pricing report

The Central Land Council welcomes the release of the final report of the House of Representatives inquiry into food security and pricing in remote Indigenous communities. The report is clear in its findings that Aboriginal people living remotely pay more for most types of goods than urban and regional Australians and suffer the consequences of significantly higher prices for fresh food and vegetables.

We are pleased that the Committee backs the CLC’s recommendation to establish a real-time price monitoring and point of sale data system across all remote community stores. To be effective, solutions to the remote food security crisis must be backed by reliable data to make price comparisons and empower consumers. We look forward to seeing greater transparency in store pricing and know this will help stores who are already working with communities and have strong pricing policies and community leadership.

We welcome the recommendation for an ACCC investigation to ensure adequate regulation of pricing moving forward. We urge the federal government to act quickly to implement the food inquiry report’s recommendations. This is the third report into remote food security issues in the past decade. And it is critically important that real change and improvement follows this most recent report to Aboriginal people closer to closing the gap on health outcomes.

Why we are calling on all MPs to oppose the Cashless Debit Card Expansion Bill

We call on all members of parliament to strongly oppose the bill that would expand compulsory income management in the Northern Territory through the Cashless Debit Card (CDC).

APO NT spokesperson John Paterson said, “Support for the bill would directly contradict the recent National Agreement on Closing the Gap that was supported by all levels of government including the Commonwealth. It is not in keeping with the spirit of the agreement and its emphasis on Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander self-determination.”

Mr Paterson added, ”We did not ask for the card, yet 22 000 of us will be affected if the card is imposed on NT income recipients.”

There is still no proof that compulsory income management works. In February this year the University of Queensland released a report on their review of four CDC trial sites. The overwhelming finding was “that compulsory income management is having a disabling rather than enabling effect on the lives of many social security recipients.”

The Cashless Debit Card relies on regular and reliable access to the internet and mobile phone coverage. This is not the case for many remote communities in the NT. What works in other CDC trial sites will not work for the NT. 82% of people who will be transferred to the CDC are Aboriginal and most live on remote communities.

Mr Paterson said, “Face to face Centrelink support has been stripped back out bush and will be replaced by a 1800 number or an internet site. This is grossly inadequate for a population who lack digital literacy and where English is a second language”.

“The bill is a new Intervention. It will perpetuate the torment of our powerlessness. It denies our basic freedom to control our lives. It locks the many of us who live below the poverty line out of the cash economy and undermines our small businesses that rely on cash payments.”

“The millions of dollars supporting the transition of NT communities into a CDC “trial site”. would be better invested in holistic wrap around services helping our people to overcome drug and alcohol dependence and trauma. They and their families deserve support, not punishment.

“To the government this is just a law change, but to us it is about our everyday lives becoming even more of a struggle. We are sick of governments doing things to us, rather than with us.”

Mr Paterson concluded, “This bill disregards our views and lived experience and fundamentally undermines the collaborative spirit of the next phase of Closing the Gap. It symbolises why so many policies have failed our people and why things aren’t getting better in our communities.”

“We call on every MP to oppose this bill.”

Aboriginal organisations in the Northern Territory have expressed deep concerns that the Federal Government plans to rush through a bill to impose a new form of compulsory income management in the NT despite months of advocacy from Aboriginal Peak Organisation NT (APONT) on the need for greater discussion and consultation on the ground.

“The bill would significantly alter the controversial income management that is already in place in the Northern Territory and put it in place indefinitely, yet communities are largely unaware of the proposed changes. Parliament must refer the bill to a Senate inquiry at the very least,” Aboriginal Medical Services Alliance NT (AMSANT) CEO John Paterson said.

“This feels like the Howard era Intervention all over again. The last time the government intervened in the NT, and did things to us instead of with us, it failed at great cost to families and communities,” Mr Paterson said.

“This directly opposes recent commitments by the Federal Government and COAG to work with us in partnership on Closing the Gap. Aboriginal people in the NT will be most affected by this new form of top-down control and deserve the chance to give evidence. Without due consideration this proposal makes a mockery of government rhetoric around Aboriginal controlled decision making,” he said.

The Director of the Arnhem Land Progress Association (ALPA), Keith Lapulung, said “This legislation will be dropped into our communities from outside with no consultation and no understanding. It will take away peoples’ choice and control, their rights and self-determination.”

“It will add to the negative effects of the Intervention in our communities, not only taking away peoples control over their lives but by making it harder for small Indigenous businesses who may not be able to accept the card to survive,” Mr Lapulung said.

“We don’t want this to come to our communities and take away peoples’ dreams of running their own small business,” Micky Wunungmurra, ALPA’s deputy chair and the Traditional Credit Union’s chair added.

The Australian National Audit Office has described the Cashless Debit Card evaluation the Federal Government keeps quoting as “inadequate”. The card has also been criticised by the parliament’s expert committee on human rights and a robust evaluation of four years of compulsory income management in the NT was equally damning.

Contact: John Paterson (CEO AMSANT): 0418 904 727 | Liam Flanagan: Manager Community Services ALPA: 0417 355 036