Financial crisis hits poor hardest: ACOSS

The Australian Council of Social Services (ACOSS) says the global financial crisis is set to make things worse for the millions of Australians on or below the poverty line.

The global economic situation was a major talking point at the ACOSS annual general meeting yesterday.

ACOSS president Lin Hatfield Dodds says she is urging the Federal Government to use its surplus to increase spending on welfare groups and services.

"If we can't do it now then when?" she asked.

"If we're seriously looking at an economic downturn - and that looks increasingly likely - then the earlier we act the sooner we are going to ameliorate the effects of that downturn."

Children needing protection 'has tripled'

The biggest increase in the number of notifications was in NSW.

New research shows state governments have failed to put in place appropriate child protection measures despite a sharp rise in the number of children needing protection from violent and sexual abuse in the last 10 years.

A report from the Australian Law Reform Commission (ALRC) has found that since 1997, the number of children needing protection - mostly from violent and drug-addicted parents - [alcoholics?] - has more than tripled nationally to more than 300,000.

[Unless deemed a drug? Why was alcohol left of the above list? And woudn't they be mostly from violent drunks? Seen as how drugs are illegal?]

While this was based on both substantiated and 'unsubstantiated' child-protection notifications, the number of substantiated notifications also increased dramatically - almost doubling from 29,833 to 58,563.

The biggest increase in the number of notifications (substantiated and unsubstantiated) was in New South Wales, where the figure in 1995-96 was 28,930 and the corresponding figure in 2006-07 was 189,928.

One of the report author's, James McDougall, says little has been done to prevent children suffering at the hands of abusive and violent parents.

"There's been a hell of a lot of concerns around prosecutions and notifications, but in terms of good public policy development it's become fairly clear to us that what we've missed out on doing is that ensuring children are actually protected in that process," he said.

He says it shows a lack of appropriate early intervention polices.

The report also calls for more support programs for parents with drug or alcohol problems, as well as mental health assistance for children.

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Child removal rate similar to Stolen Generations
A Queensland Government report shows Aboriginal children are being removed from their families at a rate similar to the Stolen Generations of the 1920s.

Parents lack life skills, means, time: Stanley
ONE in five Australian parents are poor caregivers because they don't have the means or life skills, child health expert Professor Fiona Stanley says.

Mental illness more prevalent among youth
A new report on children's health shows that young people's mental health may not be improving, as was previously thought.

Taking the scalpel to DOCS
Overloaded on one front, the state's child protection agency fails all. When the body of a boy was found in a suitcase last year, and a girl was later found starved to death, the State Government could no longer ignore the calls for a major inquiry into the state's child protection system.

Formal sorry to child abuse victims
The Mullighan Inquiry recently exposed hundreds of cases of abuse, some dating back to the 1960s. Commissioner Ted Mullighan called it a foul undercurrent of abuse in SA institutions.

Principals agree: cut out social subjects
"The curriculum is far too crowded and we know from our research that not all schools can do what is being asked of them," she said. "The social responsibilities being placed on primary schools are ever increasing, taking time and resources away from our core business."

Qld has highest homeless rate in Australia

The figures show more than 26,000 people were living on the streets in Qld in 2006.

The latest Australian Bureau of Statistics (ABS) figures show Queensland has the highest homeless population in Australia.

The figures show more than 26,000 people were living on the streets in Queensland in 2006.

Mission Australia spokesman Tony Stevenson says thousands more are homeless now.

The ABS report shows 105,000 Australians were homeless on Census night in 2006.

He says rapid urban sprawl has reduced the amount of affordable housing across the state.

Caravan parks were one source of affordable housing for many people and that is now not available.

Mr Stevenson says increasing rent prices in mining towns like Mackay and Mount Isa are also forcing people out of their homes.

"There are lots of rural and regional towns that have now become absolutely unaffordable to people who have traditionally lived in those communities," he said.

The report shows the Queensland's homeless population rose by 2,000 in five years and that more than half of Australia's homeless are under 24 years of age.

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More homeless seeking help: report
A new report shows there has been a substantial increase in the number of homeless Australians seeking government help.

School attendance and welfare: Amnesty

School attendance and welfare: another blow to human rights

Last week, the Australian Government introduced legislation linking school attendance with welfare payments. Under the new legislation, if children don’t go to school regularly, their principal carer could have their welfare payments stopped for up to three months. The 3-year trial will begin at the start of the ‘09 school year in six Aboriginal communities in the Northern Territory.

The way that the policy is being implemented specifically targets Indigenous people without seeking to adequately address the underlying causes of Indigenous disadvantage.

Successive Australian Governments have failed to meet their international human rights obligations to Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples and consequently, Aboriginal Australians are denied rights to the highest attainable standard of health, adequate housing, an adequate standard of living and freedom from discrimination. These failures contribute to Aboriginal children's lower levels of engagement with the education system and are not adequately acknowledged by the governments new policy.

As such, it's questionable whether the policy will actually work. This model has been tried before, notably in Cape York, in parts of WA and through the NT Intervention. The evidence shows that quarantining welfare will have little effect on whether children go to school.

An issues paper by the Australian Education Union shows that the programs that work combined sanctions with case management, supportive services and positive financial incentives. Even those programs showed limited success and this was attributed to the case management, not the welfare quarantining.

Not only that, but evaluations of the trials found that illness rather than truancy was the major cause of absence rather than truancy, and ACOSS cites other factors for absence, which include "a lack of basic education and support services in some areas, poor quality education programs, bullying, insecure housing and health problems affecting children and families."

The most appropriate policy response is one that protects all human rights. It must seek to repair the cumulative effects of the history of rights violations, poverty, exclusion and discrimination and emphasise the restoration a sense of empowerment and dignity not just in the punishment of truants but in the sense of community engendered by the school. Only then will children go to and stay in school.

Related:

No school, no cash 'hardline' benefits plan
Withholding welfare payments is unlikely to fix the causes of family dysfunction: Australian Council of Social Service. Families face losing their welfare for three months if their children continually skip school, under legislation to be introduced to Federal Parliament this week.

NT election turnout lowest in 20 yrs
The raw final figures from the Northern Territory election have revealed the lowest level of voter turnout in at least the past two decades.

Indigenous welfare quarantine scheme gets go ahead
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Union calls for $2.9b to fund education shortfall
The Education Union is calling on the Federal Government to provide an extra $2.9 billion in funding for public schools.

Retailers' warning on welfare card shop spies
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Abandon NT intervention: Commissioner
The Northern Territory's Anti-Discrimination Commissioner Tony Fitzgerald says the Federal intervention into remote Aboriginal communities should be abandoned and the legislation underpinning it should be repealed.

Income management extended for NT
Federal Indigenous Affairs Minister Jenny Macklin has announced income management will be extended for up to a year in four Northern Territory Aboriginal communities.

Aborigines want end to NT intervention
Thousands of Aborigines are petitioning to have the Northern Territory intervention abandoned.

No school, no cash 'hardline' benefits plan

Withholding welfare payments is unlikely to fix the causes of family dysfunction: Australian Council of Social Service.

Families face losing their welfare for three months if their children continually skip school, under legislation to be introduced to Federal Parliament this week.

Under the Federal Government's proposed scheme, regular school attendance will become a condition for receiving all welfare except the Family Tax Benefit.

If the legislation is passed a pilot scheme at eight schools will begin next year.

This morning Prime Minister Kevin Rudd said that the Government made no apologies for the hardline approach.

Mr Rudd says his Government's priority is making sure that all children go to school.

"We think this conditionality - that if individual families are in receipt of income support payments the regular attendance at school by their kids is a necessary precondition - is the right way to go," he said.

"We need, in order to compete with the rest of the world, to boost our current school retention rate from 75 per cent to 90 per cent by 2020, [but] we have real problems of school non-attendance in Indigenous communities and also school non-attendance on the part of certain other kids as well.

"You've got to take a hardline approach."

But welfare authorities have criticised the plan.

Australian Council of Social Service president Lin Hatfield Dodds says there are various reasons why students do not go to school.

She says withholding welfare payments is unlikely to fix the causes of family dysfunction.

"[One issue] is chaos in families' lives," she said.

"Is there anybody around in the morning to help the child get to school?

"If there isn't, and if the family for whatever reason is in a high degree of chaos, then it's unlikely that turning off the income tap to a degree for 12 weeks is going to make any difference in that regard."

Ms Hatfield Dodds says there is no evidence that such a plan would help reduce truancy rates.

"As far as we're aware in the community sector there isn't really any evidence either in Australia or from overseas that involuntary income management actually works on any dimension," she said.

"It's difficult to see how it is going to address the causes of the crisis and chaos in family lives that result in this kind of experience for children."

She says the Government should instead make support programs available to more families.

"So if there's an issue with the parenting, let's wrap some parenting support programs around. If there's alcohol, other drugs, violence - if those things are an issue in the family's life in the adult's life - then let's try and go to the core of those issues.

"With all of these programs there is a strong evidence base for and we know they actually work we know they get results.

"The problem is out there in the community, particularly in areas that are locationally disadvantaged, is that those programs are simply not available to people."

Govt to trial welfare cut scheme in NT, WA

The Federal Government has Western Australia and the Northern Territory on board to trial its new program to cut welfare payments to the parents of children who do not go to school.

Parents in the trial areas who receive income support will be required to prove to Centrelink that their children are enrolled and schools will also be asked to provide attendance information.

The Greens have condemned the scheme.

Senator Rachel Siewert says the Greens do not support an approach which is punitive.

"It won't generate the outcomes they say it will," she said.

"What are they going to do about the children that aren't coming from low-income families or families on income support?

"This is about punishment, it's not about an education revolution that the Deputy Prime Minister is talking about."

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NT election turnout lowest in 20 yrs
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Indigenous welfare quarantine scheme gets go ahead
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Retailers' warning on welfare card shop spies
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Abandon NT intervention: Commissioner
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Income management extended for NT
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Aborigines want end to NT intervention
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Boy housed at DOCS office 'last resort'

The New South Wales Department of Community Services (DOCS) has confirmed a violent nine-year-old boy spent four nights sleeping at its Wollongong office because of a lack of suitable accommodation.

DOCS says the boy was placed in its care just over a week ago because his mother could no longer manage his outbursts.

The department initially paid for him to stay in a motel, under the supervision of a caseworker, but he lashed out, damaging property, and the manager demanded he leave.

He was taken to DOCS' Wollongong office last Saturday where he spent four nights.

The executive director of Operational Support for DOCS, Helen Freeland, says the decision was a last resort.

"This is exceptional circumstances and it really was a decision taken only because there were no other placement options available at the time," she said.

"While we think this is very, very undesirable and exceptionally rare, it was the only option available to our caseworkers at the time."

Ms Freeland says the situation has since been resolved.

"The good news is that the boy is now safe with a foster carer, and DOCS is looking at strategies to make sure the situation doesn't happen again," she said.

Related:

Taking the scalpel to DOCS
"People assume because a child is in the child protection system he or she is getting help, but usually they don't get anything, and certainly not the intensive family support they need," says Jane Woodruff, chief executive of Burnside, a non-government child welfare agency.

Greens to amend Stolen Gen comp bill

The Australian Greens' spokeswoman for Indigenous issues says the party will be amending and re-introducing a Stolen Generations compensation bill to the Senate before the end of the year.

Senator Rachel Siewert says the previous bill, introduced by former Democrat senator Andrew Bartlett, included a cap on the amount of reparations awarded, which the Greens Party has scrapped from the amendment.

Earlier this year a Senate committee called for the Federal Government to set up a National Indigenous Healing Fund to provide services for the Stolen Generations.

Ms Siewert says there is room for both a healing fund and compensation.

"We think that there needs to be financial reparations," she said.

"That's what the Bringing Them Home report said and that's what we will be continuing to support, or re-introduce into the Senate, in an amended bill that provides for financial compensation to the Stolen Generations.

"The different states have various packages available for some forms of compensation but it is very limited and there is a great deal of criticism around it.

"There needs to be an approach by the Commonwealth and very definitely, obviously, the Northern Territory needs to be specifically dealt with by the Commonwealth."

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Aborigines want end to NT intervention
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Govt moves to take native title claims out of the courts
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New NT laws: 'more Aboriginal people jailed'
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NAIDOC week to focus on Indigenous inequalities
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Racism to blame' for Aboriginal health problems
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Police cannot cope with backlash
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Discrimination Act should apply to intervention: Calma
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Porn ban in Indigenous communities 'racist'
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Retailers' warning on welfare card shop spies
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Aboriginal inmates '22pc and rising' of prison population
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Older homeless people 'slipping under the radar'

One of the nation's largest providers of homeless services says official statistics underestimate the number of older homeless people.

The latest figures on homelessness from the Australian Institute of Health and Welfare suggest around 11,000 homeless people - about 10 per cent of the total - are aged 50 or over.

But the welfare agency Mission Australia believes the figure is much higher than that.

Mission Australia's spokeswoman Leonie Green says many in this group are slipping under the radar because they tend not to access services in the same way younger homeless people do.

"So they'll remain, as a demographic, unserviced, and certainly in the community where we want to support our most vulnerable people, that's not going to happen," she said.

Ms Green has called on the Federal Government to address the problem in its white paper on homelessness due out next month.

She says as the population ages and accommodation pressures increase, the lack of services will become even more apparent.

"So now is really the time that we need to identify that we have an issue and identify how all of the different governments can work together and to fill that gap that fill these people's specific needs," she said.

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More homeless seeking help: report
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Housing rents surge in Sydney
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Funding fall 'locks workers out of housing'
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Renters must pay for their own evictions
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NSW feels the deepest jobs cut
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Welfare services under strain: survey
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Report warns new wave of homelessness
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When pain persists, they arrive
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'No warning' about Beechwood collapse
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Housing crisis is real: industry
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Fee too much for Block project
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Constitutional recognition for Arnhem Land

An Indigenous leader has asked Mr Rudd to recognise the rights of the people of Arnhem Land and has also called for full control of the land and waters.

One group of elders presented him with a petition setting out complaints about the Northern Territory intervention and calling for it to be covered by the Racial Discrimination Act.

Another leader, the former Australian of the year, Galarrwuy Yunupingu, has presented Mr Rudd with a metre-long petition asking for constitutional recognition for the clans of Arnhem Land.

It also says they should have full economic independence to use the land and waters of the area.

It says the rights are self-evident and fundamental.

Mr Rudd has given no guarantees about the document but says he will seek consultation on it.

Little improvement in Indigenous housing: ABS

The Australian Bureau of Statistics (ABS) has released a social trends report that shows there was little improvement in housing conditions in remote Indigenous communities between 2001 and 2006.

The social trends report into housing and services in remote Aboriginal communities across Australia has compared 2001 and 2006 census data.

Over the five-year period there was an increase in the number of community-owned houses in remote communities needing repair or replacement.

The statistics also show that about a third of Indigenous households in remote communities are still overcrowded and need one or more extra bedrooms to accommodate the people living there.

In 2006 there were 3,400 people in remote communities who had no permanent address and were living in temporary accommodation such as sheds or humpies.

The report does identify measurable improvements in water and electricity supplies and sewerage disposal services.

More than 50 per cent of the Indigenous people included in the study lived in the Northern Territory.

Related:

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Porn ban in Indigenous communities 'racist'
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Income management extended for NT

Federal Indigenous Affairs Minister Jenny Macklin has announced income management will be extended for up to a year in four Northern Territory Aboriginal communities.

Ms Macklin is visiting the Central Australian community of Finke to make the announcement yesterday.

The four communities of Mutitjulu, Finke, Titjikala and Imanpa were the first to be placed on income management under the Federal intervention last year.

Ms Macklin says the announcement means about 400 welfare recipients will continue to have half of their payments quarantined for spending on basics such as food.

Ms Macklin says there is strong evidence income management is an effective measure.

"At the moment we don't have all the evidence in yet but there is evidence that there has been an improvement particularly in the consumption of fresh food," she said.

"So we want to make sure we get plenty of evidence about the impact of income management and we also want to treat people fairly across the different communities."

Related:

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NAIDOC week to focus on Indigenous inequalities
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The Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Social Justice Commissioner wants the Racial Discrimination Act immediately reinstated in the Northern Territory's Indigenous communities.

Union urges PM to act on Stolen Generations promise
The Australian Education Union (AEU) wants the Federal Government to follow Prime Minister Kevin Rudd's apology to the Stolen Generations with a significant funding boost for Indigenous education in the Northern Territory.

Aboriginal inmates '22pc and rising' of prison population
The Cooperative Research Centre for Aboriginal Health says new research is urgently needed to address the worsening rate of Indigenous incarceration.

More time urged for abused ward compo

Hundreds of Tasmanians have already been compensated for the cruelty, violence and neglect they suffered while in state care.

Tasmanian Premier, David Bartlett is being urged to extend the deadline for people who were abused as wards of the state in Tasmania to apply for compensation.

Hundreds of Tasmanians have already been compensated for the cruelty, violence and neglect they suffered while in state care.

But after complaints from people who missed out on the first scheme, the Government opened a new and final round, with three months to apply and $10 million on offer.

The Government says at the beginning of May, 390 people had applied for redress.

Leonie Sheedy, from the support network CLAN, says the June 30 deadline should be extended, or others will miss out.

"We're going to be faced with the same situation all over again, in six months time," she said.

"I'd like to ask the Premier of Tasmania to extend the deadline for people to put in their applications, because the Queensland Government have extended their redress scheme."

Ms Sheedy says she is still hearing from people who have only just heard of the compensation scheme.

Related:

Formal sorry to child abuse victims
Hundreds of people who were abused as children while in state care will get a formal apology from the South Australian Parliament today.

SA commits $190m to counter child abuse
Former Supreme Court justice Ted Mullighan released the results of his three-year inquiry into the abuse of children in state care on April 1, revealing abuse occurred in every type of care from the 1940s onward.

Child abuse compo must be fairer: lawyer
The recent Mullighan inquiry investigated cases of abuse among former state wards and made a range of recommendations to the SA Government.

Compensation for SA sex abuse victims
The South Australian Government says it will focus on compensation for victims, now that the inquiry into the sexual abuse of children in state care is complete.

Tas lags in support youth leaving state care

A new report has revealed Tasmania could be doing more to provide resources and support for young people leaving state care.

The Create Foundation report shows Tasmania has few transition services and the lowest budget for people leaving care.

It focuses on young people who have reached the age of 18 and left care , or those younger who have already made independent living arrangements.

It found when people leave the state care system without support, they are more likely to enter the Juvenile Justice System.

Jacqui Reed from Create, says young people moving from state care are vulnerable and the government is responsible for ensuring they are supported.

The Tasmanian Government allocates just over $1,500 to help each young person move from state care, when on average, all other states pay more than $5,000 per person.

In most states, assistance is provided until the person turns 25, but in Tasmania it stops at age 21.

Retailers' warning on welfare card shop spies

EMPLOYEES across the country will be at risk of entrapment by government "spies", retailers have warned, under a Federal Government proposal to control fraudulent use of a new welfare debit card.

Cardholders will have about half their benefits quarantined under the scheme, in which money credited to the Eftpos-style card can only be spent at approved retailers on essential items such as food, clothing and petrol.

The scheme will be introduced into indigenous communities in the Northern Territory next month before being extended nationally.

The Australian Retailers Association has objected to the way the scheme will be monitored, describing as sinister and absurd the proposal by the Human Services Minister, Joe Ludwig, to use random audits and "secret shoppers" to ensure the cards are not being used fraudulently.

The association's executive director, Richard Evans, said although the retail sector had used secret or shadow shoppers for years, the practice was about improving customer service and not about spying on employees.

"They will be sending government spies in to create fraud," Mr Evans said, referring to Senator Ludwig's suggestion that Centrelink inspectors would pose as social security clients and attempt to buy excluded items such as alcohol and tobacco with the card.

Mr Evans said teenaged employees were particularly vulnerable, as they would not feel they had enough authority to tell someone much older or intimidating what they could or could not buy with their card.

"If they succumb, then the retailer and their employee will be penalised by the Government for applying its own program … it's just stupid."

But Senator Ludwig said the debit card was being introduced because "local businesses were crying out for a better system … they felt the existing system had left them out of the game".

The system would also allow recipients to choose from a wider range of shops than the current income management system operating in the Northern Territory under the previous government's intervention policy, where credit for welfare recipients was deposited directly to a limited number of shops.

Senator Ludwig said the Government was committed to compliance because the purpose of income management was to ensure welfare payments were spent in the interests of children.

"The Government is considering a range of practical ideas to help the system work effectively on the ground," he said. "No decision has been made on this issue."

The Australian Council of Social Service has already signalled its opposition to the card, saying the quarantining of benefits will keep disadvantaged families in a rut and not allow them to move out of their crisis.

The Opposition's spokesman for families, Tony Abbott, has said the card will become an administrative nightmare.

Related:

Budget to roll out new welfare card
Welfare plan: The new card will be initially rolled out in NT Indigenous communities. The Australian Council of Social Service (ACOSS) says the Rudd Government's proposed welfare debit card is not the best way to help struggling families.

Community urged to end homelessness stigma

A conference will be urged to seek ways to end the stigma of homelessness.

A conference in Adelaide is considering ways to prevent and respond to homelessness.

Simon Smith, from Homelessness Australia, says the issue affects many people at various stages of their lives.

Mr Smith says a housing affordability crisis has contributed to homelessness.

"The lack of affordable rental accommodation makes it hard for people to get out of homelessness because there just aren't enough affordable housing options for people to move into," he said.

"What we're also starting to see is an emerging group of people who are being placed at risk of homelessness because of high rents in the private rental market or people defaulting on mortgages.

"To really respond to homelessness we need to do three things - we need to work with people to prevent them from becoming homeless in the first place, we need to improve services for people when they are homeless and we need to give them pathways out of homelessness and a big part of that is to create more affordable housing options."

Jo Wickes from Homelessness SA says there is a need to remove the stigma of being without accommodation.

"We need as a state and a community here in South Australia to stop blaming and stigmatising people who are homeless," she said.

"Any one of us could be homeless if the circumstances turned for us at any time and we need to recognise that."

Updated: 9:32 am (AEST)


More accommodation for the homeless and those on low incomes will be provided at Port Augusta and Port Adelaide.

More low-cost housing for SA

A joint federal and state plan will make 80 apartments available for low-income earners and the homeless in South Australia.

SA Premier Mike Rann has met former state thinker-in-residence Rosanne Haggerty in Washington to discuss low-cost housing projects for Port Augusta and Port Adelaide.

Ms Haggerty was behind the model for low-cost apartments that opened in central Adelaide last year.

Mr Rann says Port Augusta will get 40 similar apartments, with on-site support services, as will Port Adelaide.

"It's about providing a home rather than a temporary shelter," Mr Rann said.

Ms Haggerty is pleased about the efforts to tackle housing problems in SA.

"It's very logical that once people have some fundamental stability in their lives they're in a position to become contributors to the community," she said.

The SA Government will contribute $2.8 million from next month's Budget for the project.

Updated: 7:55 pm (AEST)



Domestic violence victims homeless

An investigation has found that the public housing shortage is forcing women in relationships involving severe domestic violence to wait as long as two years for permanent accommodation.

The South Australian Women's Housing Association has more than 500 women and their children on a public housing waiting list.

Last month the Domestic Violence Crisis Centre received 196 calls from women in need of emergency accommodation.

With Adelaide's women's shelters at capacity, more than 160 of them could not be offered a place.

Gilian Cordell from the Crisis Service says the situation is critical.

"We don't know where to advise clients now, we've got to a point where we feel desperate," she said.

Housing SA provides financial assistance for up to six nights emergency hotel accommodation, but domestic violence services say after that many women are being left with nowhere to go.

The State Government says it is trialing a family safety program to ensure adequate services for people in domestic violence are being provided.

Govt to crack down on welfare fraud

The Federal Government is expanding its ability to crack down on welfare fraud.

The Government is providing $138 million for a new computer system to widen a program allowing the four major banks - Commonwealth, NAB, Westpac and ANZ - to provide Centrelink with information about suspected welfare cheats.

It follows a trial period with Commonwealth Bank and the money for the data-matching program was included in this week's Federal Budget.

Federal Human Services Minister Joe Ludwig says the changes should save taxpayers an estimated $600 million over four years.

He says privacy concerns have been addressed.

"Civil liberties are not eroded by this. There is a balance struck between ensuring that welfare fraud is addressed appropriately and ensuring that privacy is protected and that balance is there," he said.

"Centrelink does follow the strict Privacy Commissioner guidelines."

But the Federal Opposition says the Government has gone too far in its plans to scrutinise the bank accounts of some welfare recipients.

Opposition Leader Brendan Nelson says the Government is seeking 'big brother' type powers.

"Every person in the country is entitled to at least a minimum level of privacy," he said.

"It doesn't matter whether you're struggling and on Centrelink payments, or whether you're an everyday person out there doing a job."

Opposition human services spokeswoman Helen Coonan says she wants more detail on the plan.

Ms Coonan says the Coalition's access card, which the Government has scrapped, would have done the same thing.

"I think there's a very serious concern about how it is done, but the Labor Government is really playing catchup with the Coalition, which was well down the track of introducing an access card where all of these concerns had been very much addressed," she said.

'Rubbery fingers'

Meanwhile, civil libertarians have attacked the crack down as an attack on privacy.

Australian Council for Civil Liberties president Terry O'Gorman says the Government is using rubbery figures to justify an attack on people's rights.

"We hear year after year, more and more dollars are being brought in as a result of welfare fraud in court cases," he said.

"The Government doesn't need these powers. The money that's being thrown around, that supposedly will be saved, are the same sort of wild, plucked out of the air figures that we heard in relation to the access card that was ditched 12 months ago."

Budget to roll out new welfare card

Welfare plan: The new card will be initially rolled out in NT Indigenous communities. The Australian Council of Social Service (ACOSS) says the Rudd Government's proposed welfare debit card is not the best way to help struggling families.

The Federal Government will use next week's Budget to unveil a new welfare card to make sure parents spend the payments on their children.

The debit card will contain a portion of a family's welfare payment which can only be spent on necessities like food and clothing.

Federal Indigenous Affairs Minister Jenny Macklin says the card will be issued from July in certain Northern Territory Aboriginal communities but could eventually be used in all states and territories.

Intervention store card scrapped

The Federal Government has announced a change in how welfare quarantined from people living in some Northern Territory Aboriginal communities is accessed.

Centrelink payments put aside for essential items will now be accessed via a PIN-protected EFTPOS debit card, rather than the store card that was introduced as part of the emergency intervention.

The store card has been criticised for using a complicated accounting process and being limited to larger chain stores.

The Government says purchases will still be limited to essentials like food and clothes. The debit card be rolled out from July.

ACOSS rejects welfare card scheme

The Australian Council of Social Service (ACOSS) says the Rudd Government's proposed welfare debit card is not the best way to help struggling families.

ACOSS President Lyn Hatfield Dodds says the card will not work.

"ACOSS doesn't believe that quarantining payments is the best way forward," she said.

"We would prefer to see Government investing in the supports and services that families need.

"Quarantining at best will keep those families in a holding pattern, but it will not build their capacity or capability to make different choices and move out of crisis."

The Australian Council of Social Service says Rudd Government's proposed welfare debit card is not the best way to help struggling families.

Quote: These laws are draconian and as usual the Federal Government has based its decision on the worst of the worst cases found in the NT with the intention to use the Aboriginal Community who have been disenfranchised for over 200 years to eventually open the same umbrella and broaden these draconian laws for use on all Australian welfare recipients. Shame on the Federal Government. All Australians should argue against laws like these that take away their autonomy to make choices and learn from their mistakes.


Dr Sue Gordon head of the federal intervention in the Northern Territory

Work-for-dole 'will not help'

THE head of the federal intervention in the Northern Territory has attacked the Rudd Government for moving to reinstate the Aboriginal work-for-the-dole program in 30 communities, claiming many will reject the scheme.

Sue Gordon said the move would not help the intervention's aims and was a retrograde step.

The Howard government abolished the Community Development Employment Project scheme when it announced the emergency intervention in 73 communities last June, but the Rudd Government halted the process after it was elected and instead promised to modify the CDEP scheme.

Indigenous Affairs Minister Jenny Macklin has said she wants to consult communities before imposing a new version of CDEP on them. Until that time, she says all communities should be allowed to have access to the same regime.

"The previous government's rushed decision to abolish CDEP in the NT means former CDEP recipients are eligible to receive up to $790 a fortnight without any requirement to work," Ms Macklin said.

"This short-term approach to axing CDEP without an effective alternative has created inequities and inconsistencies, forcing more people on to passive welfare.

"The Government will, as an interim measure, introduce CDEP from July 1, 2008, in the 30 prescribed NT communities where CDEP was abolished to ensure individuals are required to work to receive their pay."

But Dr Gordon said she was "very disappointed".

"The Government says it's to get a level playing field and then they'll review it and reform it. But there are communities who just don't want it back," she said.

"I'm told they won't be forced to have it back so those are the people that are just moving on with things.

"I want to get people off those second-class wages to get into real jobs. To put it back now is disappointing."

Dr Gordon said she was alarmed because there were some CDEP organisations excited about the scheme returning as it would allow them to relaunch businesses.

She said it was outrageous that the communities were relying on CDEP to help them run private businesses.

"It's not a business, is it, if it's run by CDEP, people are being paid CDEP money. You can't have CDEP propping up businesses. Businesses should be making money."

Dr Gordon said indigenous people had been languishing on CDEP since 1979. "That's just disastrous (and) we've got to get rid of it," she said.

"It really hasn't served our people well."

Dr Gordon has made some suggestions about how CDEP could be reformed, including creating a rule that no one can stay on the scheme for more than 12 months.

Related:

Union urges PM to act on Stolen Generations promise
The Australian Education Union (AEU) wants the Federal Government to follow Prime Minister Kevin Rudd's apology to the Stolen Generations with a significant funding boost for Indigenous education in the Northern Territory.

Racism to blame' for Aboriginal health problems
The Australians for Native Title and Reconciliation (ANTAR) group says racism is directly to blame for many health problems in the Aboriginal community.

Union calls for $2.9b to fund education shortfall
The Education Union is calling on the Federal Government to provide an extra $2.9 billion in funding for public schools

Govt, union defend remote community schooling
The Centre for Independent Studies says Aboriginal students in the Northern Territory are finishing school with the numeracy and literacy skills of five-year-olds.

Police cannot cope with backlash
Chief Minister, Paul Henderson, has warned the Federal Government that many indigenous people displaced by the emergency intervention are creating unrest and straining police capacity.

2020 Indigenous youth delegate calls for national body
An Indigenous youth representative at this weekend's 2020 summit says a new national Aboriginal body should be created to avoid some of the add-hoc policies surrounding the federal intervention.

Call for new indigenous body
Former ATSIC Commissioner Klynton Wanganeen says he will raise the idea of a new national body to represent indigenous communities at the 2020 Summit.

Aboriginal delegation heads to UN
The National Aboriginal Alliance is taking its concerns about the Northern Territory intervention to the United Nations

Roxon signs off on Indigenous health pledges
Indigenous Australians will have access to the same health services as the rest of the population by 2018, under a Federal Government plan.

Indigenous welfare quarantine scheme gets go ahead
Parents in four Cape York Indigenous communities could soon have their welfare payments quarantined if they do not take care of their children and homes and do not stay out of trouble with the law.

Discrimination Act should apply to intervention: Calma
The Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Social Justice Commissioner wants the Racial Discrimination Act immediately reinstated in the Northern Territory's Indigenous communities.

Aboriginal inmates '22pc and rising' of prison population
The Cooperative Research Centre for Aboriginal Health says new research is urgently needed to address the worsening rate of Indigenous incarceration.

Report calls for Welfare to Work policy overhaul

A new report into welfare to work is calling on the Federal Government to make urgent changes to the policy in the May Budget.

The report was funded by the New South Wales Department for Women and looks at 70 single parent mothers and how they coped with the introduction of the policy in 2006 and 2007.

It found women were being forced to leave their careers and move into low-paid, unskilled work to meet the policy's requirement of working 15 hours a week, or having welfare payments cut off.

One of the report's author's, Eva Cox, says the Federal Government needs to make core changes to the system.

"I think what we should be looking at is not a 'one size fits all', not a rigidity - about 15 hours - but looking at people who can earn a reasonable amount of money in the time they're working, regardless of whether that's 10 hours or 15, or even eight in some cases," she said.

Social service providers 'need to multi-task'

The Australian Council of Social Service (ACOSS) says efforts to improve social inclusion in Australia need to address problems in housing, employment, health and education at the same time.

The ACOSS national conference begins in Melbourne today - and will be addressed by Acting Prime Minister Julia Gillard tomorrow.

ACOSS has released results of a survey it commissioned, which show 84 per cent of Australians believe the gap between rich and poor is growing.

Executive director of ACOSS Andrew Johnson says the conference will be focusing on how to close that gap.

"What are the policies and practices and programs we need to ensure that every Australian does have access to a decent standard of living," he said.

"What we know from this poll and many previous polls is that every Australian deserves and should have access to a fair go, and that's supported by a vast majority of the population."

Indigenous welfare quarantine scheme gets go ahead

Parents in four Cape York Indigenous communities could soon have their welfare payments quarantined if they do not take care of their children and homes and do not stay out of trouble with the law.

As of July, the new Family Responsibility Commission will have powers to manage welfare payments in Aurukun, Coen, Hope Vale and Mossman Gorge.

Queensland Premier Anna Bligh says it will be a difficult time for some residents and the trial won't be an overnight success.

"In light of past policy failures we simply have to try something different," she said.

The Opposition voted in favour of the bill, but leader Lawrence Springborg says it is just one step in the right direction.

"One step doesn't get us very far," he said.

Ms Bligh says the radical new approach to welfare has been led by the communities themselves.

"It is not the work of Mal Brough or Brendan Nelson or Anna Bligh or Peter Beattie," she said.

"It is the intellectual hard yards done by the likes of Noel Pearson, by the people who worked on his team and by the leadership of the communities of Aurukun, Coen, Mosman Gorge and Hopevale that deserve credit."

Meanwhile, the working party Ms Bligh set up to discuss a referendum on fixed four-year parliamentary terms will meet for the first time today but the Opposition still wants certain conditions met before it will agree to a poll.

Related:

Seminar: Indigenous Sentencing Courts and Partner Violence

Presenter: Dr. Elena Marchetti is a Senior Lecturer in the Griffith Law School, Griffith University (formerly, she was a law lecturer in the School of Criminology and Criminal Justice, Griffith University). During a 6-month period in 2005-06, she was Acting Director of the Centre for Credit and Consumer Law, Griffith University. Elena has been conducting research on race, whiteness and Indigenous justice issues since 1999. She has been researching the Indigenous sentencing courts since 2001. She completed her PhD in 2005 on ‘Missing Subjects: Women and Gender in the Royal Commission into Aboriginal Deaths in Custody’.

Abstract: There has been growing concern regarding the increasing violence against women and children in Indigenous communities. It is important to find good practice guidelines to address family violence but unfortunately there has been little evaluation of the anti-violence programs that have been established by Indigenous people within their communities. The inclusion of Elders in the Magistrates’ Court system is an initiative which has been, in some court sites, instigated by the Indigenous community. At other court sites, the Magistrate and government departments have established the courts with the community’s involvement. In this presentation I will firstly describe what feminist and critical race scholars have said about using alternative justice forums to deal with domestic violence offences. Secondly, I will give a brief description of the Indigenous sentencing courts in Australia. Thirdly, I will talk a little bit about some of my findings from preliminary research I have been conducting (with funding from Griffith University). I have collected data from interviews with Magistrates, Elders, court workers and domestic violence support workers to investigate whether the processes of the Indigenous sentencing courts are suitable for dealing with the sentencing of domestic violence offenders and whether they address the concerns raised by feminist and critical race scholars. Finally, I will briefly outline the research proposed in an ARC Discovery grant application which I have recently submitted with Professor Kathleen Daly and Dr Jackie Huggins.

School of Justice Seminar Series
School of Justice, Queensland University of Technology
Gardens Point Campus
X Block, Level 5 Conference Room

1pm, Friday, 14th March 2008

RSVP to Georgina Vidgen g.vidgen@qut.edu.au by 13th March 2008

Premier outlines a caring state

The Premier, Paul Lennon has committed to halving the number of homeless people in Tasmania by the end of 2010, as well as tackling child abuse and social disadvantage.

Mr Lennon told Parliament the Government will fight poverty, mental illness and family breakdown with a Social Inclusion Unit.

A former director of the Catholic Social Welfare Commission will work with the unit, which will be in the department of Premier and Cabinet.

The Tasmanian Council of Social Service has welcomed the move, with the chief executive, Tom Muller saying the unit needs a clear focus.

"From our perspective a social inclusion unit has got to be driving a government agenda to tackle poverty and disadvantage," he said.

The Premier also appointed a housing expert to advise the Government on how to reduce homelessness.

Roseanne Haggerty founded the not for profit housing organisation Common Ground Community in New York, and has also worked to combat homelessness in Adelaide.

Mr Lennon says his first objective will target emergency housing and people who have no home.

The Government recently added $60 million to its public housing fund.

Anglicare's chief executive, Chris Jones, wants an urgent start on halving the number of homeless Tasmanians.

"We need that to happen quickly," he said.

"We need initiatives that will lead to keys to people's homes soon."

Mr Lennon also announced a commitment to reducing the number of children on care and protection orders, as well as increasing literacy and numeracy levels.