Dissenting Report by Australian Greens
NTER Income Management Appeals
The amendments proposed in Schedule 2 of the Bill will
provide no real benefit for the people subject to blanket income quarantining
in the Northern Territory and (as pointed out by the Commonwealth Ombudsman,
the Law Council of Australia, the National Welfare Rights Network and the
Northern Australian Aboriginal Justice Agency) implemented in isolation these
changes are essentially meaningless. To be truly effective the amendments need
to be introduced with the range of other amendments recommended by the NTER
Review Board, including repealing compulsory income quarantining. We also note
evidence from Senate Estimates indicating that Aboriginal people as a whole
have very low rates of use of the Social Security Appeals Tribunal, despite
having very high per capita rates of breaching under the ongoing Welfare to
Work provisions.
While we note that the Minister for Indigenous Affairs,
Jenny Macklin, promised last year to introduce a compulsory income management
policy which does not require suspension of the RDA, we remain concerned that
the Government has yet to indicate the form such legislation could take, and
the necessary consultation with affected Aboriginal communities has yet to
commence.
The Australian Greens remain unconvinced that legislation
that supports blanket quarantining of selected Aboriginal communities that
still complies with the RDA (as well as our international commitments to the
Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Racial Discrimination (CERD) and
more recently to the UN Declaration of the Rights of Indigenous Peoples) is
possible.
We believe that the Government should therefore move
immediately to revoke the suspension of the Racial Discrimination Act and the
Northern Territory Anti-Discrimination Act.
Community Development Employment Projects (CDEP)
The Australian Greens are deeply concerned about the
Government's proposed changes to CDEP. We believe they will have adverse
impacts on Aboriginal people and Aboriginal communities, particularly during
the Global Financial Crisis. These measures do not improve the implementation
and effectiveness of CDEP in getting Aboriginal people work ready, building
labour market skills or helping them transition into the workforce. They merely
seek to enable the extension of income quarantining to CDEP workers.
In the absence of effective job creation in affected
communities, placing new CDEP participants on income support does not provide a
stronger 'incentive' to take up work that isn't there – it just makes it much
harder for them to provide for their families. Recasting CDEP as a 'work for
the dole' scheme will inevitably undermine the participation and self-esteem of
the large number of existing CDEP workers who see themselves as employed in
real jobs and making a valuable contribution to their communities. We need to
be raising the bar on work readiness and offering a more structured transition
to the workforce rather than lowering it.
While we welcome the initiatives that have been introduced
to date to replace some existing CDEP jobs with fully funded positions, we note
that abolishing CDEP schemes will mean many more current CDEP participants will
be moving from meaningful work to long-term unemployment than are being
supported into 'real' jobs. At the same time the removal of subsidised CDEP labour
will adversely effect many existing successful Indigenous enterprises in remote
areas where these ventures make significant economic and social contributions
to local communities, but do not yet have sufficient capacity to support
non-subsidised award wages. By shifting participation and compliance issues
from the domain of community based CDEP organisations to Centrelink, there is
also a significant risk that this will both undermine the coherence and
commitment of workers to these organisations and the strategies they currently
employ to encourage active engagement as well as resulting in higher rates of
breaching.
We therefore do not support the amendments proposed in
Schedule 3.
Recommendations
-
That
the Government introduce legislation immediately to revoke compulsory income
quarantining and to restore the application of the Racial Discrimination Act to
the NTER.
-
That
the Government not proceed with their current changes to CDEP and instead
undertake a meaningful evidence-based reform process to improve employment and
work-readiness outcomes.
Senator Rachel Siewert
Australian Greens
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