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Es ist nicht das Ziel von Indymedia ein umfassendes Infoportal mit Kopien möglichst vieler vermeintlich wichtiger und lesenswerter Texte anzubieten. Indymedia will eine Plattform für engagierte MedienmacherInnen und ihre eigenen Inhalte bieten. Die strategische Zweitveröffentlichung von Texten gehört nicht zu den Zielen dieses Projektes.
Bitte lest zu diesem Thema auch die Crossposting FAQ.
Chaos and confusion for Australian Aborigines
Welfare quarantining is creating chaos and confusion for Aborigines in Australia's Northern Territory.
New Matilda
indigenous politics
29 Feb 2008
Rations on the Cards
Post-apology, Prime Minister Kevin Rudd has asked Australians to "embrace the possibility of new solutions to enduring problems where old approaches have failed," asserting that the mistakes of Indigenous policy of the past won't be repeated. His
Government, however, is persisting in the ill thought-out and ideologically driven
Northern Territory Intervention - despite a promise to pursue evidence-based policy.
The NT Intervention is racially discriminatory, which is why the previous government
had to exempt it from the Racial Discrimination Act. It takes away Aboriginal land
and quarantines people's money without cause, forcing them to use 'ration' cards.
Hasn't this approach already failed? Aren't we simply repeating the mistakes of the
past?
The quarantining of income support is particularly hurting Aboriginal communities.
Aboriginal people speak of their deep shame of having this system inflicted on them,
and how this feels like a return to the ration days when their parents and
grandparents got their rations in sugar bags.
It is important that broader Australia understand what impact this quarantining is
having, and questions what it will achieve. Is this really an appropriate approach in
the 21st century?
This policy is indiscriminate. It applies to everyone living in a 'proscribed' community
- irrespective of whether they have kids, or how well they manage their money.
Pensioners, who had worked all their adult lives paying taxes, are now having their
pensions quarantined and some do not now have the money for medicines and taxis
to the clinic. Quarantined money is given out as Store Value Cards and in some
centres as a 'gift' card (or as it is becoming known the 'ration card') for Coles or
Woolworths. People travelling in from remote communities to attend the Centrelink
office in Alice Springs, Darwin or Katherine have been forced to queue all day.
The ration cards have been creating chaos and confusion. People drive in from their
remote community, collect their cards, then return home - only to find they cannot
use the cards at their town store, and have spent all the money they had on petrol.
Community stores and other small businesses (like second-hand shops) are
suffering and shutting down.
To add insult to injury those quarantined are apparently being offered no financial
support, advice or counselling. There is no point in taking away people's ability to
control their own money without then offering them any opportunity to learn and
demonstrate financial management skills. When people get a job or the quarantining
ends they are going to be left with less money skills and are more likely to get
themselves in trouble.
Many people in central Australia were already part of the voluntary Centre Pay
scheme to set aside some of their income for bills and food - which ran successfully
for three decades prior to the Intervention. In fact, there is a wealth of success
stories of community development programs in northern Australia that we can learn
from. A key factor in their success is the way in which they engage with and
empower the community. For many the main problem has been that they were
never properly resourced to address the problems and needs they were targeting, or
were pilot programs whose funding ran out just as they started to really deliver.
While the resources put into the NT Intervention have the potential to turn around
lives on remote communities, more needs to be done to ensure money is spent
wisely on the things that actually make a difference. To date far more money has
been spent on implementing the failing welfare quarantining system than has been
put into the priority areas of child protection, health and education.
The $72 million spent on the poorly targeted quarantining of welfare payments is
clearly wrong headed. By comparison only $7 million has been spent on family-
based programs and $14.9 million on child health.
More of these resources need to be focused on delivering basic health services,
protecting children at risk and on fixing existing houses and building safe new
homes for the future.
Has our Government really resolved to learn from the mistakes of the past, or will
we see another awful chapter written right before our eyes? Will a future prime
minister be moved to offer a national apology to the victims of the Northern Territory
Intervention?
http://www.newmatilda.com/2008/02/29/rations-cards
indigenous politics
29 Feb 2008
Rations on the Cards
Post-apology, Prime Minister Kevin Rudd has asked Australians to "embrace the possibility of new solutions to enduring problems where old approaches have failed," asserting that the mistakes of Indigenous policy of the past won't be repeated. His
Government, however, is persisting in the ill thought-out and ideologically driven
Northern Territory Intervention - despite a promise to pursue evidence-based policy.
The NT Intervention is racially discriminatory, which is why the previous government
had to exempt it from the Racial Discrimination Act. It takes away Aboriginal land
and quarantines people's money without cause, forcing them to use 'ration' cards.
Hasn't this approach already failed? Aren't we simply repeating the mistakes of the
past?
The quarantining of income support is particularly hurting Aboriginal communities.
Aboriginal people speak of their deep shame of having this system inflicted on them,
and how this feels like a return to the ration days when their parents and
grandparents got their rations in sugar bags.
It is important that broader Australia understand what impact this quarantining is
having, and questions what it will achieve. Is this really an appropriate approach in
the 21st century?
This policy is indiscriminate. It applies to everyone living in a 'proscribed' community
- irrespective of whether they have kids, or how well they manage their money.
Pensioners, who had worked all their adult lives paying taxes, are now having their
pensions quarantined and some do not now have the money for medicines and taxis
to the clinic. Quarantined money is given out as Store Value Cards and in some
centres as a 'gift' card (or as it is becoming known the 'ration card') for Coles or
Woolworths. People travelling in from remote communities to attend the Centrelink
office in Alice Springs, Darwin or Katherine have been forced to queue all day.
The ration cards have been creating chaos and confusion. People drive in from their
remote community, collect their cards, then return home - only to find they cannot
use the cards at their town store, and have spent all the money they had on petrol.
Community stores and other small businesses (like second-hand shops) are
suffering and shutting down.
To add insult to injury those quarantined are apparently being offered no financial
support, advice or counselling. There is no point in taking away people's ability to
control their own money without then offering them any opportunity to learn and
demonstrate financial management skills. When people get a job or the quarantining
ends they are going to be left with less money skills and are more likely to get
themselves in trouble.
Many people in central Australia were already part of the voluntary Centre Pay
scheme to set aside some of their income for bills and food - which ran successfully
for three decades prior to the Intervention. In fact, there is a wealth of success
stories of community development programs in northern Australia that we can learn
from. A key factor in their success is the way in which they engage with and
empower the community. For many the main problem has been that they were
never properly resourced to address the problems and needs they were targeting, or
were pilot programs whose funding ran out just as they started to really deliver.
While the resources put into the NT Intervention have the potential to turn around
lives on remote communities, more needs to be done to ensure money is spent
wisely on the things that actually make a difference. To date far more money has
been spent on implementing the failing welfare quarantining system than has been
put into the priority areas of child protection, health and education.
The $72 million spent on the poorly targeted quarantining of welfare payments is
clearly wrong headed. By comparison only $7 million has been spent on family-
based programs and $14.9 million on child health.
More of these resources need to be focused on delivering basic health services,
protecting children at risk and on fixing existing houses and building safe new
homes for the future.
Has our Government really resolved to learn from the mistakes of the past, or will
we see another awful chapter written right before our eyes? Will a future prime
minister be moved to offer a national apology to the victims of the Northern Territory
Intervention?
http://www.newmatilda.com/2008/02/29/rations-cards
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