WELFARE PENALTY FOR 'BAD' PARENTS
Monday, July 02, 2007
By Patricia Karvelas
The Australian
ALL parents - black and white - who waste welfare money on alcohol, drugs or gambling, or do not send their children to school, will lose access to up to 40 per cent of their payments.
Cabinet will tomorrow discuss a plan to force parents across Australia to account for their children during school hours or face Centrelink taking control of their family assistance payments.
Children identified as at risk will be the first to be targeted, with Centrelink intervening to ensure essentials such as rent, food and medical expenses are paid.
It would allow the Government to quarantine 40 per cent of the family payment for 12 months.
The initiative is similar to the project about to be implemented in the Northern Territory as part of the Government's radical measures to tackle child abuse in remote communities.
But there is a key difference. Under the national plan, only "bad" parents will have their payments quarantined, whereas the NT welfare measures will apply to all Aboriginal parents in a targeted community, regardless of their abilities.
The plan relies on Centrelink getting accurate data from stategovernments on school attendance.
The first parents to be targeted will be those already identified by State Child Protection systems where there is a risk to the child but the child remains with their family.
As the Howard Government prepares to send an army of officials into seven communities in the Northern Territory this week, its plan to force white families to be accountable for their children will blunt accusations that its Aboriginal plan is racist.
Six government managers will be sent into Santa Teresa, Mutitjulu, Kintore on the West Australian border, Finke, Titjikala and Imanpa to take control of the intervention after the communities were visited by officials to assess their needs lastweek.
And 10 police will be dispatched to some communities, but not all, because the Government still does not have enough police to go around.
Indigenous Affairs Minister Mal Brough yesterday said police would be given training about NT laws early this week before they were deployed.
He said he would take a proposal to cabinet to fund additional police, conceding that the NT Government could not afford them.
The first officers would be sent to communities in the south of the Territory later in the week.
Communities including Pupunya, Hermannsburg, Mt Liebig, Ikuntji, Areyonga, Kaltukatjara (Docker River) and Amoonguna will see the visiting teams this week for the first time. The Government now says 73 communities will be surveyed overall, with seven to be surveyed this week.
Labor's Indigenous Affairs spokeswoman Jenny Macklin continued the bipartisanship yesterday, but left Labor open to objecting to parts of the plan if it failed a central test.
"The test for Labor will be, 'does this legislation deliver on making children safer?' ... We haven't seen it yet," she said.
Ms Macklin conceded that "Labor governments in the past have not acted as they should have". "The Prime Minster has had many reports that he too has ignored," she said.
"Let's put all of that to one side and recognise that now that action is finally happening, we all need to work to address it."
The plan to force children in indigenous communities to undergo health checks has been altered amid concerns that mandatory examinations could amount to assault.
The Government has also backed away from a claim by the architects of the plan that the aim of the checks was to uncover and treat cases of abuse in the Northern Territory's 22,000 indigenous children.
Mr Brough said the Government would assess whether the 47 officers committed by the Australian Federal Police and the states would be enough.
Asked if the Government might ask for more, Mr Brough said: "We may have to get additional police from somewhere, and that is certainly not something we are closing our mind to."
The Government's plan includes bans on alcohol and pornography, welfare restrictions and health checks for children.
Labor Leader Kevin Rudd announced his own plan to improve conditions in Territory indigenous communities yesterday, pledging $30 million to provide the 200 teachers needed to educate children not already enrolled in school.
Meanwhile, Mr Brough said it was "quite incorrect" to suggest former taskforce member Shane Castles had quit because he thought the Government's plan was not well thought out and was poorly resourced.
Mr Brough said the recently retired AFP assistant commissioner had decided not to lead the task force once he realised its magnitude. "I take responsibility, quite frankly, for him making this decision, because perhaps I didn't explain the magnitude of it," Mr Brough said.
http://www.theaustralian.news.com.au/story/0,20867,22001128-601,00.htm
Monday, July 02, 2007
By Patricia Karvelas
The Australian
ALL parents - black and white - who waste welfare money on alcohol, drugs or gambling, or do not send their children to school, will lose access to up to 40 per cent of their payments.
Cabinet will tomorrow discuss a plan to force parents across Australia to account for their children during school hours or face Centrelink taking control of their family assistance payments.
Children identified as at risk will be the first to be targeted, with Centrelink intervening to ensure essentials such as rent, food and medical expenses are paid.
It would allow the Government to quarantine 40 per cent of the family payment for 12 months.
The initiative is similar to the project about to be implemented in the Northern Territory as part of the Government's radical measures to tackle child abuse in remote communities.
But there is a key difference. Under the national plan, only "bad" parents will have their payments quarantined, whereas the NT welfare measures will apply to all Aboriginal parents in a targeted community, regardless of their abilities.
The plan relies on Centrelink getting accurate data from stategovernments on school attendance.
The first parents to be targeted will be those already identified by State Child Protection systems where there is a risk to the child but the child remains with their family.
As the Howard Government prepares to send an army of officials into seven communities in the Northern Territory this week, its plan to force white families to be accountable for their children will blunt accusations that its Aboriginal plan is racist.
Six government managers will be sent into Santa Teresa, Mutitjulu, Kintore on the West Australian border, Finke, Titjikala and Imanpa to take control of the intervention after the communities were visited by officials to assess their needs lastweek.
And 10 police will be dispatched to some communities, but not all, because the Government still does not have enough police to go around.
Indigenous Affairs Minister Mal Brough yesterday said police would be given training about NT laws early this week before they were deployed.
He said he would take a proposal to cabinet to fund additional police, conceding that the NT Government could not afford them.
The first officers would be sent to communities in the south of the Territory later in the week.
Communities including Pupunya, Hermannsburg, Mt Liebig, Ikuntji, Areyonga, Kaltukatjara (Docker River) and Amoonguna will see the visiting teams this week for the first time. The Government now says 73 communities will be surveyed overall, with seven to be surveyed this week.
Labor's Indigenous Affairs spokeswoman Jenny Macklin continued the bipartisanship yesterday, but left Labor open to objecting to parts of the plan if it failed a central test.
"The test for Labor will be, 'does this legislation deliver on making children safer?' ... We haven't seen it yet," she said.
Ms Macklin conceded that "Labor governments in the past have not acted as they should have". "The Prime Minster has had many reports that he too has ignored," she said.
"Let's put all of that to one side and recognise that now that action is finally happening, we all need to work to address it."
The plan to force children in indigenous communities to undergo health checks has been altered amid concerns that mandatory examinations could amount to assault.
The Government has also backed away from a claim by the architects of the plan that the aim of the checks was to uncover and treat cases of abuse in the Northern Territory's 22,000 indigenous children.
Mr Brough said the Government would assess whether the 47 officers committed by the Australian Federal Police and the states would be enough.
Asked if the Government might ask for more, Mr Brough said: "We may have to get additional police from somewhere, and that is certainly not something we are closing our mind to."
The Government's plan includes bans on alcohol and pornography, welfare restrictions and health checks for children.
Labor Leader Kevin Rudd announced his own plan to improve conditions in Territory indigenous communities yesterday, pledging $30 million to provide the 200 teachers needed to educate children not already enrolled in school.
Meanwhile, Mr Brough said it was "quite incorrect" to suggest former taskforce member Shane Castles had quit because he thought the Government's plan was not well thought out and was poorly resourced.
Mr Brough said the recently retired AFP assistant commissioner had decided not to lead the task force once he realised its magnitude. "I take responsibility, quite frankly, for him making this decision, because perhaps I didn't explain the magnitude of it," Mr Brough said.
http://www.theaustralian.news.com.au/story/0,20867,22001128-601,00.htm
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