Racist new welfare laws

The Howard Government has detailed changes to the provision of 
welfare payments and services to Aboriginal people and 
communities which will amount to a form of collective punishment 
imposed on a national minority based on race, and a violation of 
local and international law. Parenting, unemployment and other 
benefits will be made conditional on behaviour requirements which 
will be enforced via a "smart card" or the withholding of 
payments or services. The provision of services, infrastructure 
and assistance will also be made conditional on behaviour 
requirements.

The Government's approach to Aboriginal people "stinks of 
apartheid" said Aboriginal leader Mick Dodson. "It is racist to 
expect these rules to apply to Aboriginal people when they do not 
apply to everybody."

And it is more than an extension of the Government's cheap labour 
service to business, the "mutual obligation" work-for-the-dole 
scheme. The proposed changes play on and encourage racist 
sentiments, stigmatising and in effect blaming Indigenous 
Australians for their own poverty and social problems, 
particularly in remote communities.

If their behaviour does not comply with the demands of the 
authorities, they, their families and in some instances whole 
communities are to be punished. Punishment will be either 
financial, creating more hardship, or may be in the form of the 
non-provision of services or other assistance.

For example, Indigenous parents could lose parenting payments if 
their children fail to attend school, do not shower daily or have 
regular health checks. Maintenance work on public housing might 
only be carried out if the children of families who live there 
attend school.

Welfare benefits would be paid through "smart cards", which store 
information on spending and could even set electronic limits on 
what is purchased.

There are also proposals that non-monetary payments be given to 
communities. For example, improved school attendance might result 
in the provision of a DVD player or the running of movie nights 
for children who attend school.

"Many Indigenous Australians do not have access to jobs, clean 
water and adequate housing and so their health is poor", said 
Australian Council for Social Service President Andrew McCullum. 
"Withdrawing income support to some parents as a 'stick' to 
influence behaviour will only mean that extended families have to 
spread their resources further. This is likely to lead to even 
worse living standards for Indigenous people."

Where families and communities are concerned, it amounts to a 
form of collective punishment. It adds to the Howard Government's 
long list of attacks on Indigenous Australians which includes the 
destruction of the Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander 
Commission (ATSIC), the gutting of native title and the rejection 
of the existence of the Stolen Generations.

Communities would be expected to sign "shared responsibility 
agreements" (SRAs) which will also include work requirements for 
adults. Examples cited include collecting rubbish from each house 
twice a week and managing the local rubbish tip.

The Human Rights and Equal Opportunity Commission's Aboriginal 
and Torres Strait Islander Social Justice Commissioner, Tom 
Calma, said, "I would be deeply concerned if conditions were 
introduced which place restrictions on access to services for one 
sector of the Australian community defined by their race.

"It would be unacceptable for Indigenous peoples to be denied 
basic citizenship services that all other Australians take for 
granted.

"Any proposals for reform must comply fully with the Racial 
Discrimination Act and the principle of non-discrimination more 
generally.

"Proposals which fail to do so should be rejected outright as 
morally repugnant and not fit for modern Australian society", he 
said.

Trial run

This is not the first such scheme where welfare payments were 
made conditional on carrying out specified activities. JobSearch, 
for example, makes payment conditional on attending interviews, 
filling out endless numbers of forms, applying for a certain 
number of jobs, undertaking training, etc.

The work for the dole requirements were imposed first on 
Aboriginal people, through the Community Development Employment 
Program before being extended to the broader community.

Thus, the scheme was trialled on Indigenous people, and once 
established extended to non-Indigenous Australians.

This is what the Government has in mind with this latest move. 
The aim is to gain public acceptance of the policy through its 
imposition on Indigenous Australians. Then the Government will 
seek to apply it to all welfare recipients.

It will be promoted using all the selling power of advertising. 
Already the Government is describing it as "self reliance" and 
"the end of passive welfare".

The concept of "self-reliance" is based on the false idea that 
poverty is voluntary, that people are to blame for their poverty 
— and that the only way to make them self reliant is to take 
away their welfare.

Poverty is not caused by welfare. It is a product of a system 
that is by its nature exclusive and discriminatory, that is in 
crisis, that has no solutions for ending unemployment, 
homelessness, or racism. The Howard Government, in fact, has the 
objective of reinforcing all these things and more.

Cabinet documents show that the government already has detailed 
policies targeting Indigenous communities on education, jobs, 
community service, income support and business development 
programs "to address passive welfare and encourage self-
reliance".

Offices raided

The various policies contained in these and other leaked 
documents have been suppressed by the mass media. The National 
Indigenous Times had tried desperately to alert the public. 
It was only when the Australian Financial Review on November 10 
published policy information on plans for Indigenous welfare that 
the whole malicious agenda made mainstream news.

The next day the Australian Federal Police raided the offices of 
the National Indigenous Times in the ACT with a warrant to 
seize two documents. The agents are reported as having removed 
six documents.

The paper's editor Chris Graham said the Prime Minister's 
Department ordered the raid because the documents, which the 
National Indigenous Times published, were embarrassing to 
the government.

But the newspaper had more secret documents it was preparing to 
publish, he said.

"This government has been dishonest in the way it's dealt with 
Aboriginal people and Aboriginal affairs generally.

"And I can understand them not wanting it to get out, but I can't 
for the life of me understand how they thought raiding our 
offices would have assisted their cause."

Media, Entertainment and Arts Alliance Federal Secretary Chris 
Warren condemned the raid. "The only crime that's potentially 
been committed is a bit of embarrassment for the government and a 
bit of embarrassment for some of the bureaucrats", he told ABC 
radio.

"To turn that into this sort of assault on press freedom, to take 
that embarrassment to that stage of raiding newspaper offices 
with police, is an extraordinarily serious step."