Australia curbs welfare

2008-11-19 14:04

Canberra - Restrictions on how Aborigines are allowed to spend their welfare payments will be applied to all races in certain communities in Australia under a trial programme intended to end the perception of discrimination.

An agreement signed between the federal government and Western Australian state on Tuesday calls for parents of all races who receive welfare and neglect their children to face the same restrictions as Aboriginal parents getting government aid.

Indigenous people living on Aboriginal-owned land in the remote Northern Territory must spend half of their welfare payment on essentials like food, clothing and rent. The government imposed the restrictions as a means of protecting Aboriginal children in Outback settlements after a report found child abuse was widespread there.

The race-based measures restrict expenditures on alcohol, drugs, tobacco and gambling and have applied to Aborigines on welfare for more than a year.

However, no government oversight exists on how people outside Aboriginal communities spend their welfare cheques.

Critics say the programme discriminates against Australia's impoverished indigenous people.

Starting on Monday, welfare controls can for the first time be imposed outside Aboriginal communities. The new agreement applies in parts of the Western Australia state capital Perth, as well as several Outback towns.

State authorities will have the power to restrict 70% of parents' welfare income to spending on household necessities if authorities believe it will benefit children.

Moving away from race

"We consider it to be a very important part of our armoury in tackling child abuse," Families and Indigenous Affairs Minister Jenny Macklin said of the programme on Tuesday.

About 450 000 Aborigines live among Australia's population of 21 million. They are the country's poorest group, with the highest rates of unemployment and illiteracy. Their life expectancy is 17 years shorter than that of other Australians.

Tom Calma, the Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Social Justice Commissioner, said in a statement on Wednesday that applying the same policy on all ethnic groups "removes some of the serious problems" surrounding the original race-based policy.

Social policy analyst Ilan Katz also welcomed the move.

"The fact that they're doing this in Western Australia is an acknowledgment on their part that it was probably a mistake to take the racist route," said Katz, director of the New South Wales University's Social Policy Research Centre.

Aborigine politician Warren Mundine supported the plan as well. "It has to be a non-race specific programme rolled out across Australia and we're now seeing a move in that direction," he said.

- AP