The long road to healthy
welfare
Financial Review Oct
13 2015
It's
lucky Andrew Forrest is an optimist – and not just because of the uncertain
outlook for iron ore prices. The Senate is due to finally vote on Wednesday on
a modified version of Forrest's recommendation for a "healthy welfare
card" to tackle the massive social problems in Indigenous communities. The
future of the card is likely to have more personal meaning for Forrest than the
Fortescue Metals share price.
But the
rest of Australia should be depressed. After the tens of billions of dollars
spent annually on Indigenous services and communities, after so many decades of
government programs and volunteer philanthropic effort, after so much evidence
of social dysfunction and violence becoming worse rather that better, a
12-month trial of the cashless card in one Aboriginal community is still the
most significant result from Forrest's lengthy and radical report into ending
Aboriginal disadvantage.
The
report, which was delivered to the Abbott government 14 months ago, is called
Creating Parity and makes 27 integrated recommendations, from prenatal
care to education to employment, to try to create "seismic" change.
One recommendation is key to stopping what Forrest called the "cash
barbecue" – in part by trying to ensure welfare benefits could not be used
for alcohol or drugs or betting.
And
because Forrest tries to approach old problems in a new way, he came up with a
new technology solution. This was to channel government assistance through
personal cashless debit cards. These cards were standard, except they could not
be used to access cash or to buy alcohol or to gamble.
Central recommendation
Assistant
Minister for Social Services Alan Tudge sees it as the central
recommendation of the Forrest report.
"So
much of the dysfunction in Indigenous communities is caused by alcohol, drug
and gambling abuse paid for by the welfare dollar," he says.
Tony
Abbott was always genuine in his desire to help Indigenous Australia in any way
he could. But the politics were always going to prove too difficult for his
government and probably for any Australian government, despite clear evidence
the current approach is a spectacular and expensive failure.
Tudge ran
straight into opposition from Labor and the Greens in the Senate and inevitable
complaints about discrimination from many in the Aboriginal community and from
welfare lobby groups. This was even though Forrest had tried to avoid any
accusation of racial discrimination by advising the card could apply to anyone
on welfare. It was also wrongly described as a system of compulsory
"income management" rather than what it was – a card for spending on
anything except for the sorts of personal addictions devastating Indigenous
communities.
So
countless rounds of consultation and visits and negotiations later, Tudge came
up with his alternate, more restricted proposal. Rather than 100 per cent of
welfare benefits being included, the card would apply to only 80 per cent
of government payments. This would mean leaving 20 per cent able to be
converted to cash and used as recipients chose.
Only one of the many
Tudge is
backing 12-month trials of the card in communities willing to agree. Even so,
communities signed up so far add to a grand total of one – in Ceduna, South
Australia. Yet this is only one of the many Indigenous communities around the
country with shocking levels of violence, alcoholism, crime and sexual and drug
abuse.
The card
won't suddenly solve such misery inflicted but it might curb some of the
harm being done and the availability of the cash welfare that helps sustain it.
Representatives from the community met senators this week, including the
crossbenchers, to argue the card would help improve the safety, health and
general welfare of their people. The government also promised new investment in
services for Ceduna to help reduce the dependence on alcohol and assist those
affected cope with the change. That is in a community where the hospitalisation
rate for assault is 68 times the national average.
Even so,
the passage of the bill has not been assured, thanks to Labor's
"concerns" – despite the lack of practical success of its efforts in
government, after the soaring hopes unleashed by the Rudd apology to the stolen
generations.
Tudge
remains hopeful of winning approval for similar trials from other Aboriginal
communities, including the social disaster zone of the East Kimberley.
But he will still have to overcome disagreements among Aboriginal leaders, as
well as the usual complaints from white welfare groups concerned about
"fairness" – an extremely elastic concept.
This is
an agonisingly slow process. It's also a marker of how difficult it is to
change entrenched attitudes and approaches to Indigenous issues no matter how
obvious and urgent the need.
Meaningless dismay
The
Australian Council of Social Service, for example, said simply controlling cash
would do nothing to help people address the broader issues facing them. Well,
of course. It's always easier to describe underlying problems rather than come
up with any potential practical improvements for those badly affected every
day. Over countless years, this has also consistently led to little more than
repeated expressions of meaningless dismay amid the destruction of lives and
money.
ACOSS
also says the healthy welfare card could have significant detrimental effects
on people in trial locations. As opposed to what, exactly? Their current state
of social nirvana? Without any ability to suggest realistic alternatives, it
might seem appropriate to temper such criticism of attempts to improve existing
shocking conditions.
Unfortunately,
resistance to change is the standard response in Indigenous affairs. Yet
without significant change, much of the Forrest report will disappear from
political consciousness, while those suffering on the front line continue to
have their lives destroyed. Surely a 12-month trial of a healthy welfare card
is worth backing as a worthwhile step on a long road . Even
for pessimists.
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