The federal Labor government passed the Social Security and Other Legislation Amendment (Welfare Reform and Reinstatement of the Racial Discrimination Act) bill on June 21 鈥 exactly three years after the Northern Territory intervention was launched by the Howard-Coalition government.
Welfare quarantining:
鈥 Will be extended to include about 20,000 people in the NT, starting from July 1;
鈥 Can be applied to young people on Centrelink payments, people who have been on unemployment or parenting benefits for more than a year, or people referred by family services;
Northern Territory Intervention (NTER)
June 21 marked the third anniversary of the Howard government鈥檚 鈥渘ational emergency鈥 intervention in 73 prescribed Aboriginal communities in the Northern Territory, the so-called Northern Territory Emergency Response (NTER).
On June 20, a 100-strong rally against the Northern Territory Emergency Response (the 鈥淣T intervention鈥) was held, protesting its third anniversary. On June 21 the Senate passed legislation allowing one of the most oppressive aspects of the intervention 鈥 welfare quarantining 鈥 to be extended to all welfare recipients (Indigenous and non-Indigenous) in the NT, and then to targeted communities throughout Australia.
55 people attended a June 11 forum with Peter Inverway, a Gurindji worker from Kalkaringi, who said Gurindji people are being forced to work up to 30 hours a week for Centrelink entitlements.
Hundreds of Aboriginal workers in the Northern Territory are demanding real wages for construction work that they are compelled to do under 鈥淲ork for the dole鈥 schemes.
Eighty rallied on June 2 outside state parliament house in Darwin to demand jobs with justice.
Elders from Kalkaringi community say people in their community are being forced to work for up to 30 hours a week on construction sites or they will have their Centrelink payments cut.
Indigenous affairs minister Jenny Macklin has dismissed the findings of a Menzies School of Health Research report that found 鈥渋ncome management鈥 has failed to improve the health and wellbeing of the people it targets.
Income management was implemented by the then Coalition government in August 2007 on 73 targeted remote Aboriginal communities as part of the Northern Territory intervention.
Under the scheme, 50% of welfare recipients鈥 income is replaced with a Basics Card, which can be used to only buy food, clothing and medical supplies, and only in certain stores.
In late April, activists from the Intervention Rollback Action Group (IRAG) toured several communities affected by the NT intervention. In particular, they looked at how employment patterns had changed.
The results were the same everywhere they went: This is as bad as it has ever been.
It has been almost three years since the former federal Coalition government announced the intervention into remote Aboriginal communities (which has continued under Labor). It has been three years of broken promises and declining living conditions for those the intervention was supposed to help.
Clients at the Fairfield Migrant Resource Centre heard on April 29 that people in disadvantaged areas, such as Fairfield, could have their welfare benefits "quarantined" as early as next year.
The public meeting at the centre featured Peter Davidson from the Australian Council of Social Services and Richard Downs, spokesperson for the Alyawarr people鈥檚 walk-off in the Northern Territory.
The walk-off began in July 2009, protesting against the effects of welfare quarantining, and other NT intervention measures, in the community of Ampilatwatja.
The following is a transcript of a speech by award-winning journalist John Pilger at the Sydney Teachers鈥 Federation on April 23. It was part of a public launch of the Four Days in July national Aboriginal rights convergence in Alice Springs from July 6 to 9.
The Sydney launch of the Four Days in July national Aboriginal rights convergence was addressed by journalist John Pilger, Alyawarr peoples鈥 walk-off spokesperson Richard Downs, Maritime Union of Australia Sydney branch secretary Paul McAleer and Larissa Behrendt, Professor of Law and Director of Research at the Jumbunna Indigenous House of Learning at UTS. More than 300 people attended the April 23 meeting.
Have you heard about the campaign called 鈥淔our Days in July鈥? Well, you are about to. From now until July 6 we are planning to ask: 鈥淲ill you join us in Alice Springs for a better future? Just four days in July, that鈥檚 all we are asking.鈥
Such a small thing to ask but imagine the momentum: it won鈥檛 stop at Four Days in July, it will be historic, people will talk about it for years to come. They鈥檒l talk about:
Rallies against the Northern Territory intervention into Aboriginal communities took place across Australia on February 13.
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