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CDEP: Help or Hindrance?
Established in the 1970s as a transition to work program, the Community Development Employment Projects (CDEP) has become an obstacle to employment for indigenous people. Participants often regard CDEP jobs contemptuously as ‘sit down’ money as they are paid to do housework, attend funerals and sometimes for doing nothing at all.
In a paper being released today by the Centre for Independent Studies on Wednesday, CDEP: Help or Hindrance?, Policy Analyst Sara Hudson argues that it is time to abandon the misguided notion that CDEP ‘helps’ Indigenous people. CDEP masks the real level of Indigenous unemployment and hides the crisis in Indigenous education.
“If the government wants to break the cycle of joblessness, welfare dependence, and its associated family and community dysfunction in some Indigenous communities, it must recognise the part CDEP has played in keeping Indigenous people out of mainstream jobs,” says Hudson.
“No one ever got anywhere by having low expectations. It is time we stopped thinking that CDEP is the only form of employment for Indigenous people in remote communities. CDEP is seen as easy money, and has stunted any career aspirations many young indigenous people might have.”
CDEP is intended to be a temporary measure and provide a ‘stepping stone’ to employment, but around 40% of remote indigenous people are left to languish on CDEP for five years or more.
“Indigenous people combining CDEP and welfare payments can earn higher incomes than apprentice trades people or those on minimum wage. This welfare pedestal is a major barrier to moving CDEP participants into mainstream employment.”
CDEP is used to pay for essential services, allowing state and federal governments to abdicate responsibility for providing services and funding full-time employment. In many remote areas, CDEP is used to fund administrative positions in local government offices; construction and maintenance of roads, and gardens; rubbish collection; teaching aides, health workers and child care.
“Indigenous people doing real work should be paid real wages. Jobs in government or local councils should be properly funded and paid for by the relevant government departments” says Hudson.
Sara Hudson is a Policy Analyst at the Centre for Independent Studies.
