Opinion & Commentary
South Australia – the forgotten state no longer?
Yesterday the federal government finally came to the party and acknowledged that it has failed Indigenous communities in South Australia. Indigenous Affairs Minister Jenny Macklin has been in negotiations with the Anangu Pitjantjatjara Yankunytjatjara (APY) executive board about having 50 year-leases on their lands in exchange for providing $25 million in funding for new homes. But now that the federal government has admitted its failure to provide adequate housing in the APY lands it is should also turn to the issue of employment. One of the main reasons for appalling housing in these communities is that most Indigenous people are unemployed and reliant on welfare and public housing.
Indigenous people are unemployed not because there are no jobs but because they lack the basic literacy and numeracy skills needed to gain employment. Recently, a state government report, highlighted that South Australia will need an extra 340,000 workers over the next decade. At a time of workforce shortages, the government should be encouraging more South Australian Indigenous people into employment and training. Instead, both the state and federal governments have supported increasing the number of Indigenous people participating in the Community Development Employment Projects (CDEP) scheme.
CDEP was introduced to replace unemployment benefits for indigenous Australians, and to provide a transition to real work. But despite the good intentions behind it, CDEP has become an obstacle to real employment. CDEP creates pretend jobs and is a form of disguised welfare. By locking Aborigines out of real jobs in the real economy it has perpetuated a cycle of joblessness and family and community dysfunction.
In the Northern Territory and Queensland welfare reform is high on the agenda of the federal government. In 2006-07 $600 million was spent on the Northern Territory Intervention. The federal government also provided $48 million to support the Cape York Welfare Reform trials in Queensland.
In the Northern Territory welfare quarantining has had a positive effect. There is more food on the table, less need for “humbugging” and a general improvement in family relationships. The Territory Intervention has also converted over a thousand CDEP positions that were supporting government service delivery into real full-time positions.
Yet, despite the harrowing accounts of child abuse in the Mulligan report, there has been no similar attempt to address the serious problems in South Australian indigenous communities. Although the federal government has provided an additional $19 million towards a new police station and housing for extra police officers and child protection officers the possibility of quarantining welfare payments in the (APY) Lands has scarcely been mentioned. Instead of moving people off CDEP into real work the federal government has increased the number of CDEP places in South Australia from 500 to 580.
Weaning communities off CDEP isn’t hard to do. Jobs in government and local councils should be properly funded and paid for by the relevant departments or agencies. The problem is that both the state and local governments in South Australia support the continuation of CDEP because it provides a pool of free labour and equipment. This bludging off indigenous deprivation needs to end.
The South Australian government argues that it needs CDEP to provide municipal services and governance in aboriginal communities. But there is now only one CDEP organisation still operating in the APY lands - Bungala Aboriginal Corporation. Based in Port Augusta, Bungla Aboriginal Corporation also runs CDEP programs in Coober Pedy, Oodnadatta and in Aboriginal communities across the Northern Flinders ranges.
The South Australian government also continues to support CDEP in the mistaken belief that the scheme is needed to create jobs in remote and regional areas where employment opportunities are scarce. Yet, CDEP does more harm than good. It is characterised by limited hours and very low-skilled work. Participants are paid for doing housework, mowing their own lawns and attending funerals. Despite the introduction of a ‘no work, no pay’ rule, many CDEP participants do little or no work, but still get paid.
Because Centrelink treats CDEP payments like any other employment income, people can combine their CDEP payments with other forms of income assistance such as Newstart Allowance and Parenting Payments. Total incomes can exceed $50,000 a year.
When people can get so much money for doing so little, there is very little incentive to get an education and move off CDEP. If they took a real job, many CDEP participants would lose money and have to work five days a week as well.
At a time of workforce shortages, the last thing governments should be doing is encouraging more South Australian Indigenous people onto CDEP.
Sara Hudson is a Policy Analyst at The Centre for Independent Studies. Her paper CDEP: Help or Hindrance? was released by the CIS in July.
