Ideas@TheCentre
Sigh, another review
The federal government seems preoccupied with writing discussion papers and conducting reviews but very little seems to eventuate from them.
Released with little fanfare recently was a government review into employment services in remote Indigenous communities and the beleaguered Community Development and Employment Projects (CDEP). The discussion paper, 'The Future of Remote Participation and Employment Servicing Arrangements,' only came to my attention by chance – perhaps the government was trying to avoid having to analyse lots of submissions.
When it comes to publishing reports on reviews it has conducted, the Labor government has a poor track record: last year the Department of Families, Housing, Community Services and Indigenous Affairs (FaHCSIA) released a discussion paper on Indigenous homeownership. But 18 months later submissions are yet to be posted on its website, let alone a report summarising those submissions.
What’s the point of having review after review if they are not going to eventuate into anything? Could it be that the Labor government is using these reviews as a stalling tactic – to delay making decisions on difficult and seemingly intractable issues?
The government still fails to recognise that the property rights issues preventing Indigenous homeownership on Indigenous land have also stymied any chance of economic development.
The decision to make Indigenous land communal – and to have land councils acting as gatekeepers for any leasing decisions – is the principal reason why Indigenous communities, even those with a thousand or more people, have few of the shops and services normally found in country towns of similar size.
Without these retail outlets and services, there are few employment prospects for many remote Indigenous people. Add to the mix the effects of disastrous education in Homeland Learning Centres and you arrive at the present predicament, where remote Indigenous residents are on welfare or channelled into dead-end CDEP jobs, with neither the entitlements nor responsibilities of real employment.
Even in communities near major towns such as Alice Springs, Katherine and Nhulunbuy – where there are labour shortages and real job opportunities – few Indigenous residents have the skills needed for mainstream employment.
Unconditional welfare has helped create a cycle of welfare dependency where education and employment is not valued or even considered necessary. The first step in reforming employment services is to remove the Remote Area Exemption, which has allowed Indigenous residents to avoid mutual obligation rules. Indigenous men and women must demonstrate that they are either actively looking for work or undertaking job training to be eligible for welfare.
It is also vital to introduce business and residential leases so that a real economy on Indigenous land can develop. Where genuine economies exist, only a small percentage of the population is on welfare and requires employment services.
Sara Hudson is a Research Fellow at The Centre for Independent Studies.
