Andrew Forrest urges Coalition to back Indigenous welfare reforms

http://www.theguardian.com/world/2014/aug/02/andrewe-forrest-urges-back-indigenous-reforms

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Mining magnate Andrew Forrest has said anyone “with a heart” will back his proposals for sweeping welfare changes to end Indigenous disadvantage, despite the government backing away from some of the plan’s more contentious elements.

Forrest said each of the 27 recommendations set out in his Creating Parity report, covering welfare, jobs and training reforms, needed to be implemented.

A key proposal is the introduction of a “healthy welfare” card, which would restrict what people on welfare – Indigenous or not – spend their money on. The debit card would bar any purchase deemed inappropriate, such as alcohol.

Tony Abbott has praised Forrest’s review but has said the government has no plans in the immediate future to bring in income management more broadly. Until now, income management has largely been restricted to Indigenous communities in the Northern Territory.

Speaking at the Indigenous Garma festival in NT, Forrest said further “soft thinking” would fail to provide parity for Aboriginal people, again calling on Abbott to implement all of the recommendations.

“There are measures in there that are more electorally popular than others, but if you have a heart for your fellow Australians you’ll back every recommendation in the review,” he said.

Forrest hit out at what he called “fringe players” who had mischaracterised the healthy welfare card. Critics claim the proposal demonises poor people and welfare recipients, as well as unfairly managing the spending of people who are only on welfare for a short time.

“It has had some misunderstanding,” he said. “It is of course a debit card issued by a bank. It’s simple. Yes, with alcohol and cash, we are thinking the most vulnerable Australians, Indigenous or non-Indigenous, can opt into this card, improve their short term decisions, give them the ability to budget and get into employment and into action.

“No-one should support full income management, that’s not what we are suggesting. It’s very clear in the review, if some of the fringe players who get so much media would just bother to read a page or two of the review, they’d understand it’s for vulnerable Australians very sensitively.”

“It’s not income management, it’s not welfare quarantining. It does allow people to avoid humbug, to avoid being prey to drug dealers, because they are on a debit card that doesn’t allow that.”

The optional nature of the card isn’t made explicit in Forrest’s review, which calls for it to be implemented for all Australians on welfare, apart from those who get the aged or veterans pension.

Improving Indigenous disadvantage through personal responsibility has been a running theme raised by speakers, including leading figures Noel Pearson and Marcia Langton, at this year’s Garma festival.

More than half of all working-age Indigenous people are unemployed, with those aged 24 and under around a third less likely to have completed school than non-Indigenous Australians.

Indigenous people have a life expectancy around 10 years less than non-Indigenous people, while one in four Indigenous men are imprisoned at some point in their lives.