Here here. The money is better spend on job creation initiatives like the CEP scheme of 1982 which gave people a job for a year at award wages doing construction in National Parks etc. It was a great confidence and competence building program.

Paul McDonald fails to acknowledge (wilfully ignores?) the huge amount of work carried out by Centrelink staff in personal counselling of clients who are under Income Management; plus the referral to other services and the budgetting/financial training which is at the core of the Income Management project. Centrelink staff have done an excellent job with these aspects of the program in the NT communities where IM has been operating for three years. This explains why, against all expectations, the IM has become quite popular with clients, and why things are improving greatly for children in their families, which is the basic aim of the program.

safety net not a comfort cusion.

Well said Kenny.

I'm fully in favour of people managing their own income.

I want total oversight of the management of their hand out.

nohj,
I presume you meant CDEP ? I have worked with this scheme & my feeling about it is that it was one of the more evil schemes ever imposed upon our society. Why ? Because all it did was to create thousands of new bureaucratic positions & the people on CDEP weren't afforded any dignity nor opportunity to build up their communities. It's time we got rid of this Govt fed monster.

The proposals for stricter regimes for welfare recipients is just a populist political fix beloved of the Liblabs, they rarely provide decent evidence for such policies. We might as well propose that all rich rorters of taxes be similarly managed.

We have no poor in Australia (except those unable to fill in the forms).

My wife, three kids and I have been on welfare, by choice, for over two years... and it's been just fine. We have two cars, a mortgage and for over a year, not savings to draw upon.

Infact, welfare is so generous that we are thinking of having a few extra kids to increase our incomes. Why do the welfare-dependant have so many kids - because they are handsomly bribed by over-generous payments to have heaps of kids! More mouths on the public tit.

Welfare is so generous that there are no poor in Australia. Unless they have a problem with pokies, porn or plonk as the author so insightfully suggested.

The disadvantaged are worse off in WA, all commodities have a premium installed. And this goes right down to the bare basics.

Real issue throughout is avoided.

Those failing dismally NOT taken to court for welfare or mental health or social reasons to account for their failures.

They NOT taken to court because this was - and remains, mostly Government mismanagement.

Why were public funds spent building houses on land owned by corporations, corporations which refused to issue valid leases to their tenants ?

Why have government authorities responsible to ensure Australian and world standards for housing, health, legal, education and others, monitored to ensure maintained ?

Simple... Australian Governments still accept as an excuse for denial of rights and/or responsibilities the argument of race.

Australian Governments still treat Australians differently on basis of race.

Governments still deny Australians their rights on basis of race.

Australian politicians, as part of our government processes still present excuse for their denial, their qualification of rights and/or responsibilities their argument using race.

Whether offering or denying, qualification by race is racism.

Australian Governments are racist.

Racist Australian Governments merely apply the Himmler principle - when they tell a lie loud enough, long enough, most people come to believe it is true.

Do you answer Australian Government racial identification question on government forms ?

In 1967 the acknowledged purpose of Australian voting to amend their constitution was to extinguish, to eliminate, all ability for Australian Governments to pass ANY laws which qualified Australian's rights, Australian's responsibilities through racial identification.

Australians amendment to their constitution, despite their clearly acknowledged purpose to make unlawful ALL qualification of our rights using racial identification, appears to be ignored.

Is it that most Australians accept legislated racis