AUSTRALIA
Candy from the mouths of babes
Kerry Smith
26 July 2009
Residents on income management will be unable to use their Basics cards at the Darwin Show, a Crikey.com article said on July 23.
Income management, also known as “welfare quarantining”, converts 50% of welfare payments for people living on remote Northern Territory Aboriginal communities into Basics cards. They can be spent only on certain things in certain stores.
The government’s justification for the Basics cards, which are part of the NT intervention, was that they would curb child abuse by preventing Aboriginal parents from spending money on alcohol or cigarettes instead of food.
In the lead-up to the first Christmas after the intervention was introduced in 2007, very few of the stores designated for Basics cardholders sold toys, and some that did were far away from the communities. Many Aboriginal children went without toys that year.
This year, the Darwin show tried, but was unable to convince, the Department of Families, Housing, Community Services and Indigenous Affairs to authorise it to use the Basics card system. That means Aboriginal children will be “protected” from treats such as fairy floss, dagwood dogs and healthy organic produce from the market stalls.
Norman George from the North Australian Aboriginal Justice Agency told Crikey.com on July 23: “The show society were very accommodating, and said they were willing to accept the Basics Card … every second house would be going. They just want to go the carnival. Where’s the equality?”
“[T]hey will probably just be turned away, imagine seeing the faces of your children, they’ll be devastated.”
