ALP extends welfare quarantining to WA

The federal Labor government announced on November 18 that it will extend into Western Australia a key component of the racist intervention into Aboriginal communities in the Northern Territory.

Child protection agencies in WA will now be able to set welfare quarantining for families in that state for the first time.

The November 18 West Australian reported that over the next two years the government will target communities in Broome, Fitzroy Crossing and Derby, along with other areas of the Kimberley in the state's far north-west.

Up to 70% of welfare payments and 100% of lump sum payments could be quarantined from welfare recipients under the plan.

Federal families and Indigenous affairs minister Jenny Macklin told the November 18 Australian that the trial was not targeted at Aboriginal people. However, all of the areas in WA slated for welfare quarantining have Aboriginal populations well above the state average.

Welfare quarantining is one of the most widely criticised aspects of the NT intervention. On October 25, ABC News reported John Paterson, spokesperson for the Aboriginal Medical Services Alliance of the NT, likening welfare quarantining to the policies of the apartheid regime in South Africa.

From GLW issue 776