Minister for Aboriginal affairs Jenny Macklin will move in March to restore the Racial Discrimination Act (RDA) in the Northern Territory. But the move has been described by Aboriginal advocates as a cynical ploy.
In November, Macklin announced that she would reinstate the RDA, which was suspended in the NT in 2007 when the previous Howard government began the intervention into Aboriginal communities. She said the policies of the intervention would be amended to comply with the RDA.
In particular, Macklin promised to change the income management system — which replaces 50% of welfare recipients' income with cards that can only be spent on food, clothing and medical supplies in government approved stores. Until now, income management has applied only to 73 targeted remote Aboriginal communities.
But instead of ending the discriminatory system, the federal government will impose it on more people.
Macklin's change will mean that the RDA would be restored in December and income management would be rolled-out to other welfare recipients in the NT — particularly long-term unemployed young people and single parents.
The government plans to extend welfare management to welfare recipients in the rest of Australia over time. The policy would also include a $500 payment every six months for those who choose to go on income management.
In a February 5 article on the Crikey.com.au blog The Stump University of Technology Sydney lecturer Eva Cox said a senate inquiry into the proposed laws received 35 submissions. Not one supported the extension of income management.
Macklin said the expansion of income management will be beneficial for those on welfare.
She told the February 10 Sydney Morning Herald: "Income management is delivering benefits across the country for indigenous and non-indigenous Australians, including increased school attendance in some Cape York communities, people spending more on food, including fresh fruit and vegetables, in the Northern Territory, and an increase in the number of families being referred for income management by child protection authorities in metropolitan Perth."
The statistics that support this claim are dubious. The figures for fresh food were based on a survey of stores commissioned by Macklin's own department. While they did show the 75% of store owners reported an increase in purchases of fresh food, a worrying 25% showed a decline.
Other social indicators show income management can significantly decrease the health and welfare of those "managed".
The government's progress report, released in November last year showed an increase in domestic violence call-outs, a rise in substance abuse and no improvement to school enrolments in the NT, despite harsh penalties for parents whose children didn't attend.
Former Family Court chief justice, Alastair Nicholson, condemned Macklin's proposal as "little more than a ruse to overcome the provisions of the RDA", said the SMH.
On February 9, Nicholson launched a new report on the intervention called What We Said. It interviewed Aboriginal people affected by the intervention and criticised the review process used by the government to justify the extension of income management.
He said: "The real targets of the income management scheme are likely to be Aboriginal people, including Aboriginal people living beyond the Northern Territory", reported the SMH.
"For these people, who include most of the Aboriginal population of the Northern Territory, it is as if the repeal of the RDA … never happened."
In a November 23 interview with ABC Radio's PM, Nicholson said: "And in fact on compulsory income management the government really didn't give the people a choice at all. What it said was, well you can either keep the present compulsory system, or we'll introduce a system where individuals can apply to Centrelink to be excused from it.
"And of course that was met with a fair degree of derision by most of the people that I heard speaking about it because they said that the chances of them being able to persuade some official in Centrelink that they were responsible financial managers was negligible."
The Greens tabled a motion in federal parliament to reinstate the RDA without qualifications in October last year. The Coalition and Labor voted it down.
Now, Macklin's office has circulated an email implying the Greens are not serious about ending racial discrimination because they won't support Macklin's new policy.
The Greens have said they will try to block the government's plans because it extends the punitive welfare management measures of the NT intervention.
Aboriginal people who are resisting the NT intervention aren't fooled either. In an open letter to Macklin, Richard Downs, a leader of the Ampilatwatja community walk-off, said on February 3: "Stop making excuses. We have read a recent email from your department appealing for support for your new Intervention legislation. It pretends your proposed laws will end discrimination. We know that this is a lie.
"If you really cared you could act now. Using ministerial powers granted by the intervention laws you could immediately de-prescribe communities, grant mass exemptions from income management and declare that the NT Anti-Discrimination Act applies to intervention legislation.
"We call on the government and all other parties to immediately reinstate the Racial Discrimination Act, repeal the NT intervention and inject resources immediately into our struggling communities."