By Marina Cameron and Sally Mitchell
The federal budget cuts to ATSIC will disproportionately affect young people, with 40% of Aborigines and Torres Strait Islanders being under 15 years old, and 60% under 25.
Programs for youth support, employment and community development are all likely to be axed. ATSIC has estimated that up to 30,000 Aborigines could be relegated to the dole queue as hundreds of Aboriginal organisations are forced to close and the operation of the Community Development Employment Projects scheme is called into question.
The CDEP scheme allows incorporated Aboriginal community councils to receive grants for work projects roughly equivalent to the unemployment entitlements of community members instead of direct individual payment.
Many communities opted for the CDEP because it provided an extra 10% on top of pooled social security payments in an extra capital expenditure or on-cost component. This "top-up money", which goes towards buying materials and equipment associated with the work project, is going to be cut. Without this money to develop projects, people will just be working for the dole.
This means that most communities will revert back to individuals receiving Job Search Allowance, with no funding to develop community initiatives or basic infrastructure. The crippling of even this limited employment program by the government leaves young Aboriginal people with even less hope of finding employment.