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Program participants are required to work at least 25 hours per week to receive benefits. (Supplied: Roper Gulf Regional Council)
A Senate committee investigating a controversial
work-for-the-dole scheme has been told it is driving up crime and
poverty in Western Australia's remote communities.
The Community Development Program (CDP) covers about 33,000 welfare recipients, but it has come under fire for punitive measures and a lack of effective results.The Senate Finance and Public Administration Committee visited Kalgoorlie-Boulder, 600km east of Perth, on Wednesday for the first of three public hearings into the CDP's effectiveness.
While the Government has rejected suggestions the scheme has increased poverty, residents of remote and regional communities told the hearing the program had increased social dysfunction since it was rolled out.
Police say punitive approach is driving crime
Police representatives said the scheme had played a contributory role to crime, particularly in dry communities where a significant number of participants lived."We see a lot of disputes between couples and families over money," Goldfields-Esperance District police inspector Glen Willers said.
"Money, the lack of money and jealousy become big issues."
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Glen Willers tells the committee the program is contributing to crime and homelessness. (ABC Goldfields-Esperance: Sam Tomlin)
Inspector Willers told the committee the punitive aspects of the program, which can see participants fined or have their payments cut off for missing activities, had a flow-on effect to their families and communities.
"When someone is cut off, that person goes to other people for money. They will try to survive in another way," he said.
The financial and social pressure was driving CDP participants in Ngaanyatjarra Lands communities to make the 1,000km journey south-west to Kalgoorlie-Boulder, due to the ease of accessing services, money and alcohol.
Left without support or any effective means to get home, Inspector Willers said they were effectively forced into sleeping rough on the fringes of the city.
Children forced to steal to survive
With the adults departing for the town, Inspector Willers told the hearing children were left to fend for themselves."We ran into the situation where we had around 25-30 young people alone in Warburton earlier this year," he said.
"Most of the burglary offences we encountered could be attributed to children breaking into houses [to steal food] to feed themselves."While conceding he was not an expert on policy matters, he said the work CDP participants were being asked to complete needed to be made more relevant.
"Having these people painting rocks white or mowing lawns doesn't really connect them with the rest of Australia," Inspector Willers said.
"Trying to throw a blanket over all of these communities … is not the way to go."
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Damien McLean says the CDP has had a disastrous impact on the remote communities in his shire. (Submitted: Duncan Wright)
Program making the poor even poorer
Having spearheaded a complaint to the Human Rights Commission over the CDP's introduction, Ngaanyatjarraku Shire president Damien McLean said the rollout had been disastrous."People who are already poor have become a good deal poorer," he told the committee.
"This program is monumentally ineffective, inefficient and destructive towards communities."
Cr McLean said Warburton residents who attempted to contact Centrelink waited hours on the phone, only for calls to time out or staff to be unavailable.
Recipients were then penalised for failing to meet reporting requirements.
He said conditions in the Ngaanyatjarra Lands had rapidly deteriorated since the CDP's introduction in 2015.
"The re-emergence of absolute squalor is most noticeable. There's not enough food, not enough blankets in winter," Cr McLean said.
"The Department of Prime Minister and Cabinet are remarkably disinterested; they won't even look at it."
Participants battling stigma, lack of skills
While the headline goal of CDP is to equip participants with long-term skills, Aboriginal youth transition worker Tina Carmody said there was little evidence that was occurring.
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Senators Malarndirri McCarthy (Northern Territory) and Patrick Dodson (Western Australia) listen in during the hearing. (ABC Goldfields-Esperance: Sam Tomlin)
"The program is failing our people because it is not looking at long-term employment," Ms Carmody told the committee.
"What are cooking classes going to do for long-term sustainable employment?
"There is a stigma to the CDP, and very racist attitudes we have to battle."Kalgoorlie-Boulder Aboriginal Residents Committee member Raelene Peel also highlighted prejudice as a key issue.
"I was told by a shopkeeper they wouldn't put an Aboriginal person on as a server because they wouldn't get any business," Ms Peel said.
"I hate that stigma. I have seen CDP people rise up and achieve things."
She said future employment programs needed to incorporate areas such as community sport, arts and healthcare to draw in residents.
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