16 December 2014 | General Interest
SNAICC is among a number of major Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander organisations to have voiced strong opposition to the cashless welfare system, as proposed in the Andrew Forrest Review of Indigenous Training and Employment Programmes for a Healthy Welfare Card.
Australia’s community welfare sector and Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peak organisations have released a joint statement encouraging the Government to pursue different avenues of welfare reform.
The implementation of the system would see nearly everyone in need of welfare — from people who are unemployed, carers, single parents, to people with disability, but excluding veterans and people on the aged pension — provided with a cashless welfare card.
While the organisations support many of the employment and education measures in the Andrew Forrest Review of Indigenous Training and Employment Programmes, we are united in our strong opposition to the proposed Healthy Welfare Card, which we believe would be “demeaning, invasive, unworkable and bureaucratic, creating an entire sub-class of millions of people in the Australian community.”
