By Greg Bohun
The Commonwealth Government has introduced a form of work for the dole for Aboriginal Australians living in remote areas. The Department of Social Security has decided that Aborigines who choose not to remain on the Community Development Employment Program (CDEP) will be ineligible for the dole.
They will be subject to non-payment periods if they leave a community which has CDEP involvement. In a recent instruction to its workers, DSS said that the CDEP payments are "suitable paid employment".
CDEP payments are paid to the community, at the single rate of the dole, per person involved in the scheme. This means that "suitable" work for Aboriginal people living in their own communities is paid at the rate of single dole.
For non-Aboriginal Australians, suitable paid employment is defined as work that is covered by an award or conditions similar to an award.
The Commonwealth government's idea of self-determination for Aboriginal people is compulsory participation in a capitalist enterprise in remote areas. Many of these enterprises are disadvantaged because of competition from large land-owning corporations. Aboriginal people attempting to compete have to overcome problems of access to legal and accounting facilities. They do not have access to the large capital reserves of the large pastoral corporations.
Those who do not wish to participate in CDEP are forced to leave their own land or starve.
DSS has issued instructions that any Aboriginal people unhappy with the new legislation should be referred to the Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Commission.
Problems with CDEP and DSS are not new. CDEP recipients were not excluded from applying for the dole until the new legislation. Green Left has had information that some regional offices had stopped Aboriginal people from applying for benefits if their community started a CDEP program. When complaints were made to Canberra regarding this racist policy, the government moved to change the legislation. DSS workers who protested at the apparent racist attitudes of some management were told to remain silent.
The injustice of the new policy has ramifications for all unemployed and working people. If this legislation is widened, it could mean that any unemployed person refusing a job paid at the rate of the dole would have their benefits cancelled.