Quarantining of Centrelink payments is coming to Bankstown
What has been the experience under the Northern Territory Intervention and around the country?
Monday June 20th
1pm Bankstown Senior Citizens' Centre
7 West Terrace, Bankstown
Speakers include:
Paddy Gibson, Jumbunna Indigenous House of Learning, UTS (recently returned from Alice Springs)
Katie Wrigley, Welfare Rights Centre
The federal government has recently announced that Income Management will be implemented in Bankstown in 2012 along with four other disadvantaged areas around Australia. Income management will be compulsorily applied to people Centrelink considers "vulnerable to financial crisis", along with people referred by child protection authorities.
Income Management is a policy which "quarantines" 50 per cent of Centrelink payments onto a BasicsCard. This card can only be used to buy "priority items" at government approved stores.
Income Management was first introduced through the federal Intervention in NT Aboriginal communities for all people on Centrelink. It has been very discriminatory and is resented by a large number of people. More targeted versions have also been introduced in Cape York and Western Australian Aboriginal communities, along with some areas of Perth.
The government promised it would conduct a proper review to see whether Income Management actually helps struggling families before expanding the system. Independent research conducted by the Menzies School of Health in the NT suggests that Income Management is having no beneficial effect on healthier food and drink choices or tobacco sales in targeted areas.
The Stop the Intervention Collective Sydney has organised a community forum in Bankstown for members of the local community, service providers and welfare rights advocates to hear about the experience of Income Management under the NT Intervention and around Australia. The forum will also provide an opportunity for the Bankstown community to discuss concerns and to plan action that can be taken to protect the rights of people on social security.
organised by the Stop the Intervention Collective Sydney
contact Paddy on 0415800586 or see http://stoptheintervention.org/ for more information.
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Poster: http://stoptheintervention.org/uploads/files_to_download/Past%20Events/B...
Note: This notice is part of STICS (Stop the Intervention Collective Sydney) media coverage of the event. For further info go to the STICS website: http://stoptheintervention.org/
This notice was posted by WGAR as a community service with the kind permission of Paddy Gibson ( paddy.gibson@gmail.com ) of STICS, and as such WGAR is not the author of the notice.