Fed: Govt flags indigenous work overhaul

AAP General News (Australia)
04-13-2005
Fed: Govt flags indigenous work overhaul

By Paul Osborne

CANBERRA, April 13 AAP - Employment Minister Kevin Andrews has flagged a major overhaul
of the welfare system and job schemes to get more indigenous people into work.

Mr Andrews told the Institute for Public Affairs in Melbourne tonight the Howard government
had two goals in addressing the plight of indigenous people.

"First, rejecting the notion that indigenous people as lesser economic beings," Mr Andrews said.

"And second, challenging a welfare culture in favour of an entrepreneurial culture
is as a noble cause as those of political equality or addressing dispossession."

Mr Andrews said part of his plan was to reform the community development employment
program (CDEP), set up by the Fraser government in 1977.

He said the program, the largest indigenous scheme in the nation, had initially been
set up so remote communities could forgo the dole to work on community projects.

It has now expanded into 37,000 urban and regional communities with funding of more
than $500 million.

But Mr Andrews said CDEP had become more of a problem than a solution and he would
announce changes to it later this month.

"Despite this growth, it has neither been effective in linking individuals to local
labour markets nor uniformly enforcing its mutual obligation requirements," Mr Andrews
said.

"This was partly because creating work ready CDEP participants was a very low priority.

"CDEP often became a 'sit-down money' program and therefore part of the problem it
was designed to solve."

Mr Andrews said the number of indigenous people relying on pensions and benefits had
fallen from 55 to 50 per cent in the eight years to 2002, but welfare dependency remained
a problem.

The reforms would help the CDEP live up to its original intentions and effectively
link it to the labour market.

Mr Andrews said the risk in indigenous job strategies could be further cut through
welfare reform, which would mirror those introduced in New Zealand.

"This responsibility to fashion a more balanced regime with effective disincentives
and incentives is one the Australian government is taking seriously," he said.

"I am especially conscious of New Zealand's very effective 'work-first welfare-second'
reforms since its implementation in 1999.

"The unemployment rate among Maoris has declined from 16 per cent in 1999 and 13 per
cent in December 2001 to just 8.9 per cent in December 2004.

"Without the tightening of mutual obligation requirements in welfare, it is difficult
to imagine how indigenous job seekers can benefit from other reforms in indigenous affairs."

AAP pjo/sb/de

KEYWORD: INDIGENOUS ANDREWS

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