Watchdog should probe indigenous bill

3 Feb 2012, 5:57 pm   -   Source: AAP
Share This

Amnesty International is questioning the government's plan to fight NT school truancy, saying that linking welfare payments to attendance may not work.

Amnesty International has urged a parliamentary human rights watchdog to investigate the federal government's controversial plan to crackdown on school truancy in NT indigenous communities by linking welfare payments to class attendance.

Legislation passed last year which set up a new joint parliamentary committee to examine whether new federal bills comply with Australia's international law and human rights obligations.

Amnesty International has called for the human rights committee to scrutinise the government's "Stronger Futures" bill, the next phase of the NT intervention.

The bill aims to crack down on the truancy levels of NT indigenous school children by linking school attendance to parents' Centrelink welfare payments.

Earlier this week, the latest evaluation report on a trial of the measures in 14 schools in the Northern Territory and 30 in Queensland, said suspending payments did not improve attendance rates.

The report said 85 parents had their Centrelink income support payments suspended in 2010.

Amnesty International spokeswoman Sarah Marland said income management was expensive and an ineffective way to improve school attendance.

"The estimated cost of delivering the income management program is between $5,000 and $5,500 per person each year," she said.

"It is difficult to understand how the Australian government can consider such a major policy expenditure with marginal evidence of benefits for the lives of indigenous peoples."

She also criticised the authenticity of the federal government's community consultations.

Meanwhile, the Ian Thorpe Fountain for Youth charity, which works with young indigenous people, says the bill should be scrapped because it disempowers indigenous people.

The charity's chief executive, Jeff McMullen, said in a submission to the Senate inquiry that weakening indigenous control and marginalising local leadership in communities, "prevents the creation of a post-intervention spirit of cooperation".

"I am a witness to the extraordinary pain, death and destruction of community life inflicted by this thoughtless approach," he said.

Dr McMullen said the government's "Close the Gap" rhetoric was not making things better.

"Aboriginal medical services I consult regularly report a serious increase in suicide, family stress, a worsening of infant care and a failure by the punitive approach to improve school attendance," he said.

Comment is being sought from indigenous minister Jenny Macklin's office about whether the Stronger Futures bill will go before the human rights committee.

Debate on the bill will resume in the House of Representatives on Wednesday.

  • Follow us: 
  • Follow us on Facebook
  • Follow us on Twitter
  • Follow us on Youtube