Job creation and income support in remote Indigenous Australia: moving forward with a better system

Job creation and income support in remote Indigenous Australia: moving forward with a better system Report

CAEPR Topical Issue

• Author(s): Jordan, Kirrily, Fowkes, Lisa, Altman, Jon, Morrison, Joe, Paterson, John, Kral, Inge, Klein, Elise, Sanders, Will
• Published: 2016
• Publisher: CAEPR

Link to resource Report broken link

Abstract: The Community Development Programme (CDP) is a remote-area Work for the Dole scheme that principally affects Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people. The program is billed by the government as 'helping people find work, and allowing them to contribute to their communities and gain skills while looking for work'. But there is mounting evidence that CDP is creating significant hardship for Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people and communities, leading to increasing pressure for the scheme to be scrapped or radically overhauled. This [paper] gathers together a series of short articles to provide background to these developments as well as providing thoughts on a productive way ahead. The contributors are academics and representatives from key Indigenous institutions, all of whom have a longstanding interest in the field and are deeply concerned by the current policy direction. Abstract from publisher's website. The articles are as follows: Introduction / Kirrily Jordan; A most egregious transition: CDEP to CDP / Jon Altman; Why government policies continue to spectacularly fail / Joe Morrison; 'What happened to the E in CDEP?': CDP's disastrous impact on remote communities / John Paterson; CDP and the bureaucratic control of providers / Lisa Fowkes; Impact of CDP on income support of participants / Lisa Fowkes; Only just surviving under CDP: the Ngaanyatjarra Lands case study / Inge Kral; How the ideas behind a universal basic income can inform the development of employment policy for remote Indigenous Australia / Elise Klein; Activities and authority in CDP: making them less punitive / Will Sanders; Moving forward with a better system: academic perspectives.

• Urls: http://caepr.anu.edu.au/Publications/topical/2016TI2.php
• Publisher Location: Canberra
• Keywords: Employment policy, Social policy, Remote, Policy analysis, Critical analysis, Indigenous people, Employment, Policy, Demographics, Research, Australia, Oceania