Sit-down money is finished!
Huge work-for-the-dole schemes will be rolled out across 60 Aboriginal communities early next year steered by welfare reforms initiated by Western Australia mining magnate Andrew ‘Twiggy’ Forrest.
Unemployed people in remote communities will be forced to work for the dole five days a week or benefits will be cancelled.
Under the new policy approved by the Liberal Party Cabinet, unemployed people with full work capacity would be forced to work 25 hours over a five day week.
There will be no activities that allowed people to spend their time ‘painting rocks’ instead the activities would replicate real work to ensure unemployed people were ‘work ready’.
The scheme will force all people at remote communities into work for the dole, but some people assessed with a lesser capacity will be allowed to do less than 25 hours.
This could include those on Newstart Allowance, parents or the disabled.
Unlike the now downscaled CDEP scheme, under which unemployed indigenous people did work-for-the-dole activities and were paid ‘top-up wages, the new scheme will not provide them with any extra money for the full time workload.
The State and Federal governments have removed unnecessary red tape and improved land tenure to allow communities access to their natural resources and derive income from sustainable projects such as timber harvesting and processing, sand and gravel sales, mining and tourism.
The Prime Minister Tony Abbott has warned communities that the Government was forced into making hard economic decisions because of the financial disaster left behind by the Rudd and Gillard Labor Governments.
The Government has stressed that people now have to realise they must utilise their large land holdings to make an income because they no longer can rely on government handouts.