Snap rallies are planned for Human Services Minister Alan Tudge’s visit to Hinkler this week.
LNP MP Keith Pitt is pushing to bring the Welfare Debit Card to the entire Hinkler Electorate. Hinkler includes all towns from Bundaberg down to Hervey Bay and including River Heads to the Maryborough border. This is the biggest area being proposed for roll out of the card.
In the media this last 3 weeks, Keith Pitt has claimed “a steering committee” will be deciding which payments will be included in the “trial”. Yet when pushed on his Facebook page with reasonable questions from concerned residents from all the towns involved, all comments not in support were deleted.
Likewise, any comments containing references to the Indue Terms and Conditions or the DSS Trigger payments that show that Keith Pitt was changing position or reworking his claims from day to day.
Following “Tudge’s Fudges” we see “Pitt’s Porkies”. Most fibs and spin seem to originate with the LNP Federal Minister.
Recently Keith Pitt asked for a poll in the Newsmail Bundaberg paper that was greeted with an 84% NO vote. Not satisfied with that, Pitt then used taxpayers’ funds to seek a selected postal vote. Some residents reported that there were 2 different letters sent to homes, some with the ability to vote yes/no, others with no choice.
After 3 weeks of local and national media interest, Mayor Allan Suter from Ceduna jump into the Newsmail and Fraser Coast Chronicle repeating the same rhetoric and spin.
Considering the amount of information and reports that have been shown to the public in the region as to how well we are seeing Ceduna and their people suffering under the loss of autonomy and the costs to business and reputation to Ceduna. Mayor Suter and Keith Pitt are reading from the same song book and ignoring the public views already being shown in the comments on all media Facebook pages of either the Fraser Coast Chronicle or Newsmail Bundaberg pages.
Saturday 3rd June saw a huge full-page advert promoting the card. It quoted a 25% pass rate from the incomplete and unpublished Orima Report. The very same unpublished report cites a 77% fail rate. 49% of the people surveyed in CDC Wave report said it has made their lives worse. 4 out of 5 said it made their children’s lives worse. At least one business owner now $100,000 out of pocket and facing closure after 87 yrs servicing the customers of the town of Ceduna.
It is claimed that income management does not allow enough flexibility for people to manage their own affairs. Once Indue has control of welfare money, card holders can only access a balance and a number to beg to be able pay bills not listed. They must wait to see if they will be permitted.
Given slow processing times, it is not exactly working just like any other debit card.
This week there will be actions to stop the card from coming to the Hinkler Electorate:
Monday Evening 5 June 2017 at 5.30pm in Bundaberg is a public meeting and rally at the Bundaberg Bowls Club, 21 Quay St Bundaberg.
Event link on the No Cashless Debit Card Facebook Page or on Leanne Donaldson State ALP Member for Bundaberg’s Facebook page.
Wednesday 7 June Alan Tudge will be visiting for an early coffee with “select business” to reassure them that they will thrive under the card.
Ceduna businesses received similar assurances before they began to fail). This business meeting is from 7am-8am at the bookshop next to the Torquay Post Office. The public have not been invited.
Members of the public will nonetheless be arriving at 6.45 am on the footpath outside the Torquay Post Office for a snap rally action.
Greet Mr Tudge and show him how we see his Fudges!
Thursday 8 June 2017, we have 2 community events.
Public rally and meeting at the Hervey Bay Community Centre. We have a lunch time session at 1pm for families and people who cannot get there in the evening.
A similar 5.30 pm session for working people and other smaller business sole operators that were not included in the “select” invite for business with Alan Tudge.
This event is being organised by George Seymour, Deputy Mayor Fraser Coast Council, and supported by the No Cashless Debit Card Hinkler Facebook page.
Why attend?
So far the public voice is being ignored. Select groups are already being hand-picked for the “steering committee”. Do we accept this process? Who should determine the level of “steerage” Keith Pitt foists on our region?
The region consists of approx 18 towns across the electorate, with the focus on Bundaberg and Hervey Bay. It may be quietly expanded to include Wide Bay region next.
Given the experience in current trial sites, it seems fair to conclude that our region does not want the card. It is paternalistic and disempowering. It brings division of our community and the segregation of people purely based on their economic circumstances. There is already enough shaming of people and constant media attacks on people not working or too sick to work.
The card is not only cruel but also jeopardises local small businesses, the well-being of our people, their physical and mental health.
Many are worried about being left homeless as Indue Terms and Conditions are not compatible with flexibility. The terms remove choices every other citizen enjoys.
This LNP attack on our most vulnerable to relegate people on Centrelink to “steerage class” within our society is disgusting to say the least. Classism redundant since WW2 is re-emerging. Moreover, Indue and shareholders will profit from that same disadvantage.
We are still the citizens of this country; we are human beings not commodities for non-elected billionaires and their mates to make more money from.
This program is entrenching poverty and forcing people to become totally dependant on a system outside the Social Security sector.
Privatisation of the Social Security Safety Net By Stealth (by exaggerating rates of addiction among those on welfare) is wrong. Welfare is set so far below the poverty line that feeding children is already a challenge. The Indue card, which is tied to expensive supermarket chains, will not make that any easier.
Many parents are on DSP or are Carers. School leavers may never experience autonomy or privacy as all stakeholder associated groups will have access to everyone’s’ Centrelink, Medical and Financial Information.
This is not a free Australia. If they plan to roll this out across the country, piece by piece, town by town, region by region, how long before full time workers realise what is going to come of this, after all people working part time receiving any of the “trigger” payments will also be on the card.
“Creating Parity” was used as one of the catch cries for the Indue Welfare Debit Card. In reality the card does the opposite. It reinforces disparity. The card effectively identifies, labels and publicly segregates people from all ages 16-64 not in full time work right at the checkout. It divides our community and society and creating social and financial exclusion from access to normal living. Making every dollar stretch becomes harder. It prevents purchase of secondhand goods privately from FB buy sell sites, markets and private people and smaller business that do not take card.
It will have a detrimental effect on our local economy. We are a seasonal tourist region, but local business still need money coming in the door in the off season. The multinationals will be receiving the profits and the $$ while our local’s business are at risk.
We ALL pay taxes. Forty-five per cent of people over the age of 40 are already out of work. Most have worked and paid income taxes and still pay the normal taxes everyone else does. Thirty-five per cent of people on Newstart are already working but cannot get enough hours to break free from the Centrelink Job Agency Trap. We are not “bludgers” and “loafers”, nor “layabouts” and “lackeys”. We are families, parents, disabled, youth carers. Above all, we are the people of Australia. To remove us from the economy of our regions and funnel the “welfare money” away from our economy is stupid at best. It will not make up for the governments’ failure to create jobs, fund training. Nor will it address any impacts of austerity cuts to vital public services. Indue is no substitute for appropriate supports like: drug rehabilitation, shelters, public housing, adequate mental health and more. $53million has been removed from the Maryborough Dental Unit alone.
To then blame the people in the regions for not having jobs is just an insult.
For local First Nations People, this is no more than history repeating as they are once again returned to what they call the “whiteman’s card” or “rationcard”.
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