Oxfam reaction to the Rio de Janeiro G20…

Oxfam Australia Media Release Responding to the Rio de Janeiro G20 Ministerial Declaration…

Top 1 per cent bags over $40 trillion…

Oxfam Australia Media Release The richest 1 per cent have amassed $42…

50th annual Trade and Assistance Review released

Productivity Commission Media Release The Productivity Commission has released the 50th annual Trade…

Violence trickles down, and the myths that enable…

By Andrew Klein One of the most dangerous, evil myths permeating western…

IJM welcomes tougher stance on Big Tech for…

International Justice Mission Media Release International Justice Mission (IJM) Australia) welcomes move by…

Playing politics with people’s lives

By Bert Hetebry Politics and journalism work hand in hand in sending messages…

Social Democracy: Transitioning from Neoliberalism

By Denis Hay From Neoliberalism to Social Democracy: A Path to a Fairer…

New report reveals technical and market implications for…

Australian Academy of Technological Sciences & Engineering Media Release A new report released…

«
»
Facebook

The so-called “Cashless Welfare Card”

By Neil Hogan

Not too many people would dispute that there are problems in some communities that need addressing, but thrusting the Cashless Welfare Card on all for the acts of a few is not the answer.

Rather than spending a fortune to administer the Cashless Welfare Card and in the process funneling Commonwealth money to Indue, the money would be much better spent setting up local support groups where the problems exist to get to the root causes that leads to the problems, and set about to change them and help those who need help the most to change their ways.

The fact that any money spent this way would also go into the local economy instead of Indue’s coffers is just an added bonus.

Depriving people of the basic right to spend their money how they see fit is not welfare, it is punishment and will do nothing to resolve the root causes of the problems, in fact all it will do is:

a – build resentment against the people who actually need help.

b – build resentment against the government by the vast majority on welfare who are doing the right thing.

c – feather the nest beds of the few businesses approved to accept the Cashless Welfare Card.

d – promote a black market to get around the effects of the Cashless Welfare Card.

e – provide untold riches to Indue.

We all should ask ourselves; “Is that really the sort of society we want to live in or would we rather live in a society that tries to address the issues in a more humane, positive and harmonious way?”

[interaction id=”5934eb61be3db6a6300aff7f”]

91 comments

Login here Register here
  1. passum2013

    Well if this card was cash less its useless
    Is it a debit card to the government or a Credit card to the seller. No, you are supposed to buy staples with it . So how do you pay rent Doctors medicine rates energy car petrol etc

  2. Zathras

    I often see a row of retirees lined up outside waiting for their local club to open on Pension Day so let’s extend it to the aged pension as well. They’ll only fritter it away on cheap food, booze and the pokies.

    Rights, individual choice and personal dignity have nothing at all to do with it.

    After all, it’s Malcolm and Scott’s money and they should decide how and where it’s to be spent.

    Ignoring the cause and treating the symptoms is what they do best, whether it’s the climate, refugees or unemployment and it’s what keeps them in their own jobs.

    On the other hand, if the government can determine how distributed taxpayer funds are to be spent on an individual basis, then why can’t each taxpayer decide how and where their individually paid taxes are to be allocated?

  3. havanaliedown

    They can use it to pay for all those things, except for alcohol and cigarettes, and withdraw a small amount of cash.

  4. Matters Not

    often see a row of retirees lined up outside waiting for their local club to open on Pension Day

    So do I. But I don’t get upset – their choice and all that. As adults, they can do as they like. But, and it’s a very big but, provided they don’t do so at the expense of the children in their care. For me, that’s why I see value in the ‘card’. Properly targeted, of course.

    For me, children’s rights come first. Anyone disagree with that?

  5. paulwalter

    Looks like it will be cashless,for the poor sods forced onto the system..How about it, for”welfare dependency”?

  6. Jaquix

    There is a lot missing from this article, but partly covered by bobrafto’s comment/link. The Indue company with Liberal party links was I believe given the lucrative contract without it going to tender. They’ve since sold it to Stargroup for over $2 million. Sounds like it could have Packer or Murdoch connections. Explains why the Libs want to expand it. High time this background was investigated.

  7. Michael Taylor

    Jaquix, this is an opinion piece. We appreciate our readers sending in a few words for our ‘Your Say’ section.

  8. Matters Not

    Shit Jaquix – how can ‘fake’ assertions, facts, or whatever, be put to bed? So much of your post is so, so wrong. Do some ‘homework’?

    By the way MT, I am almost giving up on this site re 20 plus times a post with impotence caused by the message:

    name on the Security certificate is invalid or does not match the name on the certificate

    Annoying! In the extreme.

  9. Michael Taylor

    MN, haven’t you been a strong defender of giving everyone a voice? I even remember you sticking up for NoS when the calls to have him removed grew too loud to ignore. ?

  10. Matters Not

    MT, always a strong defender of ‘free speech’, but I am also an advocate of people taking the time to at least trying to getting it as ‘accurate’ as possible. You know – having credibility. For themselves and the benefit of all – including this site.

    Yes – it’s failing of sorts. But I will do the best I can to continue to ‘fail’ in that regard.

  11. Michael Taylor

    I think Neil raises a valid point (that hardly rates a mention elsewhere). Why waste all that money on the card when that money could be put to better use?

    Money is always being ripped out of support services (Indigenous support services, in particular). The money being spent on the card is money I’d prefer to see going to those services than in corporate pockets.

  12. Michael Taylor

    MN, so you want us only to allow comments that you agree with? People are entitled to their opinions. Opinions don’t need to be fact checked, surely.

  13. Matters Not

    MT- why do certain people give so much political legitimacy to such draconian activities by their irresponsibility? Can we think of the children concerned? Can we think of the 40% of children in care in Queensland who are of Aboriginal descent.

    Perhaps we could focus on their rights?

    No simple answers?

    MT not calling for censorship based on opinions. Give me a break.

  14. Michael Taylor

    I will give you a break. I’m out of here.

  15. THink about it

    The card DOES affect children adversely. When kids stand out as different at school, because their parents can’t pay for school excursions, school sports, with the INDUE card.

    If kids have parents who can’t pay credit card repayments, direct debit their bills, buy food cheaply at community markets, do the myriad of things that normal families pay for – but these parents can’t, because so many places do not accept the INDUE card, then YES, the children are adversely affected.

    When the parents can’t buy things on GUMTREE, ebay etc, through paypal anymore, so the bargains the parents used to have access to, they no longer do, yes, this affects the kid’s life.

    I don’t drink/smoke/gamble. I already budget well and put my child’s needs first. But this is through good budgetting. The methods of budgetting are not available under teh INDUE card. So my current good budgetting, would be thrown into chaos. WHich of course would affect not just me.

    There is so much more to life, than just, not buying addiction stuff. Just being able to pay the mortgage, rent etc. SHELTER is the first thing, on the Maslow Hieracrchy of Needs. Kids need shelter. We parents need to be able to pay the rent/mortgage. Not so simple on the INDUE card. People in Ceduna have become homeless due to no longer being able to pay their rent (because of INDUE card).

    So many examples of how the INDUE card adversely affects children, i could go on all night. Paying for swim lessons, i scrimp to make this happen for one term a year. Would stop under INDUE card.

    INDUE card is accepted at David Jones for example, but not at the local community swimming pool. Guess which one i spend money at?

  16. Greg

    well the federal government has paid Indue Ltd over $35,000,000 , they brought a card making machine from Indue , and have ordered and paid for 1,000,000 blank cards . They have consistently lied about the results of the all the trials so far to date , while the crime rate rises in the areas the government has once again cherry picked the police data they wanted and disregarded those large spikes in crime that doesnt suit their agenda . there is no way the government is going to back down distributing this card on national level . even though some independent media has brought this topic up over and over again . the greens , labor and the independents have done nothing to bring the federal government to account for itself . after giving all the evidence of the waist , the lies and cover ups from the card trials to the greens and labor only one member replied to me with a non committal few sentences saying they will look into it with in the next few months. sadly I have to say even though this is going to effect hundreds of thousands of people not one of the current political parties give a dam about the plight of those people . silence or the lack of any true action from any of those parties is nothing less than them abandoning their duty to the people of Australia and they should be held as countable as the LNP for this scheme and cost to the tax payer

  17. Terry2

    Think About It

    parents can’t pay for school excursions, school sports.

    I know a parent who is in this position and who always has to buy school uniforms from the second hand shop and can never afford these extras : nothing to do with the cash-less card as she – a single mum – works and doesn’t get the card but it has everything to do with the removal of the School Kids Bonus introduced by the Gillard government specifically to help out with these extra-curricular expenses but dumped by the Abbott/Turnbull government.

  18. Helen Bates

    Whats wrong with you people.The card to my understanding was implemented to mainly protect indigenous kids ,and women and I don’t care if it is Liberal or Labour who does it,Has there ever been a culture that shows so little empathy for their kids,Its all about the kids people and this 2016 report is shocking

    .There are currently more than 15,000 Indigenous children in out-of-home care across Australia.
    Even though Aboriginal kids make up just 5.5 per cent of children aged 0-17 years in Australia, they represent 35 per cent of those placed in out-of-home care.

    Indigenous children aged 1-4 were 11 times more likely to be in out-of-home care than non-indigenous children in the same age group
    Overall, the rate of Indigenous and non-Indigenous children being moved into out-of-home care is increasing. Nationally, however, Indigenous kids are nine times more likely to be removed than non-Indigenous kids. In some states, it is 15 times more likely.
    Indigenous children are seven times more likely than their non-Indigenous peers be the subject of substantiated reports of harm or risk of harm.

    In WA, they’re 13 times more likely.

    Neglect is the most common form of child abuse among Indigenous kids, followed by emotional abuse, physical abuse and sexual abuse. These differ to non-Indigenous kids, where the most common form of abuse is emotional abuse.

    Domestic violence, creating an unsafe home environment, is also an issue: Indigenous women are 35 times more likely to be hospitalised for non-fatal assault and 11 times more likely to be killed.

    http://www.sbs.com.au/news/insight/explainer/removal-indigenous-children-facts-figures-and-terms-you-need-know

  19. Tracy

    Helen, I share your concern for the welfare of children, but ask yourself, do you really think that uncaring or violent parents are going to significantly modify their behavior because the govt gives them a plastic card with restrictions on its usage? I believe that it would serve us all 100 times better if the govt’s cash splash was used to address neglect and abuse in the community through targeted programs rather than being wasted on feathering the nest of some private providers with links to the LNP. And still no input from Labor or Greens on this issue and as usual what is msm doing besides nothing useful?

  20. Adrianne Haddow

    Helen, can you not see the economic discrepancy where $35 million is taken from the welfare budget and given to a private company to marginalise and ‘punish’ a relatively small sector of welfare recipients?

    Are you not concerned that there are plans to extend this cashless card even further?

    So the welfare budget is effectively financing a private company, instead of the people who need it to survive.

  21. Michael Taylor

    Has there ever been a culture that shows so little empathy for their kids …

    Helen, has there even been a statement on The AIMN as ignorant as that?

    But I don’t blame you for your ignorance. I blame the education system that failed you.

  22. Helen Bates

    Michael Taylor
    read the SBS report above and then tell me any other culture that abuses/neglects and abandons to foster care or other care, their kids to that extent……..waiting……….

  23. Michael Taylor

    Helen, go live in a remote Indigenous community for three years. Go visit about 50 suburban, rural or remote Indigenous communities. Go and talk to thousands of Aborigines. Go work for seven years in Aboriginal Affairs. Go and get a degree in Aboriginal Affairs Administration. Top it off with an Honours degree in Aboriginal studies. ……. waiting …….

  24. Helen Bates

    Michael Taylor so did you do all that and turn a blind eye to the abuse that is so obvious to everyone else

    Australia

    Number one on our list of 11 Countries With The Highest Rates of Child Abuse in The World is Australia. It is estimated that close to 50,000 cases of child abuse are reported in Australia each year.
    Way above

    Pakistan
    Bangladesh
    Botswana
    Afghanistan

    http://www.insidermonkey.com/blog/11-countries-with-the-highest-rates-of-child-abuse-in-the-world-353626/?singlepage=1

  25. Harquebus

    The push towards a cashless society is global and its scope will include everything and all.

    Search criteria: cashless society

    Cheers.

  26. Michael Taylor

    Helen, from the article you linked to:

    Suellyn Tighe, of Grandmothers Against Removals, says these issues are not ‘Indigenous’ issues, but societal issues generally.

    That is so true. It’s a pity you want to point the finger at one culture only.

    The article is looking at statistics only. It tells us the what but doesn’t tell us the why. Sadly, until you complete the tasks I mentioned above … you’ll remain in the group with 20 million other Australians that will never know the why. It’s not all black and white.

  27. Michael Taylor

    Me turn a blind eye? WTF! Thank you for making me spill my coffee all over my iPad.

  28. Michael Taylor

    Helen, I get the impression that you think there is something inherently wrong with Aboriginal people, as you provide only a limited set of statistics. I think you’ll find that similar statistics exist in any disadvantaged society.

  29. Freethinker

    Helen, if you think that Michael or the AIMN bloggers for that matter are turning a blind eye, then you have not reading the articles and comments on them.
    Selecting reading? perhaps

  30. Helen Bates

    I based my statement on the SBS report which you fail to mention or do you think it is a fabrication.Once again I post the report so please read it and tell me where it is wrong
    Tell me the variation in non indigenous and indigenous stats aren’t alarming
    There are currently more than 15,000 Indigenous children in out-of-home care across Australia.
    Even though Aboriginal kids make up just 5.5 per cent of children aged 0-17 years in Australia, they represent 35 per cent of those placed in out-of-home care.

    Indigenous children aged 1-4 were 11 times more likely to be in out-of-home care than non-indigenous children in the same age group

    Indigenous kids are nine times more likely to be removed than non-Indigenous kids. In some states, it is 15 times more likely.
    Indigenous children are seven times more likely than their non-Indigenous peers be the subject of substantiated reports of harm or risk of harm.
    In WA, they’re 13 times more likely.

    Indigenous women are 35 times more likely to be hospitalised for non-fatal assault and 11 times more likely to be killed.

    Freethinker, please point out any “fake news” in the SBS report or didn’t you bother reading it?

    I’m a mum and any form of abuse is unacceptable and it astounds me that you people go into denial

  31. freefall852

    I remember many years ago seeing a room plan of a Nth African tribal “house” in a social / anthropological study by Pierre Bourdieu. It had a couple of rooms for the humans as well as one room for the stock which we were informed were brought inside the house at night for safety..I wont go into the social side of the study, look up Bourdieu yourself if you want..But , as a builder, the first thing I noticed is that the “house” had but one door, which meant (if we are to trust the plan of Bourdieu) that the stock : a few cattle, goats etc. would have to be brought through the “living” rooms used by the humans..this would inevitable result in deposits of either urine or fecal matter in the living environment ( I have horses, they show no respect for time or location). While this is nothing so unusual when we see docco’s on third-world poverty in densely populated / desperate areas..it does give unrefuted evidence of a serious breakdown in a social society.

    Having read extensively in Roman history and their civic constructions / governance in the Nth African coastal areas, the vast intact remains evidence of the serious nature of those civic ideals, I have to speculate that since those times there has been a slow decline if not a complete breakdown (perhaps due to Roman corruption never recovered) of the tribal mores that governed social conditions in that region.

    The same can be said for the breakdown of indigenous social conditions that are now replicated throughout many remaining communities, that while preserving the emotional intent and spirit of their multi millennia habits and codes, the entire peoples are up against not only an administration past that deliberately sought to exterminate their culture and colour from the white aust’ society (see curfews against the indigenous folk in central Aust”) , but have been also “offered up” as a kind of “blood sacrifice” to the religious zeal of any and every slime-bag religion that has come to call on whiteys favour..PLUS are expected to embrace the western economic ideals most unsuited to their communal generosity…and now we have some people pointing to the wreck of an advanced peoples whose habits and lifestyles held an entire continent in pristine natural health for tens of thousands of years, and proclaiming : “Look!..they don’t know how to look after themselves!..we mast step in to solve the “problem”…Just like sending “gran'” to the old folks home on her first stumble about her home of fifty or so years.

    “Ask not for whom the bell tolls….it (f*ckin’) tolls for thee..” ….. : https://freefall852.wordpress.com/2017/02/01/an-advanced-society-2/

  32. Deanna Jones

    Helen there is an undeniable connection between the ongoing impact of white colonisation on the traditional owners, and child removal. There are many children removed from white parents too. What do you say about that? What about all the white men who sexually abuse children, murder their children and their partners? What do you say? These issues did not exist on this land until white men came. I challenge you to go over to youtube and watch for free the documentary Kanyini. 52 minutes of your time is all it will take for you to be enlightened. Go.

  33. Kaye Lee

    Why wasn’t the card targeted towards those individuals who may have benefited from budget assistance and combine it with support programs for that individual? Why was it allocated due to postcode rather than need?

    Helen, you completely ignore the issue of disadvantage and the role it plays. Until we address that by improving health, education, employment and an avenue to self-determination and hope for possibilities of the future, things like cashless welfare cards will make not one iota of difference in changing lives.

    If we really cared we would have regional rehab centres, early education centres where parents can take part, meal programs at schools and relevant curricula, support programs teaching life skills and parenting skills and employment readiness, active government involvement in providing jobs, we would be building refuges and emergency accommodation for those fleeing violence rather than building more jails.

    As with terrorism, look to why it is happening so we can prevent it rather than reacting to what is happening by more punishment.

  34. Helen Bates

    Deanna Jones this isn’t about white colonisation which happened 2 plus centuries ago this is about kids{and women} 2016-2017
    ” What about all the white men who sexually abuse children, murder their children and their partners? What do you say?
    ” appalling and should have the book thrown at them

    so, what do you say when the stats with another group are 15 times, 17 times 35 times higher than that

    You go away content in blaming actions 2 centuries ago for the abuses of today and let the little 2016 2017 victims suffer while you feel safe in your beliefs that white colonisation back then causes this abuse NOW
    i hope that gives you a warm fuzzy feeling as you ignore todays problems
    What’s the point you people really don’t care about the victims just a little political point scoring
    .

  35. freefall852

    Ahhhh!!!!…it’s effing ‘orrible…’orrible!!

  36. helvityni

    Deanna asks : ” What about all the white men who sexually abuse children, murder their children and their partners? What do you say?”

    Helen: “appalling and should have the book thrown at them”

    Helen that’s a very light punishment for the crimes committed by white men, don’t ya think…for sexual abuse , murder…?

    A very light book, or a heavy one, soft or hard covered?

  37. Kaye Lee

    Tell me Helen, why do you think neglect and abuse rates might be higher in the Indigenous population?

  38. Mick Byron

    I had a question asked of me by a friend and it seems that it could circumvent the card
    A and B are friends, A has a card B doesn’t . B needs $50 dollars of groceries. A purchases them with his card B gives him $50 cash for the groceries.
    Seems possible

  39. Helen Bates

    helvityni
    “Throw the book at em.” means prosecute someone to the fullest extent of the law,

    : Dictionary of American Slang, 1960 ed., says:

    : 1 To sentence a guilty person to the maximum term of imprisonment. Orig. underworld use. From the image of a judge sentencing a criminal to every penalty found in books of law. –> 2 To penalize, punish, reprimand, or criticize a person severely. Fairly common since c1950.

  40. Kaye Lee

    I ask again, any thoughts on why abuse rates are higher? Do you think racism, disadvantage, poverty and unemployment are contributing factors? Do you think a lack of support services in regional areas adds to the problem? Do you think the trauma of the past is so easily erased?

  41. helvityni

    Helen, not interested in words/ expressions of out-dated American slang….

  42. helvityni

    Helen, the book that today’s Americans refer to, is more often than not: The Bible….

  43. Helen Bates

    Kaye LeeJune 9, 2017 at 11:25 am
    I ask again, any thoughts on why abuse rates are higher?
    How would I know and you can come up with excuses dating back to colonisation if you like but “Do you think racism, disadvantage, poverty and unemployment are contributing factors?” if that is your excuse for the neglect and abuse of their kids why aren’t the rates much higher in the rest of Australia where “disadvantage, poverty and unemployment” are high
    Besides that I don’t find any of those issues a reason to willfully neglect or abuse your children

    helvityni
    Play all the word games you like but my message was clear
    “What about all the white men who sexually abuse children, murder their children and their partners? What do you say?”

    Helen: “appalling and should have the book thrown at them”

    Punish them to the full extent of the Law . clear enough?

  44. freefall852

    Alright, Helen, we have given you a number of realities of how and why, when and where.. you seem unable to grasp either the lesson or example from history..now we can cut to the chase:…: WHAT is YOUR problem?

  45. Kaye Lee

    “How would I know”

    Ahhhhh…so you are making your assessment without any knowledge or any thought or any real concern.

    You want to punish and humiliate people into being good citizens – is that it?

  46. Shogan

    Helen Bates, how will the punishment of the many for the actions of the few resolve the root causes of the problems this so called Cashless Welfare Card is supposedly going to fix?

  47. Kaye Lee

    “if that is your excuse for the neglect and abuse of their kids why aren’t the rates much higher in the rest of Australia”

    The rest of Australia didn’t have previous generations’ land and wages confiscated. Our grandparents were paid for their work and subsequent generations have built on the inheritance from their ancestors.

    The rest of Australia didn’t have a stolen generation where families were ripped apart and children brought up in loveless institutions to be used, again, as slave labour.

    The rest of Australia hasn’t seen national imprisonment rate increase by 77 per cent over the last 15 years, and hospitalisation rates for self-harm increase by 56 per cent over the last decade.

    The rest of Australia hasn’t been pushed into remote areas and then had their services cut off.

    The rest of Australia doesn’t suffer racism from people who seek to stereotype – people who, by their own admission, know nothing.

  48. Deanna Jones

    Helen, colonisation was not an isolated event that happened and everyone moved on from, it wasn’t like a storm or something. White people destroyed, intentionally, an entire cultural system, quite literally, resulting in dysfunction, and a lot of people trapped between cultures still. You need to educate yourself a bit. And don’t preach at me. I’m a social scientist, I have many years of experience assessing families in which the issues you speak of occur. I know my shit, and the reason Aboriginal people are at the top of the stats in so many of those areas of need, is a result of the ongoing impact of colonisation. Check that key word there, ONGOING.

  49. Shogan

    Slavery comes in many guises and often via the back door camouflaged with good intentions by people who think they know better.

    Twiggy’s Cashless Welfare Cards are the chains of slavery of the 21st century and the government has bought into it big time as punishment of the less well off for the benefit of the 1% is writ large in their DNA.

    In this case Indue and it’s shareholders are the 1%.

  50. Shogan

    By the way, I am Neil Hogan & the author of The so-called “Cashless Welfare Card” article.

  51. diannaart

    The implementation of a “cashless welfare card” by a powerful entity (government) upon a powerless group of people, for the ‘control’ of the few within that powerless group is lazy authoritarianism. Better the money be spent at the ground level. That is, give help directly where it is needed and make it timely and appropriate to the situation.

    That indigenous people, our First Nation people, were the first to have this Big Brother type control (and it is about control) and adds to further misuse by way of injustice of taxpayers’ money.

    Supporting the Cashless card while claiming to care for the people forced onto this system is the type of cognitive dissonance that has become an epidemic in our Post-Truth society.

    Such welfare from a ‘safe’ distance is not aimed at helping others apart from those who implement the system. It is corrupt.

  52. Michael Taylor

    Neil, I didn’t recognise you without your cap.

    Your article has stirred a few people up, by the looks of it. ?

  53. paulwalter

    Helen Bates has a point, but basically, it is about the government making scapegoats of people, black white or brindle, as to welfare policy to distract attention from the useful monies being sneaked off by the rich.

  54. Terry2

    I really don’t know enough about the cashless welfare card and reading thsese post doesn’t really help much .
    Can you use it at Target to buy goods, will Woolies or Coles take it for groceries; can you tap-it on public transport ?

    In other words is it just another debit card programmed to reject certain barcodes ?

  55. Michael Taylor

    Paul, nobody has denied that Helen Bates has a point. It’s just her denial that factors have contributed to these statistics. Helen makes it look as though she’s pointing the finger of blame at Aboriginal people. She has not accepted White Australia’s role in making Aborigines marginalised and disadvantaged. Yes, she is appalled at the statistics, but seems to think we are not. Like I said, we haven’t denied it.

    Like you, we want something done about. Unlike her, we want to root causes addressed.

  56. Michael Taylor

    Fully agree, Michael

    Outstanding comment. Wise words from a wise soul.

    10/10.

    ?

  57. Michael Taylor

    Incidentally, Terry/Dianna, the post had a link to Indue but a couple of hours ago the page was removed (so I deleted the link).

  58. diannaart

    Thanks for the info regarding link. I just get a bit irritated at many people (not picking in Terry2 here, just people) who either, whine because they think they should be spooned fed, or, people who are clearly not well-informed but still proceed to very strong opinions on topic.

  59. silkworm

    I’d like to thank Helen Bates for pointing out that the chief target of the card are Aboriginals. This supports the contention that the card is essentially racism dressed up as “love.”

  60. Terry2

    diannaart

    I’m obviously not up to speed on this subject as I thought the Cashless-card was being rolled out nationally including urban centres but evidently it only operates in Ceduna and East Kimberley.

    Thanks for the links and, yes, slippers would be nice : seven degrees here this morning !

  61. Helen Bates

    Deanna you can carry on about colonisation till the cows come hope but that makes you an enabler. I was taught by my parents to “own” my actions and decisions and it is time others started owning them too and not being enabled to blame Captain Cook or Arthur Phillip.
    I really don’t give a damn if some people who collect a benefit then go off into a week long drug and alcohol binge and totally neglect their kids are forced to use a card.
    As a parent of 4 my job is to raise nurture and protect my kids and the only thing in this sad sorry scenario I care about is the kids
    You carry on with your social science and let the world float by as the kids continue to be damaged and abused.

    I don’t want my tax dollars going to parents who blow their money on dope and booze while their pre teen daughter, implanted with a “slut stick” is in the early hours of the morning,of selling sexual favours for cash or petrol,

    Suffer little children !!!

    If a card helps to end just a few young kids suffering I’m all for it

    The Breaking the Silence report of the Aboriginal Sexual Assault Taskforce (ACSAT) interviewed more than 300 Aboriginal people in NSW in 2007 and found that not one could name a family unaffected by the scourge of child sexual assault [11]. However, the government released no funding to implement the report’s recommendations.

    Some victims are under the age of 10. Young girls are reported as accepting that abuse was inevitable and resistance was futile [9]. Children trade sex for money, drugs, alcohol or petrol. Reports about sexual abuse in communities make “harrowing reading”.

    Source: https://www.creativespirits.info/aboriginalculture/health/aboriginal-sexual-
    abuse#ixzz4jXltrqzE

    Truck drivers are buying sex from Aboriginal girls under 16 in several states, an Australian Crime Commission investigation has revealed.

    The use of contraceptive implants among indigenous girls – known as “slut sticks” – has also found to be widespread, particularly among 12-year-olds, “making them a target of sexual attention”.

    In May, an ACC taskforce visited 142 communities across Australia, including the Northern Territory as part of the federal intervention to curb child sex abuse.

    The taskforce found convicted child sex offenders working with children; children as young as seven experimenting with sex toys; and children trading sex for petrol and food. Prominent families and service providers were found abusing power and community leaders were implicated in abuse.

    this may be older news but it just shows the practices today still continue and SOMETHING needs to be done to save the kids

  62. diannaart

    @Terry2

    🙂

    @Helen Bates

    The CWC does nothing whatsoever to stop sexual abuse of young people by predators.

  63. Michael Taylor

    Helen Bates, I have no doubt that you care what’s happening to children, and that’s admirable. Everybody should, and I would like to presume that everybody does. On this site, they do.

    But I also have no doubt that you’re an ignorant racist.

    You might have noticed from my earlier comments that I didn’t blame you for your ignorance. Well I’ve changed my mind on that. You clearly wish to remain ignorant.

  64. Michael Taylor

    Deanna you can carry on about colonisation till the cows come hope but that makes you an enabler.

    What a stupid statement.

    Because Deanna has the insight to look deeper into an issue you claim that she’s just enabling child abuse. Utter rot.

  65. Harquebus

    Michael Taylor
    While thinking about this issue last night, I wondered why Australian Aboriginals did not have the bow and arrow. Or did they? You are the man to ask.
    Cheers.

  66. Kaye Lee

    I am wondering how quarantining family income will stop truck drivers from paying young girls for sex and why it is the girls’ families who are being punished rather than the bastards who are abusing the girls. Do you think the cashless welfare card will stop children trading sex for petrol?

    “I was taught by my parents ”

    Lucky you. What happens to those who were taken from their parents and told they were dead? Who taught them? What happens to those who are locked up hundreds of miles away from their parents because they took some biscuits? Who teaches them? What happens to those forced to go to boarding school far from family and friends?

    You seem to have no perception about current day disadvantage and have clearly never been the victim of racism. To suggest the only bad thing that happened was when Arthur Phillip landed is to totally ignore the current day situation.

    Your ignorance is astonishing.

  67. Michael Taylor

    H’, why didn’t Native Americans have the boomerang? Or the spear? ?

  68. Harquebus

    Michael Taylor
    Surely, there must have been some contact with those that did have the bow and arrow. Papua for example.

    “The Native Indian Weapons and Tools include bows and arrows, tomahawks, war clubs, knives, spears, war hammers, the Atlatl (Spear thrower) and lances.”
    https://www.warpaths2peacepipes.com/native-indian-weapons-tools/

    Search criteria: early native american indian weapons

    A couple of suggestions were, the bow and arrow was invented after Aborigines arrived or that the game hunted was too big to be killed or maimed instantly by the bow and arrow. I am going with the latter.

    “In Australia the animals hunted were often much bigger, several species of kangaroo grow to the height of a man, and their hide would no doubt be tougher than the smaller wallabies hunted in New Guinea.”
    http://austhrutime.com/weapons.htm

    Search criteria: why australian aborigines did not have bow and arrow

    I guess the Australian hunter gatherers of the future will no doubt come to the same conclusion for the same as yet unknown reason.

    Cheers.

  69. Zathras

    While the Australian aborigines apparently didn’t have the bow and arrow somehow they managed to survive for tens of thousands of years without it.

    Perhaps they did have them at one time long ago but abandoned their use – who knows and does it even matter?

    They didn’t have the wheel either, probably because it was of no practical use.

  70. helvityni

    They survived with bush tucker and with their spears and boomerangs; it’s our way of eating (sugar/ fat/white flour), and our way of drinking (alcohol) that’s making them sick and killing them…and us too.

  71. helvityni

    …also their spears did not manage to kill many people either, we are doing a much “better” job with our smart weapons and our bombs…we call it progress…

  72. Jennifer Meyer-Smith

    Well said, Think about it @12.38am on 9 June.

  73. Jennifer Meyer-Smith

    Great question, Shogun @ 1.05 pm on 9 June. It will be good to see supporters of the Cashless Card answer it (especially those who won’t be impacted themselves by its introduction).

  74. Jennifer Meyer-Smith

    Points a-e raised by Neil Hogan summarise how ineffectual the Cashless Welfare Card would be and how lucrative for the wrong beneficiaries.

    Just another band-aid treatment cum scam from the LNP and Twiggy.

  75. paulwalter

    Michael Taylor, I guess we saw the “real” Helen Bates emerge in that last comment, 7.59.

    Re Kaye Lee’s comment, following, you could ask similar questions about the way grog has been supplied to remote communities over time.

    ………………………………………………………..

    Personally I d like to see the rich on a limit to stop the spiralling of real estate prices and much of what is passed off as modern art.

  76. Kaye Lee

    It’s interesting, the reaction to different groups. We hear of abuse of Aboriginal children by truck drivers and we blame the families of the children, ignoring the poverty, disadvantage, trauma and racism that contribute to their circumstances.

    Should we likewise blame the families of all those children abused by Catholic clergy?

    Facts also help.

    While the rates of Indigenous children entering the child protection system are higher than the rates for other children (except in Tasmania), contrary to popular perceptions, the data suggests that non-Indigenous children were more likely than Indigenous children to have substantiations where the main type of abuse was sexual. For example, in New South Wales, 17% of other Australian children had substantiations where the main type of abuse was sexual abuse, compared with 9% of Indigenous children .

    Likewise in the Northern Territory, in 2005-06 (the year prior to the Northern Territory Emergency Response (NTER)) 4.2% of Indigenous child substantiations were for sexual abuse compared to 9.3% of other Territorian children, a figure that does not appear to support the allegations of endemic child abuse in NT remote communities that was the rationale for the NTER.

    http://www.humanrights.gov.au/publications/appendix-2-statistical-overview-aboriginal-and-torres-strait-islander-peoples-australia#fnB155

  77. Harquebus

    “Should we likewise blame the families of all those children abused by Catholic clergy?”

    Yes. They are stupid enough to believe that religious crap and send their children off to indoctrination then, we should blame them. Fools they are.

    Cheers.

  78. darrel nay

    How about the indoctrination in public schools?

    I was lucky enough to attend both Catholic and State schools. At Catholic school they taught us that God is God, and at State schools some teachers pushed ideas that effectively suggested the State is God – which of course painted a picture that the teacher is the priest of the state.

    Live and let live

    Each to their own

  79. wam

    Michael you are too kind to the bates woman. She is seduced by the ‘truth’ as provided by the media and until Aborigines are seen as ‘normal’ some good some not by non-Aborigines and treated as ‘normal’ her view, that Aborigines are not equal and require the twiggy management, will prevail in our society and she can deny the special brand of racism that confront Aborigines at every level and is reinforced daily in schools, media and casual observation. A racism unseen and therefore untreated in Australia.
    Macklin was very disappointing in maintaining the brough plan and especially by not implementing an opt in or, at least, an opt out mechanism.

    Labor seems to agree with the LNP/twiggy concept of LCD (maths) declaring Aborigines as not having the inteligence to manage their affairs.

    Oh, Kaye, why are you not a labor politician.

  80. OPPOSE THE MAJOUR PARTIES

    MT. “The money being spent on the card is money I’d prefer to see going to those services than in corporate pockets”.

    if u read the artical posted by michael griffin on this site sometime ago you will find that point is pressed strongly in that artical.

  81. Matters Not

    And if you listened to Q&A tonight, you would note that it’s not a ‘black and white’ issue.

    No simple answers please. Michael Griffin should note.

    But probably won’t.

  82. Michael Taylor

    And if anyone in the government would care to ask me for better alternatives to the welfare card …

    But they probably won’t.

  83. Jennifer Meyer-Smith

    What was said on Q&A tonight please, MN?

    My viewing has been divided between 3 channels tonight but my opposition to the Welfare Card is not.

  84. Kaye Lee

    I don’t think Jacinta Price is very representative of the Aboriginal viewpoint. She would be a good candidate for Cory’s mob from the sound of her. She puts the boot into Labor every chance she gets. She ignores all the evidence to tell us what her aunty thinks.

  85. diannaart

    Jacinta Price… one of the carefully chosen, can’t have just ‘anyone’ to represent First Nation people.

  86. Lynne Chinnery

    Problem is it is not only being aimed at Aboriginal people , and race should not be the reason, it is intended to control anyone on low income who qualifies for a pension. and controls their spending ……….diabolical discrimination, as if all who qualify have similar needs and whose freedom of choice etc should be limited at the whim of any other …….being a millionaire has obviously made some of our spokespersons believe it automatically gives them the right to EXERT CONTROL over disadvantaged. That is not democracy. So many people who have paid their taxes through their working lives and also given support to less fortunate are now being discriminated against, when they should have the security of their pensions and be treated with the dignity they deserve.

  87. Matters Not

    it is intended to control anyone on low income who qualifies for a pension.

    Perhaps you have a link for that extraordinary claim – re intentions? Maybe some ‘evidence’? Any children involved?

    Or is that just your ‘take on things’?

  88. OPPOSE THE MAJOUR PARTIES

    the welfare card is imposed. upon people who do.not have children so.how is it designed to.protevt children. it was first imposed upon aboriginal australians and has expanded to non aboriginal australians to avoid rascist allegations. this is the way it will be introduced. it will gradually spread to all welfare recipients including family tax beneficiaries and pensioners. Hanson supports it and wants it applied to all welfare recipients regardless of classification. its just a matter of time.

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

The maximum upload file size: 2 MB. You can upload: image, audio, video, document, spreadsheet, interactive, text, archive, code, other. Links to YouTube, Facebook, Twitter and other services inserted in the comment text will be automatically embedded. Drop file here

Return to home page