The Network: The Challenge is on: Bankstown challenges Basic Cards and Income Management now that it has come to the Big Smoke,

Thursday 20 June 2013

The Challenge is on: Bankstown challenges Basic Cards and Income Management now that it has come to the Big Smoke,

The Income Management Map

It comes from here.

From: Say No to Government's Income Management - Not in Bankstown Not Anywhere

Sent: Thursday, June 20, 2013 1:29 PM

To: paddy.gibson@gmail.com

Subject: Bankstown Coalition set to challenge expansion of income management on anniversary of NT Intervention

Picture from here

Barb Shaw of Mount Nancy Town Camp, Alice Springs.

Say No to Government Income Management -

Not in Bankstown, Not Anywhere Campaign Coalition

Media Release 20 June for immediate release

Bankstown Coalition set to challenge

expansion of income management

on anniversary of NT Intervention

Members of the Say No to Government Income Management - Not in Bankstown, Not Anywhere Campaign Coalition will join a rally this Saturday June 22, marking 6 years since the announcement of the NT Intervention.

The Coalition says it will challenge the further expansion of income management planned for July 1, 2013. Income management began in 2007 for Aboriginal people living under the NT Intervention and was expanded to Bankstown in 2012.

From July 1 2013, new categories of marginalised young people will be compulsorily placed on income management across the NT and all trial sites including Bankstown:

- People under 25 applying for a Crisis Payment for Released Prisoners

- Young people receiving an unable to live at home allowance

- Recipients of the Special Benefit

The Campaign Coalition in Bankstown is supported by 67 organisations representing a diverse range of ethnic and cultural communities along with trade unions and faith groups. Since a declaration calling for a community wide boycott on income management in 2012, Bankstown has the lowest numbers of people on both voluntary and compulsory income management of any trial site.

Semra Guler is a Regional Resource Worker with the Western Sydney Community Forum and a spokesperson for the Coalition:

"All the evidence shows that income management is not improving anyone’s situation. We're having difficulty explaining to our member organisations why social policies that do not work are persisted with and will be expanded to target more community members."

"I've visited Central Australia and seen first hand the destructive impact of income management. I can't find words to describe how systematic racism was that I saw there. We're proud to join the rally protesting 6 years of NT Intervention".

Kylie Sambo is a young Aboriginal leader from the Northern Territory living on income management. She is traveling from Tennant Creek to address the protest:

"Being put on income management was very upsetting. I know how to manage my money - I don't need a card to control what I can spend things on".

The number of Aboriginal people in prison in the NT has doubled under the Intervention. Kylie says that making income management compulsory for young people coming out of prison will do nothing to address the challenges they face:

"So many of our people are going into prison now. When they try to make their life different coming out they have a criminal record which makes it hard to get a job, hard to get a license. Now they'll be more on BasicsCard, it will be really difficult to go out and achieve something in life."

Paddy Gibson is a Senior Researcher with the Jumbunna Indigenous House of Learning at UTS and is a spokesperson for the Coalition:

"Front-line staff have voted with their feet and are refusing to place people on income management in Bankstown. This latest expansion planned by the government is an attempt to circumvent that opposition".

"Six years ago the government launched an Intervention in the NT which has tried to establish punishment and control as the policy framework for dealing with social disadvantage. Young people in the NT have suffered enormously under this policy. Youth suicide rates have increased 160% and reported rates of self-harm are up more than five fold."

"Now marginalised youth in Bankstown are also set to be punished. The government's own evaluations show an astronomical administrative cost of between $6000-8000 per person per year on income management. From Bankstown to the bush we will continue to struggle for funding to be redirected from income management to badly needed for support services and job opportunities for youth who are struggling".