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NIT FORUMS: CDEP: Closing the gap or creating a crisis?
ISSUE 191 - 26 Nov 2009
ISSUE 191, November 26, 2009: INGE KRAL with DAMIAN McLEAN and HARVEY MURRAY* delve into the dismantling of CDEP in the Ngaanyatjarra lands of Western Australia and what it means for the region.
A few weeks ago two adults were killed in a car accident on a dusty back road in the Ngaanyatjarra Lands in the central desert region of Western Australia.
At first glance this incident can be filed away as another statistic in the appalling tally of Aboriginal alcohol-related road deaths.
However by digging a little deeper an insidious chain of events can be linked to this event.
Without a doubt alcohol was the factor that led to these deaths.
However these deaths can also be indirectly connected to the recent changes to CDEP in the Ngaanyatjarra Lands.
The Ngaanyatjarra Lands are home to some of the remotest and most disadvantaged Aboriginal communities in remote Australia.
The ten communities in the Ngaanyatjarra Lands have a history of working together to improve their circumstances and to ensure that the communities survive and thrive.
The Ngaanyatjarra Council provides a vehicle for a collective response to poverty and disadvantage. Managing poverty is the Council's first and greatest challenge.
In July 2009, the process of progressively phasing out CDEP in the Ngaanyatjarra Lands commenced despite protestations by the Ngaanyatjarra Council and its member communities.
The dismantling of CDEP will continue for two years until the remaining 640 CDEP participants are either receiving Centrelink Benefits or have purportedly found employment in the "real economy".
Despite the government's best intentions, it is feared that when the current system of providing employment in the Ngaanyatjarra Lands through CDEP ceases, welfare will actually become more entrenched.
As in other remote regions of Australia, there are very few mainstream labour market employment options in the Ngaanyatjarra Lands.
Consequently, as more and more people move onto Centrelink benefits, the current CDEP system that has supported employment and community-based income management and welfare will be removed.
Community programs that benefit the whole, rather than the individual will be undermined.
Put simply, the move from community-based CDEP employment with wages received in the home community, to individual Centrelink NewStart payments that can be accessed autonomously anywhere in Australia via ATM Keycards, will profoundly weaken the economic certainty and social fabric of one of the poorest regions in Australia.
Already the cracks are showing.
Individual finances are less tied to the 'home' community and the 'common good', and mobility is on the increase.
With better roads and more access to vehicles than at any other time in the past, the 2000 odd residents of the Ngaanyatjarra Lands are taking advantage of unprecedented ease in travel time and distance.
As more time is spent in the urban centres of Laverton, Kalgoorlie or Alice Springs there is increased temptation to spend limited finances on Western consumer goods and on alcohol.
Furthermore, with Centrelink payments working on a fortnightly cycle, compared to the CDEP weekly payment cycle, there is a very real possibility of a significant reduction in potential earnings within the Ngaanyatjarra local economy.
As a consequence, the fragile food security provided through the community stores in the Ngaanyatjarra communities will be put under increasing pressure.
In addition, individuals will be attracted to the loans provided by Centrepay (the Centrelink 'welfare credit card' option) where deductions are automatically taken out of fortnightly Centrelink payments to pay off loans given, e.g. for white goods and other big ticket items.
As these debts increase, the actual cash in hand received fortnightly decreases, so those already in a poverty cycle will resort to getting cash from unscrupulous moneylenders at exorbitant rates of interest.
Reportedly one such lender allegedly charges 50 percent interest, then holds onto people's Keycards and PIN numbers to ensure that he can access their Centrelink payments to retrieve what is owed to him prior to Centrepay taking out its deductions.
Some individuals are already caught in this desperate cycle so that by the time the Centrelink payday comes around they are again left with little or no cash in their Keycard accounts.
In this scenario, alcohol and other drugs are gaining increased currency as the desperate turn to grog-running to the lands make extra cash to pay off the debt.
The moneylender provides an opportunity for individuals to access large amounts of cash unavailable under CDEP.
Alcohol is often bought with this cash flow, and is being transported to the borders of the Ngaanyatjarra Lands, offering increased temptation to those who would have previously abided by the community imposed By-Laws banning alcohol - By-Laws that no longer have the potency they did in the recent past.
It is in this context that the car accident a few weeks ago can be viewed.
It is an event reminiscent of the alcohol-related chaos and uncertainty of the 1970s and 1980s.
That is, before CDEP brought sufficient economic stability to the Ngaanyatjarra region and paved the way for a period of law and order and relative economic stability.
Why? Because it is understood that the car was bought with money advanced on four keycards held by a moneylender who allegedly lent over $3000, thus providing cash for the purchase of the car, and possibly the alcohol.
History of CDEP in Ngaanyatjarra Lands
CDEP may not have been a perfect system but it has served the Ngaanyatjarra region well since its inception in 1977 and has been one of the most effective CDEP programs in remote Australia.
In 1977 H.C. Coombs recommended that the desert communities of Warburton, Wingellina, Blackstone, Jameson and Warakurna be included in the experimental phase of the new CDEP scheme.
According to the government of the day, CDEP was initiated to ameliorate the conundrum faced by remote communities which did not form part of the open labour market (Hansard 'Aboriginal Employment' 26 May 1977), as well as improve the socioeconomic aspects of community life by reducing the damaging effect of alcohol, increasing training and developing general employment skills. Prior to the introduction of CDEP, 50% of people in Warburton were not on any form of income support and the availability of paid work was limited.
The poverty at this time was so profound as to render even the prospect of operating a viable community store unsustainable. The dire circumstances were exacerbated by a confluence of factors including the introduction of Unemployment Benefits and increased access to alcohol.
After the 1972 election of the Whitlam Labor government it was declared that all Aborigines should be paid award wages when in employment and should otherwise be eligible for the full range of social security payments, including Unemployment Benefits (Sanders 1986).
Thus, with the introduction of Unemployment Benefits Ngaanyatjarra people had their first experience of so-called 'free money', 'sit down' or 'money for nothing'. Prior to 1971, alcohol restrictions still applied to any Aboriginal person in Western Australia not holding an exemption certificate issued under the provisions of the Native (Citizenship Rights) Act.
After July 1971, this Act was repealed and Western Australian Aborigines gained full citizenship rights and unrestricted access to alcohol (Fletcher 1992). T
The ramifications of these changes rippled through the sociocultural system not only of Western Australian towns with a large Aboriginal population, but also remote communities like Warburton. The combination of non-restrictive drinking rights and unprecedented access to cash with the introduction of Unemployment Benefits aggravated law and order problems.
During the 1970s and 80s, competition for scarce resources engendered high levels of social tension, dysfunction and violence. Petrol sniffing became rife and Warburton, in particular, was on the point of collapse. These problems remained until the Ngaanyatjarra were able to implement strategies to curtail the ravaging effects of alcohol and substance abuse by exploiting the mechanisms of law and order from mainstream Australia. The passing of the Aboriginal Communities Act 1979 (WA) enabled the Ngaanyatjarra Council to utilise Sections under the Act to create By-Laws that allowed them to assert a standard of acceptable behaviour as determined by the communities (Staples and Cane 2002). The By-Laws were gazetted in July 1989 and the development of law and order enabled by the By-Laws has been a critical factor in achieving stability in the Ngaanyatjarra region.
The structure and order achieved through CDEP was another key factor in rebuilding the shattered fabric of the communities, rebuilding community governance, and then forming a regional engagement with other communities to establish the Ngaanyatjarra Council.
CDEP stabilised the community and held out the prospect of continued beneficial change in a staged, affordable and organised progress.
This was within a coherent program set up administratively, not legislatively. It therefore had the flexibility to be useful and relevant to the most disadvantaged, culturally diverse and geographically isolated elements of Australian society. CDEP has thus been the underpinning government program that has enabled Ngaanyatjarra people to manage their communities and improve their standard of living.
For most people in the Ngaanyatjarra Lands CDEP has also been their only experience of employment, as hitherto mainstream labour market employment experience was virtually non-existent, and those on CDEP saw themselves as workers.
Locals fear that the changes to CDEP will in effective take away the incentive to work that has built up over the past few decades.
A 'no work no pay' rule exists at the discretion of each community. However the base rate of CDEP allocated weekly to all adults not on social security benefits has provided sufficient income to be able to house, clothe and feed individuals and families. For those inclined to work longer and harder the extra top-up benefits have provided a decent weekly wage relative to the local economy.
The last ABS census listed Warburton as the town with the lowest per capita income in Australia.
These low incomes are coupled with a high cost of living due to the isolation and a range of other factors.
At present, the CDEP rate is allocated at $514 a fortnight. The single NewStart Allowance rate is $456 a fortnight.
Thus an individual will receive $58 a fortnight less on Centrelink. The Ngaanyatjarra Council estimates that there will an annual reduction in income of some $1,267,875. This amount is a reduction of potential earnings of 15.06 percent within the Ngaanyatjarra local economy.
Income management and food security
CDEP for Ngaanyatjarra people was and is the most important tool available to them to address poverty.
Prior to the introduction of the concept of 'income management associated with the Northern Territory emergency intervention, the Ngaanyatjarra communities had operated their own form of 'income management' to assist their communities to sustainably and fairly manage the impact of poverty and disadvantage. Ngaanyatjarra people and communities have progressed by members giving up a measure of individual benefit in favour of the common good.
Each week, a small amount of money is set aside by all CDEP participants to address a range of community programs. These include health and education initiatives, funeral costs, emergency transport funds, as well as essential costs of living, such as rent and electricity. CDEP salaries to participants have been substantially income managed to 40% with no additional cost to the Australian taxpayer, unlike income management systems recently introduced by the Federal government in other parts of remote Australia.
Currently, CDEP salaries are provided weekly. This is a critical budgeting tool for people on low incomes. It safeguards food security, builds budgeting skills and promotes community welfare (in particular for children). By moving to Centrelink payments, CDEP participants will receive a fortnightly payment, however these will have a serious and negative effect on remote communities.
In particular the operation of community stores will be severely impacted upon as very poor people who are used to budgeting weekly, transfer to fortnightly payments. It is likely that the stores will have to manage boom and bust periods, with such fluctuations negatively impacting on the stores' ability to plan and manage stock, in particular the quality of perishable items like fresh fruit and vegetables.
This in turn will impact on the successful regional logistics and delivery business established by Ngaanyatjarra people, the Ngaanyatjarra Agency and Transport Services (NATS).
There will also be a considerable strain placed on the store managers, as they attempt to cope with individuals seeking credit and unable to feed their families. It is very likely that this will lead to a high turnover of community store staff, which negatively affects community stability and effective management of an essential service. Additionally, these factors point to a high likelihood of negative outcomes for children on communities.
Extending from the availability of quality goods at the store to an increase in no food days for children, the proposed move to Centrelink benefits will not help to close the gap for young Aboriginal children in the Ngaanyatjarra Lands. It may well increase the disadvantage faced by children in communities.
CDEP and bureaucratic literacies
Over the last few decades the on-costs attached to CDEP have funded the development of the infrastructure that has enabled the administration of the community-based 'income management' system described above.
People who have marginal literacy and numeracy, limited use of English and no postal service for the delivery of individual mail have become and remain visible to government through their community organisation and the Ngaanyatjarra Council.
In turn, these community organisations have given individual people a face and identity to address disadvantage.
The community office has been the administrative hub that has taken collective responsibility for the complex web of bureaucratic and financial literacies including: receipt of mail, making phone calls to banks, government departments and parole officers, filling in tax returns, and registering births and deaths, as well as filing tax file numbers, firearms licences, driver's licences, keycards, bank details, etc. on behalf of community members. With the movement of participants off CDEP over the next two years, funding for core community staff will be unsustainable as participants decrease.
The inevitable decrease in office staff to deal with the bureaucratic interface and provide the safety net of economic support will place the onus on individuals to take responsibility for personal administration.
These administrative changes are predicated upon an expectation of individual literacy competence among remote Aboriginal people, the majority of whom lack the formal registers required for official oral or written interactions with an outside controlling bureaucracy that is generally poorly informed about the complexities of remote life.
As the expectation of individual responsibility increases, the Ngaanyatjarra are faced with a decreasing capacity to control the administration of day to day life.
It can also be anticipated that there will be a reasonable number of people each week who have no payments, or suspended payments for administrative reasons.
The Ngaanyatjarra communities current strike rate for enrolling new CDEP participants on the first attempt is as low as four out of ten (even with all the information and understanding at their disposal).
This does not bode well for individuals attempting to manage the vagaries of Centrelink forms and requirements and Job Network providers, operating with limited community support, low English and literacy levels, and poor telecommunications. With the progressive move of all people from CDEP to Centrelink benefits, this face and identity is lost. The management of individual and community needs will disappear into the machine that is Centrelink. This system is not designed to assist communities to manage and govern at a local level. It addresses needs only at an individual level.
Any deductions (e.g. through Centrepay) are negotiated directly between the individual and the Centrelink call centre staff or officer. There is no community organisation to assist or manage that process, or to advise on broader community needs or priorities or decision. There are indeed no community needs to balance against those of the individual. There is just the individual and Centrelink, existing outside and independent of any local community.
Lastly, the collective identity of small communities will be lost as people move into the larger communities or towns.
People will become more individually oriented and will begin to depend more and more on police and outside agencies to sort out social problems rather than these being addressed via collective community responsibility.
Centrelink, Centrepay and debt management
The current community management of CDEP deductions also avoids the pitfalls of Centrelink-managed deductions using Centrepay. Centrepay was introduced by Centrelink so that recipients could authorise the deduction of payment of rent and utilities.
This was to avoid welfare recipients falling into arrears on essential services, and potentially jeopardising their accommodation, safety and health.
However, Centrepay has expanded to a range of other deductions, including telephone charges, payment of fines and infringements, and health and community care services. It has now been increased to the point that is available for a very wide range of goods and services.
Providers include the Cash Converter pawn broking chain, rental companies thousands of kilometers away (and many states) from the individual's place of residence, family photo companies, fines enforcement and infringement collection. Almost nobody is excluded (in no doubt due to an attempt at equity in a government system, lobbied by those businesses wishing to deal with disadvantaged customers and agencies seeking simplistic solutions to complex problems).
As a result, in effect Centrepay has become a welfare credit card, with all the negative implications associated with this outcome. Centrepay is further compounded by the availability of a Centrelink white goods loan of up to $500, which is repayable in instalments.
For some community members, the combined effect of all their Centrepay deductions is a welfare benefit that is insufficient to feed them for less than half the time covered by the payment.
In conclusion, through CDEP, the Ngaanyatjarra people, through their representative body the Ngaanyatjarra Council and the various affiliated community organisations and employees have, over many years of hard work and careful strategising, built up exactly what the ideology of the current rhetoric associated with moving people into the real economy is seeking.
The Ngaanyatjarra communities represent the functional end of the continuum.
CDEP has allowed people to experience what it is to be 'working for your living' and to model for the next generation the 'work ethic' of Western capitalism and the labour market economy. Moreover, they have done this despite being inextricably caught in a fourth world poverty trap in a first world nation with the residents of Warburton representing citizens of this country who have the lowest median weekly income (The Australian November 27 2008) and as a consequence of remoteness, one of the highest costs of living in Australia.
Alcohol-related car accidents like the one described above symbolise for the Ngaanyatjarra people a return to the bad old days, before the return of law and order and personal and economic security.
Now pessimism is spreading across the Lands as people witness the dissipation of the fragile control carefully built up over the past 25 years.
Lastly, and ironically, the very authority that the Government is seeking remote communities to exert over their membership to improve mainstream outcomes is being relentlessly undermined by the Commonwealth simultaneously removing resources and a sense of control and consigning community governance to mute irrelevance.
*Inge Kral is a Post-doctoral Research Fellow with some ten years experience in the Ngaanyatjarra Lands. Damian McLean is Community Development Advisor at Warburton community and Harvey Murray is Community Development Advisor at Cosmo Newberry community and long term member of Ngaanyatjarra Council.
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