The federal government will pay communities in central Western Australia $2 million to address alleged harms caused by its controversial Community Development Program (CDP).
Key points:
- The government agrees to settle with a remote Aboriginal community claiming the CDP was racist
- It won’t pay back penalties docked from recipients but the community says the goal is to move forward
- Shire President Damian McLean says the government’s approach has improved
A class action group from the Ngaanyatjarra Lands near the Gibson Desert argued the scheme breached the Racial Discrimination Act by disproportionately penalising remote Indigenous people.
The CDP, or work-for-the-dole scheme, penalised welfare recipients who failed to meet engagement requirements by docking their payments.
About 80 per cent of participants over the claim period were Indigenous.
When the legal action was filed in 2019, local elder Derek Harris told the ABC the scheme reminded him of the way his great-grandparents were treated in the 1920s.
CDP ‘did more harm than good’
Shire of Ngaanyatjarraku President Damian McLean worked on the mediation process, which concluded last week after a year of negotiation.
He said a key issue was the CDP was designed without consideration of the realities of remote life.
While the scheme’s rules have since been relaxed due to the pandemic, Mr McLean said it disproportionately punished people in remote Indigenous communities.
“It was designed to funnel people through a gateway into a set of behaviours and responses that the government was looking for, and it was doing that through very coercive measures,” he said.
“The result of that was a level of penalties on people that were very disproportionately severe compared to the rest of the community.”
Mr McLean said the $2 million would go towards new equipment for community programs across the Ngaanyatjarra Lands.
Penalties won’t be paid back
A spokesperson for the Minister for Indigenous Australians, Ken Wyatt, said the Commonwealth denied the program was racist.
When asked if other communities would also be compensated, the spokesperson said this matter only concerned the Ngaanyatjarra Lands.
But the spokesperson said the government no longer penalised welfare recipients in the same way.
“Following various public reviews and regular feedback from communities and CDP providers, the government has shifted its approach to CDP JobSeeker participation in activities from compliance to engagement,” a statement read.
They said the government would not be looking to compensate penalties deducted from those under the scheme.
The Federal Court judgement also indicated claimants would forego the recovery of those penalties.
An estimated $530,000 was withheld from CDP participants in the Ngaanyatjarra Lands over the period, which would amount to an average of $790 per person.
A submission from the claim group’s lawyer also said that was not the goal.
“That would do nothing to address the problems the communities (including the group members) have with the CDP and the vision they have for something that better meets the needs of the Ngaanyatjarra people,” the submission read.
Government changed its approach
Mr McLean said he was confident the government’s approach had since become more consultative.
“We were able to make representations to the Commonwealth that did in fact demonstrate that this program was doing a lot more harm than good,” he said.
“It’s looked at it and come forward and said that we accept that there are significant problems within the program as it is, and we want to address some of the worst effects of that where you are.”
The Ngaanyatjarra Lands will be one of five areas to pilot the system that will replace the CDP.
The Remote Engagement Program will reward participants in work-like programs with additional payments instead of penalising non-compliance.
“It’s just in its infancy at the moment, but all indications are that the Commonwealth’s very serious about running what they describe as a co-design process with significant community input,” Mr McLean said.
