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Labor punishing the poor

By Jo Coghlan - posted Monday, 4 June 2012


Policies of 'blaming the victim' or 'blaming the poor' mean governments don't need to confess to the failures of decades of state and federal government policies that have led to poor levels of education and school attendance, poor dietary and health levels, substance abuse, self-harm, suicide, incest and rape in Indigenous and non-indigenous communities.

Policies that seek to make 'victims responsible' for better outcomes often rely on punitive measures. In the case of income quarantining, non-compliance in the 2007 NT policy and the 2011-12 policy, results in the suspension of government benefits. Similar measures were noted in the Howard governments 'work for the dole' scheme, which also introduced measures that punished the victims rather than acknowledge the failures of decades of government neo-liberal employment policy.

When bad policy is not only maintained but extended, in the case of income quarantining, the policy not only becomes legitimised in the public's mind, but media and social commentators accept the normative nature of punitive, interventionist policies. Income quarantining is poorly thought out policy that is being driven by things other than best public policy practice or sound fiscal management.

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Perhaps if the Labor Party had parachuted Warren Mundine into the Senate instead of Bob Carr, more light could be shone on just solutions for disadvantaged indigenous and non-indigenous Australians.

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About the Author

Jo Coghlan is a lecturer in the School of Arts and Social Sciences at Southern Cross University.

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