7 Jun 2010 Meeting with P. Inverway
Come and hear PI talk about the conditions facing an increasing number of Aboriginal people living under 3-years of NT Intervention laws. As well as a series of union and workplace meetings, STICS is organising two meetings this Monday 7th June:
1. Real jobs not ration cards!
Meeting with P. Inverway
4pm - 5.30pm, Monday 7th June 2010
UTS Sydney, Lecture room Level 19,
Tower Building room (CB01.19.12)
Endorsed by Jumbunna Indigenous House of Learning (Research)
2. Stop the Intervention Collective (STICS) Meeting
Monday 7 June 2010 - 6pm,
Federation Conference Centre meeting rooms, level 1
23 Mary Street, Surry Hills.
PI is available for interview and to meet with organisations. Call Jean to arrange: 0449 646 593
PI is an Aboriginal worker from Kalkaringi in the Northern Territory. Kalkaringi is on Gurindji land, site of the famous Wave Hill walk-off.
PI is a worker on the Community Development Employment Projects (CDEP) scheme, which was heavily attacked by the Howard Government and totally restructured under Labor. CDEP always paid below award wages and had no superannuation. But now, instead of receiving payment of some wages through their employer, CDEP workers are only paid the equivalent of Newstart payments through Centrelink. In the NT, half of this payment is quarantined on a 'BasicsCard'.
PI says he works 24 hours a week. The amount of cash he receives from Centrelink works out to be approximately $3.70 an hour, plus credit for food on the BasicsCard ($85 of this a week).
PI is currently on a speaking tour visiting Darwin, Sydney and Melbourne to raise awareness about the terrible working conditions and compounded unemployment problems that have come with the NT Intervention and the transition from Aboriginal local councils to new 'Mega-Shires'.
For the petition "Jobs with Justice": please click here
Working for the BasicsCard in the Northern Territory - The impact of the Northern Territory Emergency Response and associated policies on employment conditions in NT Aboriginal communities. - A discussion paper prepared by Paddy Gibson, Senior Researcher, Jumbunna Indigenous House of Learning, University of Technology Sydney, February 2010
Media Coverage:
ON LINE Opinion - How paternalistic, how racist, how demeaning - 23 June 2010 - Again the Aboriginal community is used as an experimental pen for political and social engineering. First, the Aboriginal community; then the rest of the Northern Territory; then the rest of Australia's pensioners - all this charade to simply justify the government's attempt to appear righteous in getting rid of Howard's racist anti-discrimination provisions yet, in reality, still enabling it to have control over Aboriginal people and, through duress and economic bribing, secure leases over their valuable mineral wealth... - http://www.onlineopinion.com.au/view.asp?article=10582&page=0
Koori Mail - Doubt cast on Govt jobs gap promise - 16 June 2010 - A JUMP in the Indigenous unemployment rate is casting doubt on the Rudd Government's ability to meet its target of halving the employment gap within a decade. Some 35,400 Indigenous people were out of work last year - up from 27,100 in 2008. The Australian National University's Jon Altman said the figures showed the government wasn't event close to meeting its pledge to half the employment gap by 2018 -http://www.koorimail.com/
ABC Radio National - Video: Jenny Macklin on Indigenous employment - 16 June 2010 - http://www.abc.net.au/rn/breakfast/stories/2010/2928048.htm
ABC Radio National - Indigenous jobs - 16 June 2010 - The Rudd government has set itself a target of halving the employment gap between Indigenous and non-Indigenous Australians within a decade. Part of the plan involves radical changes to CDEP, the Community Development Employment Projects program, commonly referred to as Indigenous work for the dole. But as Cathy Van Extel reports, the latest official figures point to a spiralling Indigenous jobless rate and Aboriginal communities say the loss of CDEP is creating greater social disadvantage. - http://www.abc.net.au/rn/breakfast/stories/2010/2928050.htm
The Age - For some workers, the struggle will never end - 16 June 2010 - GURINDJI member P Inverway grew up hearing his stockman father's tales of once having been paid in rations, never dreaming he might one day know the same indignity. - http://www.theage.com.au/national/for-some-workers-the-struggle-will-never-end-20100615-yd9p.html
ABC News - Stateline - CDEP jobs to be axed - 11 June 2010 - Laetitia Lemke interviews NT Local Government Association President, Kerry Moir about changes to CDEP job funding. - http://www.abc.net.au/news/video/2010/06/11/2925252.htm
For an interview with PI on SBS Aboriginal Radio on Wednesday, 9 June 2010
Working for $4 an hour - With another 500 jobs expected to be cut in remote communities across the Northern Territory - it's revealed that Aboriginal workers are being paid $4 an hour. http://www.sbs.com.au/yourlanguage/aboriginal/highlight/page/id/89412/t/Working-for-$4-an-hour/in/english
Koori Mail - Widening jobs gap demands 'fresh approach' - 7 June 2010 - THE Australian Greens say a four per cent rise in Indigenous unemployment in the two years to 2009 shows the Federal Government isn't doing enough to provide Indigenous people with realistic employment options and work-ready skills. The Government pledged in 2008 to halve the unemployment gap within a decade and has blamed the economic downturn for the jump but Greens Senator Rachel Siewert says that's unacceptable. - http://www.koorimail.com/
Green Left - Aboriginal workers demand jobs with justice - 6 June 2010 - Hundreds of Aboriginal workers in the Northern Territory are demanding real wages for construction work that they are compelled to do under "Work for the dole" schemes. - http://www.greenleft.org.au/node/44382
See the ABC reports from a rally held in Darwin on Wednesday, 2 June 2010:
7pm TV News NT - NT workers protest over low wages - Indigenous people from the remote Wave Hill Station say the federal intervention is stripping them of rights as they have to work long hours for little pay. - http://www.abc.net.au/news/video/2010/06/02/2916686.htm
Aborigines 'forced to work 30 hours for $195' - Indigenous Affairs Minister Jenny Macklin has asked her department to investigate claims Aboriginal people on a work-for-the dole program are working long hours for little money. - http://www.abc.net.au/news/stories/2010/06/02/2915831.htm?section=justin