Rudd upbeat about Cape York report
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Rudd upbeat about Cape York report
June 20, 2007 9.46am
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A radical report which suggests stripping Aboriginal people of control over their welfare payments if they fail to meet behavioural conditions contains some good recommendations, federal Opposition Leader Kevin Rudd said.
The report released by the Cape York Institute said welfare reform was the most critical reform required to rebuild the social fabric of remote communities.
The report recommends the establishment of a Family Responsibilities Commission (FRC) to take control of the welfare payments of parents or guardians who abuse or neglect their children or allow them to miss school.
Family Responsibilities Commission found that children in Queensland skipped school to gamble with money from welfare checks.
In its annual report for the year 2019 to 2020, which was tabled in Queensland’s parliament last month, the commission said that indigenous children in Aurukun in the state’s north engaged in gambling circles, sometimes with the encouragement of adults. Others also conducted their own gambling activities using large sums of money in the pot.
The commission attributed the rise in child gambling to restricted activity and movements due to the coronavirus pandemic, on top of an increase in welfare payments.
Lockdowns worsen child gambling
Politics by Grace Mason
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