• “A consequence of Work for the Dole participants moving off payments more slowly was that they spent a longer average amount of time in receipt of payments. By 12 months after commencing participation they had been in receipt of payments on average for 2.2 fortnights longer than those who did not participate in Work for the Dole.  Why might Work for the Dole participants spend a longer time unemployed? We believe that the main potential explanation is that participation in Work for the Dole may cause or allow reduced job search effort. There is growing international evidence of a ‘lock-in’ or ‘attachment’ effect during program participation. For example, an evaluation of the Community Work Program in New Zealand found that many participants viewed their work experience placements as ‘work’ and therefore did not engage in job search activity.”
• “Since 2007, Indigenous incarceration rates have spiked by 41 per cent - from 699 Indigenous inmates in September 2008 to 991 in March 2011”
• “The number of attempted suicides in communities affected by the federal intervention in the Northern Territory has doubled in four years.”

Is it really fair to blame Indigenous Australians for not doing as well as non-indigenous Australians when they have nowhere near the same job opportunities?

“First, in August 2008, the prime minister quickly jumped to endorse the goal of the Australian Employment Covenant (the Forrest Plan) to generate 50,000 new private sector jobs in two years, or 25,000 annually, and to underwrite it with training support. This was despite statistically-based warnings that such targets were fanciful, a claim that is sadly vindicated today with only an additional 400 jobs in total (public and private) evident in 2009 compared to 2008.

Some of the worst outcomes are evident in resource-rich Queensland and Western Australia where the indigenous unemployment rate exploded to 20.8% and 20.7% respectively in 2009, from a more modest 12.7% and 11.1% respectively in 2008. In the space of a year, Western Australia went from having one of the best indigenous unemployment rates to one of the worst. The current dispute between the government and mining companies over the Resource Super Profits Tax demonstrates the potential risk for indigenous people associated with state abrogation of responsibility for meeting its employment targets to the corporate sector.

Second, in December 2008, at the worst possible time, the Rudd government committed to continue the Howard government attack on the Community Development Employment Program (CDEP), a workfare program that provided flexible employment opportunity. This program had been indiscriminately abolished in urban Australia in 2007; then the new government expanded the abolition program to regional Australia from July 1, 2009 to remote mainland Australia from July 1, 2011 and to the Torres Strait from July 1, 2012. The predicted dire consequences of the abolition of CDEP without provision of a matching number of proper jobs has again, sadly, been proven correct: indigenous unemployment rates of 19.4% in major cities and 20.5% in regional areas bear testament to this poorly considered ‘reform’.”

http://www.crikey.com.au/2010/06/04/closing-the-gap-rudd-overpromised-on-indigenous-unemployment/

“ANDREW ”Twiggy” Forrest, one of Australia’s richest men and a champion of the fight against indigenous disadvantage, is being accused of ripping off traditional owners in a West Australian iron ore royalties deal. The mining magnate wants to develop Solomon Hub, 200 kilometres south of Roebourne on the north-west coast of WA, which lies on Yindjibarndi land. His Fortescue Metals Group estimates over the next 40 years it could extract 2.4 billion tonnes of ore worth $280 billion, based on current prices. Yindjibarndi landowners and the company have been locked in negotiations for four years. Fortescue has offered the landowners a $500,000 signing fee and a capped amount of $4 million a year in cash, plus up to $6.5 million a year in staff housing, jobs, training and business opportunities.”