PROJECT | First Nations Justice

Every person deserves a living wage for a hard day at work. But the Australian Government’s former Community Development Program (CDP) welfare program denied access to basic rights to equality, work and income for people in remote Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander communities.

Making people work more hours for the same pay is clearly unfair. Under the remote ‘work for the dole’ program, people in remote communities had to work up to three times as many hours a year than people living in cities, for the same basic social security payment, and were far more likely to be penalised and have welfare payments cut.

As soon as this racially discriminatory program was introduced, we partnered with Aboriginal Peak Organisations NT (APONT) to challenge the laws.

Through media advocacy, a UN complaint, two Senate inquiries, and meetings with MPs, we urged the government to abandon the program for a better alternative, which treated people with respect, protected their human rights and provided opportunities for economic and community development.

After years of pressure, and a successful complaint to the United Nations committee on racial discrimination which called on the Australian Government to act, the Australian Government scrapped this punitive, remote program in 2021.