CATHOLIC agencies are divided in their response to Federal Government plans to cut welfare payments for parents of school truants.
Deputy Prime Minister Julia Gillard introduced legislation to Parliament on August 27 that will link welfare payments to school enrolment and attendance.
The program will be trialled in eight sites, most of them northern Australian indigenous communities, and if successful the legislation will be rolled out nationally.
Public officer of the National Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Catholic Council Thelma Gertz said she found it to be a good thing for indigenous families.
“It is quite timely that we need to get serious about our education for our families,” Ms Gertz said.
“It’s time parents take responsibility for their kids’ education, that (welfare cut) is a last resort.
“There is a stepping stone into that program and we need to take into consideration every single family.”
Catholic Social Services Australia executive director Frank Quinlan however labelled the proposals “quite brutal and questioned a policy that targeted only welfare recipients”.
Ms Gertz said the proposal was similar to a model proposed by indigenous leader Noel Pearson that was being implemented in Cape York.
The Cape York Welfare Reform Project advocates that welfare payments should be conditional upon the recipient’s children having a good school attendance record.
In late 2007, after a 12-month community engagement process a number of communities gave their final agreement to participate in the welfare reform trial that began operation on July 1 and will run for three and a half years until January, 2012.
In the Cape York trial, four obligations are attached to welfare payments for all welfare recipients.
They are to “making sure kids attend school, keeping kids safe from harm and neglect, not committing drug alcohol or family violence offences and abiding by tenancy agreements”.
Ms Gertz said while other programs existed to deal with indigenous education they were “not hitting fast enough” and children were still missing school.
Ms Gertz said on top of existing programs there needed to be more discussion on why children were missing school.
