February 16, 2018

Cherbourg Women: My Struggle My Fight

Listen to Cherbourg Women – My Struggle My Fight by Paradigm Shift #np on #SoundCloud

2 Feb 2018 4zzz fm 102.1

This Paradigm Shift tells a story that has the potential to deeply affect the life of every welfare recipient of working age in Australia.

It’s the story of income management.

It began with missions, rations. In more recent times, it has taken the form of the BASICS card, part of the Northern Territory intervention that began in 2007.

Now, we are into the next chapter, as the Federal Government pushes for the implementation of the Cashless Debit Card, also known as the Cashless Welfare Card.

Under this new scheme, 80% of a person’s income would be available only through the restricted card, and just 20% of the income available as cash. The card and all of its infrastructure would be managed by financial services company Indue.

According to the government’s thinking, the card is supposed to prevent the individual from spending their income on alcohol, gambling, and illicit drugs.

However, a Senate Inquiry into the scheme brought a flood of submissions questioning and criticising the scheme. Submitters included the Australian Council of Social Service, the Australian Human Rights Commission and the Australian Bankers Association.

So far the card has been rolled out in 2 trial sites – Ceduna in South Australia and East Kimberley in WA, both with significant Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander populations.

Now the Federal Government is working to pass a raft of sweeping welfare reforms including the Social Services Legislation Amendment (Cashless Debit Card) Bill 2017. This would remove the trial’s end date – the 30 June 2018 – and would remove current limits on the number of trial sites and the number of participants.

Once these limits are removed, the Federal Government can carry out its plan to expand the scheme to the Bundaberg and Hervey Bay region, also known as the Hinkler electorate in Qld, and the Kalgoorlie Boulder region of WA. In Hinkler, the trial would apply to all income support recipients who are under 35 and on Newstart, Youth Allowance for job seekers and Parenting Payments for single and partnered parents.

However, the legislation would effectively give the Government the power to apply the Cashless Debit Card scheme to any recipient of social security under the age of 65, including those on a Disability Support Pension, or Carer Allowance.

Where did this Cashless Welfare Card come from? The card, to be operated by Toowong-based financial services company Indue, has an interesting history.

In September 2017, the Guardian reported that former Nationals MP Larry Anthony was a director of Indue between 2005 and 2013, according to records from the Australian Securities and Investments Commission (Asic).

The year that Anthony stepped down as director of Indue, Tony Abbott was voted in as Prime Minister. One of his first tasks as PM was to commission a report by mining magnate Andrew Twiggy Forrest, into how Australia could create greater parity between First Nations people and other Australians. Through his Mindaroo Foundation, he published The Forrest Review. Among its recommendations, was what he dubbed the Healthy Welfare Card, an income management system aimed at First Nations Peoples, quarantining 100% of their income support.

Kathryn Wilkes has been following the scheme since it was being rolled out to its initial trial sites. A disability pensioner and single mother living in transitional housing to homeless people in Hervey Bay, she immediately aligned herself with the people of the first trial sites and supported their protests against the card.

By coincidence, Kathryn Wilkes lives in one of the next areas marked for rollout of the card, the Hinkler electorate. She has been central to the nationwide campaign against the card, coordinating the Facebook group No Cashless Welfare Card in Hinkler, which acts as a central information point for the community.

I asked Kathryn Wilkes about the BASICS card, a previous incarnation of income management first introduced as part of the Northern Territory intervention in 2007. She describes the consequent spread of the Basics card across Australia as Mission Creep.

That’s Kathryn Wilkes, a central figure in the protest against the introduction of the Cashless Welfare Card. Drug testing was dropped from the Welfare Reform Bill in December 2017, but other legislation is still being debated.

You’re tuned to Women on the Edge on 4ZZZ and Zed digital. I’m Justine Reilly, and this is The Other Side of the Story.

Today we’re hearing the untold story of the Cashless Welfare Card, an income management scheme currently being pushed out across Australia. Legislation tabled in parliament in 2017 would effectively turn the scheme from a trial to a program, giving the Government the power to force it upon any recipient of social security under the age of 65, including those on a Disability Support Pension, or Carer Allowance.

A Senate Inquiry into this legislation brought a torrent of submissions, from organistions including the Australian Council of Social Service, the Australian Human Rights Commission and the Australian Bankers Association.

Playlist
Lucky Luke – Welcome to Country
The Clouds – Soul Eater
Terrible Truths – False Hope
Yarah Bravo – Leader
Blue Boy – Remember Me

Paradigm Shift Jan 2018

Ian gives a brief overview of the tensions that face the world in 2018. Greater inequality, conflict on the Korean peninsular between superpowers, workers struggles worldwide and increasing refugee crisis, environmental change, people fleeing war and economic deprivation. US dominance still.

Ian interviews Michael an Iranian man who was a refugee on Manus Island. They speak about the current wave of protests in Iran. Michael calls on people to come to the protest against Iranian government. Call for right to choose their own religion, the clothes that they wear and to have liberty.

Ian discusses the killing of Iranian Kurd Reza Berati by Scott Morrison, the Australian government and G4S. Scott Morrison was the Australian minister  for immigration while Berati was held in Manus Island detention.

Michael says that economic situation very bad in Iran. Banks are folding.

Playlist
Who Killed Reza Berati – Fear Like Us
They could not buy my soul  (Kev Carmody) sung by Archie Roach
Iranian song – The Wave

Paradigm Shift 4zzz fm 102.1 friday 29 Dec 2017

Ian presents some stories from Brisbane and Jerusalem showing how repression, apartheid and occupation can’t last.

Parts:

1 – Brisbane – 40 years in King George Square

2 – Balcony over Jerusalem

3 – Al Quds – holy place

4 – Jerusalem – snipers & the slap

5 – Jerusalem – who killed Ibrahim Abu Thuraya?

6 – Jerusalem – conclusion

Transcripts  are available: ” Brisbane: 40 years in King George Square” at https://www.facebook.com/notes/jackie-hu/brisbane-40-years-in-king-george-square/916996398465766/  and “Long March to Jerusalem” at https://www.facebook.com/notes/jackie-hu/long-march-to-jerusalem/912731482225591/

Playlist

Sue Monk & Gaviota – Strike the Beast Hard (Pégale Duro al Fiero) in ‘Living in the Colonies’

Phil Monsour – Next Year in Jerusalem

Phil Monsour – Fires are Burning

Phil Monsour – Dark Tunnels

Kev Carmody – Comrade Jesus Christ

Phil Monsour – I Left my heart in Palestine

Photo: collage of Brisbane 1973 (left) & Jerusalem 1946 (right)

The title of the show is a reference to A Tale of Two Cities (1859) a novel by Charles Dickens, set in London and Paris before and during the French Revolution.

Second program about Drones … previous show on 21 October 2016.

Papua Merdeka – a short history

In 1985 I met a man from the small island of Biak off the north coast of West Papua. Mathew Mayer had been conscripted into the Indonesian Army and taught how to shoot a gun and learned some tradesmen skills in repairing helicopter gearboxes. When he returned home Mathew joined Organasi Papua Merdeka (OPM) to fight against Indonesian occupation of his country.

In 1961 the West Papuan’s had declared independence from colonialist Dutch when they raised the Morning Star flag over their country. The Dutch government recognised this act of self-determination but the United Nations placed West Papua under a trusteeship of the Indonesians who themselves, some years before in 1947, had won their own independence struggle from the Dutch.

Similar independence struggles were going on in the region. Independence from German controlled northern New Guinea was declared after the second world war. The British gave up the lower part of New Guinea and Australia became trustee until independence was declared in 1972 with Michael Somare becoming the first Prime Minister of New Guinea. There was an ongoing Kanak struggle for self-determination in New Caledonia and the Loyalty Islands resulting in bloodshed in 1988 on the small island of Ouvea where 19 members of the independence movement, the National Union for Independence-Kanak and Socialist National Liberation Front were killed by French marines, paratroopers and gendarmes lobbing grenades into caves where they were hiding. There were allegations of summary executions.

Meanwhile the East Timorese have won independence from Portugal and Indonesia.

Not so in West Papua. In 1969 the Indonesians conducted a fraudulent plebiscite – a so called ‘act of free choice’ when they forced the West Papuans to sign over their country to the Javanese in Jakarta. Fortunately, Australian journalist and author of ‘Over the top with Jim’ was present to report the fraud:

In 1969 Hugh Lunn was Reuters correspondent in Jakarta when Indonesia took over the western half of New Guinea and its 800,000 Papuan inhabitants. Only Hugh and Dutch journalist Otto Kuyk were there to tell the world—by morse code—that the UN ‘Act of Free Choice’ was a rort.

Now the West Papuan struggle is not even on the international agenda of the United Nations. Regional powers, Australia and Indonesia, have muted their struggle preferring to allow transnational companies to exploit minerals in this highly mountainous country. Indonesian military Kopassi has supressed the growing struggle with charges of genocide made by journalists excluded from the country by the Indonesian government. Recent change of Indonesian government to President Jakowi has made no difference.

NEW LEADERSHIP
Now there is a new chapter in the struggle where Melanesian support form Vanuatu and Kanaky. New leaders have emerged, people like Benny Wenda, Ronny Kareni and others have united the struggle and taken a political stance to gain recognition in the United Nations in Geneva. Two swimmers recently swam across Lake Geneva to present a petition to the United Nations to highlight their concerns. Benny Wenda is located in London and is taken up a role not dissimilar to that of Jose Ramos Horta during the East Timorese struggle for independence. Meanwhile those engaged in the armed struggle and killed or locked up in Indonesian prisons.

Back to Mathew Mayer. Like many members of the OPM he fled to PNG where he worked and raised a family. In the early 1980s the PNG government wanted to return him to the Indonesians and almost certain death. A Nationalist minded deputy Prime Minister Okuk s sympathise with the West Papuan and Mathew a one-way ticket to Australia to test the Australian government’s commitment to refugees. There was no doubt that Mathew and his family were refugees but his pleas initially fell on deaf ears. Friends organised support for Mathew and went to visit his family in PNG. In 1985 after three years of campaigning the Minister granted Mathew asylum but not his family who remained in PNG.. Matthew was given residency and a work permit and he sent money home. He worked repairing motor vehnical gearboxes in West End. Mathew was a keen bushwalker and eventually was given help to retire in Sandgate by Catholic workers.

In 2010 I went with some friends to Ballarat to celebrate the Eureka uprising. The yearly event is organised by Joe Toscano.  To my surprise I met a leader of the Free Papua movement Jacob Prai at Ballarat Cemetery who gave a wonderful speech in solidarity with his brothers and sisters in West Papua. This is what Jacob had to say. [Sorry about the wind across the microphone].

The Indonesian government calls the occupation. transmigration. We are familiar with this concept but under different names. The Israelis call the occupation of Palestine building settlements, in Australia it was called Tera Nullius, it occurred in East Timor by the Portugese, in Kanaky by the French and so on.

West Papuan self-determination is a long struggle but it would be great, after 66 years since the Morning Star flag was raised for the first time, to see it raised again permanently in West Papua.

Andy interviews Ronny Kareni (OPM) and David Bridie (Not Drowning Waving) for an update on the struggle.

Ian Curr
1 Dec 2017

Playlist
Aireleke – Sarong Samaray
Not Drowning, Waving – Blackwater
Black Paradise – Metamani
Telek – West Papua (Merdeka mix)

References
https://www.bennywenda.org/2017/historic-swim-delivers-free-west-papua-petition-across-lake-geneva-united-nations/

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ouvéa_cave_hostage_taking