The Wire

“No school, no welfare”…A school in WA’s north says it works…others say it’s discriminatory. Under the scheme, parents of children who skip school are called to an interview at Centrelink and if the parents don’t attend the meeting, their payments are suspended. The agreement has since been revoked, after Centrelink discovered they could not legally withold welfare money. That hasn’t stopped debate, however, about whether communities should enter into such agreements. Chairperson of the Foundation for Aboriginal and Islander Research Action, Les Malezer, says it’s discriminatory. Mr Malezer says it wouldn’t be acceptable to stop the welfare payments of white Australians. And even if the government did, he says non-Indigenous people have a greater capacity to enforce their rights than Indigenous Australians.