Share this page!

kristin #BTPM (she/her) Profile picture
Twitter logo
May 12 • 23 tweets • 16 min read
“Community consent” is the basis on which the Coalition politicians who introduced the Cashless Debit Card in 2015 and the Labor politicians who voted for it have always justified the program.
The charade that must be maintained is that CDC isn’t just another form of colonial violence inflicted through another racist welfare experiment, but is instead a self-determined response to challenges faced as a result of harms caused by generations of genocide & dispossession.
Responding to @Malarndirri19 during the Dec 2020 senate debate on making CDC permanent, @Anne_Ruston claimed she'd "consulted" on changes to the bill in the preceding 24 hours, but couldn't recall who with 🤔

A handful of 100s of had submissions supported.aph.gov.au/Parliamentary_… Screencap from linked page. Position of major interest gro
@Malarndirri19 @Anne_Ruston “When you take away people’s ability to make decisions ... to decide what to spend their money on, it has a deeply profound effect ... Compulsory income management is part of a system … designed to disempower First Nations people.” – @Malarndirri19 nacchocommunique.com/2019/09/20/nac…
@Malarndirri19 @Anne_Ruston McCarthy spoke strongly against forced income control & the harm it wrought upon communities. Labor rightly opposed the bill but didn't commit to abolishing the programs. Like people in communities who had given “consent”, they had changed their position. sbs.com.au/nitv/article/2…
@Malarndirri19 @Anne_Ruston When @LindaBurneyMP recentlysaid Labor would make all income control voluntary, it wasn’t everything we wanted but many were overjoyed and relieved.

We believed the shift signalled a genuine commitment to giving people agency & creating an opt-in system. theguardian.com/australia-news…
@Malarndirri19 @Anne_Ruston @LindaBurneyMP This week Burney appears to have walked back her comments. Comments perhaps made in a moment where she was caught off guard, & may never have been intended to mean the system would become voluntary.

She has returned to the language of “community consent”: abc.net.au/news/2022-05-1… Screencap from linked article. The highlighted text says: &q
@Malarndirri19 @Anne_Ruston @LindaBurneyMP The government imposing an income control program at the community level, regardless of whether the community has chosen to adopt the program, inherently means there are individuals who will be forced on to it.

That is a violation of the rights of any person subjected to it.
@Malarndirri19 @Anne_Ruston @LindaBurneyMP This language of “community consent”, as with the term “income management”, is carefully chosen to make a system that punishes and violates people’s rights seem benign.

The problem? How do you define “community”?

Screencap from: klc.org.au/cashless-debit… Screencap from linked page. Only two years later, we see E
@Malarndirri19 @Anne_Ruston @LindaBurneyMP Right now, East Kimberley, where 83% of people on CDC are First Nations, has supposedly given “consent”.

Right now, Ceduna, where 76% of people having their income controlled via the Cashless Debit Card are First Nations, has supposedly given “consent”.
@Malarndirri19 @Anne_Ruston @LindaBurneyMP Decisions to “consent” have been made by people with power & whose lives are unaffected, except where they may profit. Groups like Kununurra-based Wunan Foundation, one of a small number who support CDC, received millions in grants in the lead-up to debate.grants.gov.au/Ga/Show/a9d17e… Screencap showing grant details from the linked page. A $3.5
@Malarndirri19 @Anne_Ruston @LindaBurneyMP This pattern is repeated again and again across the "trial" sites.

To date, “community consent” supposedly given for the Cashless Debit Card has been dominated by a small number of people, including business owners and others who stood to gain from the card.
@Malarndirri19 @Anne_Ruston @LindaBurneyMP To me, and I think to most people, community-led and community-controlled processes mean those affected by a decision are the ones who get to make it.

To me, that means the only way to meaningfully seek and gain consent is by getting the agreement of *welfare recipients*.
@Malarndirri19 @Anne_Ruston @LindaBurneyMP So. What does all this add up to, in light of Linda Burney's comments this week?
Labor needs to provide a clear position. Be explicit.

Tell us: What do you mean by “community consent”?

Is this just another betrayal of welfare recipients, used and then discarded for the purpose of fuelling a scare campaign about age pensioners being put on cashless welfare?
From entrenching BasicsCard in the NT to pushing single parents & disabled people on to Newstart; from its support for forced, free labour like Work for the Dole & commitment to brutally low payments, Labor has repeatedly thrown welfare recipients to the wolves for political gain
We were right not to trust them until they prove they can be trusted. And we are still right.

Please, don’t keep people suspended in a state of fear and doubt. We need certainty.
@LindaBurneyMP, tell us what your plan is for “community consultation”, how it will be different to what has come before & why you feel it's justified to force a single person who doesn't volunteer to have their income controlled.

No weasel words. Be honest & straightforward.
@LindaBurneyMP Better yet, do what’s right.

Scrap the Cashless Debit Card. Scrap BasicsCard.

Scrap income control programs altogether and provide people with resources and support that will meaningfully improve their lives. #EndCashlessWelfare #CashlessDebitCard #BasicsCard
@LindaBurneyMP Addendum: Here is just one example, of so many, that shows how very long the fight has been to stop this card.

The "trials" have been going on for ~7 years now. It's a farce.

Let people go free, without reservation.

@LindaBurneyMP And if you want to see the work of someone who's been there from the beginning, follow @FordfgFalcon from Ceduna:
@LindaBurneyMP @FordfgFalcon And here's a great thread from another great campaigner who's been in it for the long haul, @rodneyholmes64, from December 2020 during the last push to make the Cashless Debit Card permanent:

“Policies that restrict human choices contribute to established risk factors for suicide, being hopelessness & helplessness… leads depressed individuals to view suicide as the only way out of insoluble problems.” – @TracyWesterman indigenousx.com.au/enough-lip-ser…

• • •

Missing some Tweet in this thread? You can try to force a refresh
　

Keep Current with kristin #BTPM (she/her)

kristin #BTPM (she/her) Profile picture

Stay in touch and get notified when new unrolls are available from this author!

Read all threads

This Thread may be Removed Anytime!

PDF

Twitter may remove this content at anytime! Save it as PDF for later use!

Try unrolling a thread yourself!

how to unroll video
  1. Follow @ThreadReaderApp to mention us!

  2. From a Twitter thread mention us with a keyword "unroll"
@threadreaderapp unroll

Practice here first or read more on our help page!

More from @kristin8X

kristin #BTPM (she/her) Profile picture
May 12
Pursuing full employment is simplistic & dangerous while the major parties support forced & unpaid labour programs.

A job for all who want one must *follow* the creation of a genuinely safe safety net, not precede it.

I urge the authors to read this: theconversation.com/poverty-isnt-a…
If you speak to actual experts – people living on unemployment payments – instead of using obscure studies from Brazil bearing no relationship to our lives, you'll know the welfare system directly causes psychological harm & disability.

It "leaves us behind."

From the article: An excerpt from the article linked in the first tweet in thi
Following work from @AusMHThinkTank, @MTeesson said “the first and most decisive action the government could take” to address the alarming increase in psychological harm is to return to 2020 unemployment payment levels, when they were at the poverty line. theguardian.com/australia-news…
Read 6 tweets
kristin #BTPM (she/her) Profile picture
Apr 24
That feeling when you’re just a regular Joe who randomly discovers your landlord is a politician and makes some accidentally viral campaign content that organically gets heaps of media attention Excerpt from a LinkedIn profile showing that the person in t
Are we seriously supposed to believe that this person didn’t know Albo was their landlord?
She quit a well-paid job as a communications consultant to follow her dreams. Again, just your average punter. I wonder if she was able to charge her regular rates for this video or if she did it pro bono. excerpt from a website profile of person in the video saying
Read 5 tweets
kristin #BTPM (she/her) Profile picture
Apr 23
Why is the timeline suddenly showing a capital M to denote minutes? I can’t handle it. Screencap of a timestamp as it appears in the timeline.
Note that this only seems to be happening when the post is *1* minute old
WHHYYY To tweets with the timestamps circled. One timestamp shows a
Read 4 tweets
kristin #BTPM (she/her) Profile picture
Mar 30
It’s going to be voted on in the senate soon folks 😢

aph.gov.au/Watch_Read_Lis…
It’s on now. Louise Pratt from Labor explaining that they’re supporting.
Pratt says ACOSS say we’re better off passing the bill than not passing it.
Read 8 tweets
kristin #BTPM (she/her) Profile picture
Mar 29
Ok I'm starting a grim 🧵 of gross stats & facts to have on hand for #Budget2022

In December 2019, 76.5% of people on Newstart (557,395) had relied on income support for more than a year. This has gone up by 41%!!! It's now 786,139 people (83.84% of all people on JobSeeker).
The unemployment rate hasn't been this low since before the global financial crisis in 2008 when it was also 4%.

BUT the proportion of working age people who rely on an unemployment payment has nearly doubled – from 3.3% in mid-2008 compared to about 5.9% today. #Budget2022
For each entry level job advertised in February 2022 there are about 23 people who've been on an unemployment payment for more than 12 months.

Don't forget: you're also competing with applicants who aren't on a payment or are short-term unemployed. #Budget2022
Read 13 tweets
kristin #BTPM (she/her) Profile picture
Mar 28
The MOs Bill is back & the government's desperate to get it done before an election.

You can't put lipstick on a pig.

ACOSS are pushing for some changes that will mean small improvements, but fundamentally this bill is bad & should be opposed.

Here's why to #RejectTheMOsBill👇
Don't lock in a bad system. We hope if Labor win government there's a chance for meaningful change. If this bill passes then any opportunity to work on substantive improvements will be significantly diminished. They've extended jobactive before & can do so again #RejectTheMOsBill
Changes that make savings from social security & unemployed people should be opposed.

The effect of changes in this bill will save $860 million in employment services over the forward estimates & another $191 million in payments recouped due to payment backdating changes.
Read 30 tweets

Did Thread Reader help you today?

Support us! We are indie developers!

This site is made by just two indie developers on a laptop doing marketing, support and development! Read more about the story.

Become a Premium Member ($3/month or $30/year) and get exclusive features!

Become Premium

Don't want to be a Premium member but still want to support us?

Make a small donation by buying us coffee ($5) or help with server cost ($10)

Donate via Paypal

Or Donate anonymously using crypto!

Ethereum

0xfe58350B80634f60Fa6Dc149a72b4DFbc17D341E copy

Bitcoin

3ATGMxNzCUFzxpMCHL5sWSt4DVtS8UqXpi copy

Thank you for your support!

Follow Us on Twitter!

:(