Australia: Labor to strip welfare from parents of truant children

The Social Security and Veterans Entitlements Legislation Amendment (Schooling Requirements) Bill 2008 will apply across six Northern Territory Aboriginal communities and to Cannington, a largely non-indigenous working class suburb in Perths south-east, starting from January 2009. If the trials are successful, Gillard told parliament, the legislation will allow for the national rollout of the policy.

Initially, the measures will affect some 3,300 children. Schools will be asked to provide student attendance information to Centrelink. When truancy is identified and where parents fail to take reasonable steps to ensure their childs attendance, all benefits will be cut, leaving families without money for food, bills, transport or housing.

Welfare organisations, indigenous welfare experts and school principals have universally condemned the legislation. Income management is a blunt instrument to address the complex reasons that children may not be attending school, ACOSS President Lin Hatfield Dodds said.