January 4, 2008
As is well known Noel Pearson's reform plan in indigenous Cape York Peninsula makes welfare payments conditional on four basic expectations: ensure your children attend school; fulfil your responsibilities to keep your children free from abuse and neglect; abide by the laws concerning violence, alcohol and drugs; abide by your public housing tenancy conditions. A family responsibilities commission comprising a magistrate and eminent representatives of the community be created to mandate these obligations.
This is Pearson's response to the existing artificial economy of unconditional welfare is no solution is paying for abusive lifestyles that compromise the protection of indigenous children and families.
Pearson argues that though these policies have a conservative flavour - rebuilding of social norms - the other two building blocks of our agenda have distinctly liberal and social-democratic flavours: realignment of incentives and increased government investment in capability development (that is in developing the capabilities of individuals). This builds on the work Amartya Sen, and the argument is that poverty and disadvantage are to a large extent capability deprivation. Indigenous capability development.
This view is developed in a speech, entitled "Addressing Extreme Disadvantage Through Investment in Capability Development", which was given by Dr Ken Henry, Secretary to the Treasury, to the Australian Institute of Health and Welfare Conference "Australia’s Welfare 2007, is an interesting one.
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