I was chatting with a colleague the other day about the ‘emergency’ . Besides lamenting the craziness of the welfare ‘reforms’ (he is a long term child protection worker who understands the massive task Centrelink has been set), he raised the issue of the general conundrum posed by these measures: do you try to work with an obviously flawed and ill-conceived plan, or keep well away to avoid being tarred by association and lumbered with the Sisyphean task of trying to make it work?
I tend towards the former, both in moments of bright optimism and despair. Afterall, we have a responsibility to work with people to improve their lives. Sitting back and watching the chaos doesn’t seem like a good option. But that is tempered by the Governments extreme reluctance to engage and consult meaningfully with the people who will be affected and its rejection of critical opinions.
August 27, 2007 at 2:03 am |
Conundrum yes & onya for tackling it. Aren’t you kind of defeating your own argument though when you contend “we have a responsibility to work withpeople to improve their lives” as a reason for following the Gov’s plan & then acknowledge that the Gov is not working with indigenous people at all?
August 28, 2007 at 5:57 pm |
Services already exist, which the Commonwealth intiatives will run in paralell with (eg child health checks), so the question is; how much do you work with them? Do let them commit basic errors or point them in the right direction? share data? etc