First Nations

In this week’s Anangu Lands Paper Tracker radio program, we talk about the Community Development Program, the CDP, which is the work-for-the-dole program in remote communities.

The CDP is an Australian Government program that began in July 2015. There have been different versions of work-for-the-dole programs in remote communities. The CDP replaced the Remote Jobs and Communities Programme (RJCP), which began in July 2013. The program before the RJCP, was the Community Development and Employment Programme, the CDEP.

The CDP is the responsibility of the Department of Prime Minister and Cabinet. At a local community level, the CDP is administered by local service providers. Across Region 19, which includes the APY Lands, the previous CDP provider was Skillhire, but from July this year, the Regional Anangu Services Aboriginal Corporation, RASAC, has been contracted to manage the CDP in Region 19.

On 8 May 2018, the Minister for Indigenous Affairs, Nigel Scullion, announced a number of changes to the CDP as part of the 2018-19 Budget. These proposed changes have been included in the Social Security Legislation Amendment (Community Development Program) Bill of 2018.

The Bill includes the introduction of a Targeted Compliance Framework and the government has also announced that it intends to provide subsidies for up to 6,000 jobs across the whole of Australia.

To find out more about the CDP and the proposed changes to the Program, we talk with Lisa Fowkes who has spent a number of years researching different kinds of employment services, work-for-the-dole programs, job markets and income support systems. Lisa is doing research at the Centre for Aboriginal Economic Policy Research at the Australian National University.

^{This program was made possible with support from the Community Broadcasting Foundation. Find out more at cbf.org.au}