[Greens-Media] Chance to spend intervention money wisely

[Norton, Tim (Sen R. Siewert)]

Chance to spend intervention money wisely
Thursday 21st February 2008
 
"While the resources poured into the NT intervention have the potential
to turn around lives on remote communities, more needs to be done to
ensure money is spent wisely on the things that actually make a
difference," said Senator Rachel Siewert today.

"Senate Estimates today revealed that far more money has been spent on
implementing the failing welfare quarantining system than has been put
into the priority areas of child protection, health and education," she
said.

"The $72 million spent on the poorly-targeted quarantining of welfare
payments, which has indiscriminately caught up pensioners and people
already managing their money, is clearly wrong headed."

By comparison only $7 million was spent on families and $14.9 million on
child health.

"Much more of these resources need to be focused on delivering basic
health services, protecting children at risk and on fixing existing
houses and building safe new homes for the future," she concluded.

For more information or comment call Chris Twomey on 0407 725 025
Email senator.siewert at aph.gov.au  |  http://www.rachelsiewert.org.au