[Greens-Media] Chance to spend intervention money wisely

[Twomey, Chris (Sen R. Siewert)]

Chance to spend intervention money wisely 

"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 late yesterday 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." 

"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," she said.

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," concluded Senator
Siewert.

For more information or comment call

Chris Twomey 0407 725 025 or (02) 6277 3587