New report by Lutheran Care and Batchelor Institute examines poverty in Central Australia
A new report says some Red Centre residents are living in areas where ‘thriving isn’t possible’ and ‘surviving and accessing basic support is a daily challenge’. Find out why.
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“Thriving isn’t possible” for some Red Centre residents who are living in areas where government staff allegedly hang up on them and “surviving and accessing basic support is a daily challenge”.
A new report, created by Lutheran Care and the Batchelor Institute of Indigenous Tertiary Education, has uncovered how remote community residents are falling victim to scams, entering debt traps through buy now, pay later schemes, and struggling with Centrelink.
“With hundreds of kilometres between most of these communities to a Centrelink office, increasing reliance on phone and internet reporting to Centrelink – and low levels of spoken and written English even if there is connection – it means Centrelink compliance is impossible for many Central Australians,” Lutheran Care chief executive Rohan Feegrade said.
“In two of the remote communities we (Lutheran Care) service, there is no mobile phone service whatsoever, and computer systems that are defunct, damaged or non‐maintained.”
“Even if the language barrier is resolved, staff in government centres lack any insight into the remote community living and so assume services and options are available when they are not – for example, visiting the bank, the Centrelink office, the Motor Vehicle Registry or obtaining proof of identity,” the report said.
The report alleges on some occasions staff from Services Australia disconnect calls with residents from remote communities.
“When surviving and accessing basic support is a daily challenge, thriving isn’t possible,” Mr Feegrade said.
Authored by Jude Lovell, Margeret Friel, Theresa Alice, and John Guenther, work on the report began in 2022 and was completed in April 2024.
It was made public at the beginning of December.
It used Lutheran Care’s financial wellbeing programs as a backdrop, and examined the impact of the financial wellbeing programs, the situation in Central Australia, and what could be done to improve them.
Across 28 remote communities, interviews with four community representatives, eight stakeholders, and six Lutheran Care program staff as well as focus groups made up the bulk of the research for the report.
Government policy documents were also analysed.
The report recommended subsidising healthy food in remote communities to make it more affordable.
Other recommendations included developing more culturally appropriate and linguistically aware responses in government departments, and increasing Lutheran Care’s financial well being programs in remote communities.
Services Australia general manager Hank Jongen said agency staff were “acutely aware” of the challenges facing people living in remote communities.
Mr Jongen said there were remote servicing teams and Indigenous service officers who helped “customers and communities to understand and access the agency’s payments, services and programs”.
“We welcome this report, and will continue to work with our government partner agencies and non-government advocacy groups to improve the way we support Indigenous communities,” he said.
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Originally published as New report by Lutheran Care and Batchelor Institute examines poverty in Central Australia
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