Stores where the stock is out of date, prices are on average 4 times higher than what we in our comfy cities on our comfy incomes are used to. Stores that do not sell fresh fruit or vegetables, there is some frozen meat and a lot of sugar, salt and additives. These are the stores in Aboriginal communities across the NT - and possibly other part of Australia - but it is the NT I know most about. Nutrition and children's health was meant to be a key deliverable of the Government's NT Intervention. So - Aboriginal people get a BasicsCard to spend in these stores and to apparently take better care of themselves and their children. But the Federal Government has done nothing about subsidising fresh food to reach these stores, regulation for store owners on prices / contents or anything else. The individual has no say in how much of their money goes onto this BasicsCard, whether they even want a BasicsCard or not and not all stores accept the card so too bad - buy what's on the shelf, oh yeah- and probably what is within reach (the store is a walk away, the supermarket could be 300km away!).
Perhaps the Federal Government could look at a food revolution outside of Coles.
Absurdia is absurdly ignorant. Stores approved for the BasicsCard are monitored to ensure their products are not out of date. Maybe there are some remote NT stores where the prices are 'four times higher', but that is certainly not the case in the four which I visit & from which I regularly buy food, including plenty of fresh fruit & veges.
ReplyDeleteAnd as regards the BasicsCard, the Income Managed individual actually does have a say about how much of the quarantined half of their welfare income is put onto the BasicsCard.
Absurdia is plainly not conversant with how the IM system works.
If people want to use the quarantined half of their welfare income on items other than BasicsCard (i.e. credit for groceries), they can have part or all of it put towards paying rent, electricity, car bills, travel costs etc, or spend it at a great variety of other stores such as K-Mart, Target, specialist shops etc.
Apologies for tardy response bdurnan.
ReplyDeleteAll stores I have seen do have prices four times higher than I pay outside the NT and Aboriginal people from across the NT have told me that my experience is the norm. I hope that you are right and that there are Aboriginal people with reasonably priced access to nutritious food in their own communities.
The 'income managed individual' you speak of is a person, a mum, a brother, a grandfather and they have no say in becoming an 'IM individual'. Perhaps you did this unintentionally but I do feel that once people start using de-humanising terms to describe other humans compassion and understanding is eroded.
The BasicsCard allows for the purchase of non-essential items, chips, lollies etc whereas long-running community led, completely voluntary systems such as ALPA FoodCard do not. Stores that chose not to provide frozen meat in order to maintain culture were deemed ineligible to take part in the BasicsCard system. This left people having to travel, often at great expense to the nearest store where their compulsory card could be used, taking their choice away and taking the money out of the community.
lots more to say but I'll leave it there.