Bureaucracy is a wonderful thing at times.
Today I was speaking to an elderly Narrabri man of European descent. He has been fighting a decision by Centrelink to put him on "income management" which is government talk for "we will tell you how to spend your money as you obviously can't do it yourself." This was a scheme brought in ostensibly to force aboriginal people in remote communities to spend a portion of their government benefits on food for their children rather than on alcohol.
This guy's problem is that he spent much of his life serving in remote aboriginal communities such as Elcho Island and in Central Australia. Since retiring he has travelled to many Aboriginal communities. Therefore, in their infinite wisdom, Centrelink has deemd him as "eligible" for income management.
He has fought this ridiculous state of affiars over several months. His claim of not being aboriginal is dismissed as being irrelvant becasue it's not a programme that only applies to Aborigines. However, he has discovered that of all the people he knew on Elcho, he is the only European to be on income management, but all of the Aboriginal people are on it.
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