Council asked to take stand on welfare card

The City of Greater Geraldton council has been called on to formally announce a position on the cashless welfare card, as the Federal Government gears up to announce its third trial site of the card — highly speculated to be the coastal city.

The calls came during a public meeting organised by the Greens Party in Geraldton last week, in which 90 people attended and voiced their concerns about the impact the card would have on recipients and service providers.

Geraldton Mayor Shane Van Styn, who was in attendance, told the crowd while he personally supported the card, the council did not have a position.

“This is clearly a Federal Government issue, this is Federal Government policy and I represent the City and local Government,” he said.

“The City of Greater Geraldton does not have a position either way on this card.

“We don’t hold positions pertaining to State and Federal issues, there’s nothing we can do or enact as a local Government.”

“That being said it is the role of local Government to act as a conduit between the members of the public and all levels of Government and I won’t shirk away from that responsibility.”

The card has been established in the East Kimberley communities of Wyndham and Kununurra, as well as Ceduna in South Australia, but had also been considered for Halls Creek.

The Shire of Halls Creek rejected the card after adopting the position of its Aboriginal advisory committee and finding a similar program in the Northern Territory had proved ineffective – actually increasing welfare dependency.

Shire president Malcolm Edwards said he believed councils had an obligation to stand up and speak or act on behalf of their electorate.

“Your councillors are your elected members, I think their opinion carries a lot of weight – we opposed the card and it didn’t go ahead,” he said.

“I would encourage the Geraldton council to hold consultations with community and get an understanding of what the general consensus is and act on behalf of their constituents.”

Greens Senator Rachel Siewert said the Federal Government had made the card a local government issue and as such local government could not sit on the fence.

“The point that was raised with me was where the card has gone ahead local Government has supported the trial, where the card hasn’t gone ahead local government opposed it,” she said.

“I think people have a right to go back to the mayor and say you need to make this really clear.”

Mr Van Styn said while he did not believe the card was a council issue, if it was presented to council by a councillor, he would not rule it out.

“I would like to think we don’t need to go to the trouble of calling a special community ratepayers meeting, I would think that was an unnecessary step,” he said.

“I would not support that going to council, but my role as mayor is to facilitate any debate that might come up, not to stifle it.”

The Geraldton Guardian contacted the 14 councillors in a bid to determine how many supported and opposed the notion of it being brought to council.

Of the 14, the Geraldton Guardian managed to speak with seven members, while three were on leave.

Of those seven three said it was not a council issue and should be discussed at State and Federal levels, three said a briefing to council to provide more information on the impact to the community should be made and one said while they supported the mayor’s position, further information was required.

One councillor who said a briefing was needed said they believed it would be wise for council as a group to have an opinion.