27 August 2008

What has the Community Inclusion Board been doing?

| johnboy
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Nothing is as touchy feely as “inclusion”.

The Chief Minister has announced that his much heralded “inclusion board” has in turn announced it’s achievements. (Thanks to poptop for pointing out that the actual report is also online)

The highlights, highlights mind you, are:

    “The Board has established a pilot household debt relief and counselling program, examined the causes and effects of long-term unemployment in the ACT and provided advice on the development of a poverty-proofing framework”

That’s it?

Debt relief and counseling can be covered in three dot points:

    1. Consolidate all your debts into a single loan with the lowest interest you can get.
    2. Stop spending more than you earn.
    3. If 2 is proving troublesome create a written budget and stick to it.

What’s to pilot with that?

As for the rest, “examining causes” is a process, not an output. Providing advice to develop a framework is even further from anything useful.

I’m sure everyone worked very hard and meant well. But was there really nothing more useful this whole effort and goodwill could have been put to?

The clincher (as is often the case) comes in the second last par:

    “The Board is evidence of the ACT Government’s commitment to engage with the community on tackling disadvantage and addressing the social inclusion”

It’s all about looking like Mr. Stanhope is doing something. I hope it gives him the requisite warm fuzzies.

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Here’s the link to the Report of the Board :
http://www.cmd.act.gov.au/__data/assets/pdf_file/0005/2876/CIB_eot_report.pdf

A stunning read I must say.

Seems they have listened to people and asked ACT bureacrats to do the work they would have done anyway.

Reverend Gordon Ramsey… hee hee

Heres hoping that the inclusion board doesnt exclude out of the box, innovative ideas that remain untested at the community level.

It sounds like they have a six point plan and are developing a raft of measures.

Speaking of that sort of thing, The Hollowmen is back on the TV tonight, ABC1 at 9pm.

Affirmative Action Man2:05 pm 27 Aug 08

Clearly the biggest wank in town along with the Human Rights Commission

I for one would like to thank our masters and the bureaucratic nightmare that surrounds them. This is truly a great day for social democracy.

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