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Full-Time Protestor Has Been Kicked Off Centrelink For Not Trying To Find Work

Full-Time Protestor Has Been Kicked Off Centrelink For Not Trying To Find Work

The woman has been told if she stops protesting then she can be reinstated.

Stewart Perrie

Stewart Perrie

When people make the decision to get on Centrelink, they sign up to a set of obligations that require them to look for work.

The payments are meant to tide recipients over until they find permanent or semi-permanent work and in some cases they have to prove that they're actively seeking that employment.

Centrelink has made it clear, however, that if you're not doing that then you'll be kicked off payments. That's what's just happened with one woman, who is described as a full-time protestor.

The Courier Mail reports the Aboriginal woman has had her payments removed because she has spent her time protesting the construction of a housing estate near Ipswich in Queensland.

Deebing Creek Sovereignty Camp

She's been kicked off the welfare system because she hasn't been meeting her obligations.

Jobs Minister Michaelia Cash told the Queensland newspaper: "The Government invests in Newstart because we believe in Australians' inherent drive to provide for themselves and their families, and to assist people looking for work.

"Taxpayers should not be expected to subsidise the protests of others. Protesting is not, and never will be, an exemption from a recipients' mutual obligation to look for a job.

"Our focus will always be to get people off welfare and in to work. Taxpayers expect nothing less. The Morrison Government strongly believes that the best form of welfare is a job."

Channel 9

Interestingly, the woman has been given a way back into the Centrelink system. She's been notified that she will still be eligible for the Newstart allowance and could even get back-pay if she agrees to start looking for work again.

Obviously that would mean she would have to stop protesting in order to get the payments reinstated.

There have been dozens of protestors at the Queensland site over the past few months, angry at plans for Frasers Property to build nearly 1,000 homes. Traditional owners of the land have descended on the site in order to stop trucks and other vehicles getting in.

Some of the land that Frasers Property want to build on is located on the Deebing Creek Mission, which has cultural significance to Indigenous Australians.

Featured Image Credit: Channel 9

Topics: News, Australia