What Abos Buy with Welfare and Royalty Money.

[Br.IanVonTurpie]

http://www.heraldsun.com.au/subscribe/news/1/index.html?sourceCode=HSWEB_MRE170_a&mode=premium&dest=http:%2F%2Fwww.heraldsun.com.au%2Fnews%2Fnational%2Fnew-push-to-see-legalised-gambling-in-remote-northern-territory%2Fnews-story%2F483f878bfb7519b3a7ab065981c90c7f&memtype=anonymous


Territory gambling circles, and one former politician wants to see an end to it, by allowing poker machines in the bush.


Former MLA for Arafura, Francis Xavier Kurrupuwu, is calling for legal "casinos" containing pokies and keno to be installed on Bathurst and Melville Islands, 85km offshore from Darwin.


Mr Xavier, who lost his seat in the August NT election, said pokies would bring benefits to the region and give Tiwi gamblers an outlet other than outdoor card circles.


"Most indigenous people want to have a casino in the (Tiwi) club," Mr Xavier said.


"It would support the community, making profits for the community."


The social club in Wurrumiyanga on Bathurst Island is open four days a week, for three hours each day.


Only midstrength and light beers are served.


Mr Xavier said he believed money spent on pokies could be trickled back out into the community, help young people "go to university" and fund excursions for schoolchildren.


"Kids (would) get a lot of benefit from the club," he claimed, although did not have a specific plan on how such a pokies rollout would work.


At current, dozens of Tiwi islanders spend their days and dole wages on card games, which Mr Xavier dubbed "outdoor casino".


"If we have poker machine in club ... (there'd be) no gambling in public."


Card circle players told NT News up to $3000 could be won and lost in a single session, and often left islanders without money to feed their families.


Mr Xavier's successor, new Arafura MLA Lawrence Costa, said he would be "open for discussion" about the prospect of legalised gambling on the islands.


"That's a discussion that can take place, but obviously there is still a bit of work which needs to be done with regards to that happening," Mr Costa said.


"...But that's something that no one has come and approached the government ... about."


He said the move to install pokies would "depend on what type of tax it's going to get back for the community, or what type of benefits ... and what percentage they get off the machine".


From a police perspective, Acting Superintendent Antony Deutrom said remote community gambling in the Territory was "a sensitive and complex issue which requires appropriate support services and community based input".

[Br.IanVonTurpie]

EMPLOYED Australians are being forced to work nearly three hours a week to pay the nation's runaway welfare bill, with more than half their taxes sucked into social security and health spending.

https://www.dailytelegraph.com.au/news/nsw/painful-price-of-welfare-costs-revealed-by-federal-treasury/news-story/0a7dad20a726ee7b10bf61d33b47f47a

Official data released by the federal Treasury reveals that of the average taxable income of taxpayers, which is $58,000 a year, a total of $11,427 is paid to the taxman.

Broken down, the average taxpayer hands over $83 a week for welfare — including $35 a week on aged pensions, $20 a week on family payments, $17 a week on disability payments and $6.30 a week on the unemployed. Another $42 a week is spent on healthcare and $20 a week on defence.

Treasury's tax calculations are set much lower than the average wage of $80,236 because they include tax returns filed by welfare recipients and pensioners who pay very little tax.

The Treasury data also shows the average taxpayer is spending $9 a week just to pay the interest repayments on government debt, which has ballooned to a record $531 billion.

Federal Treasury expects government borrowings will soar to $684 billion within 10 years.

Australia's national debt has blown out since former prime minister Tony Abbott abolished the statutory "debt ceiling'', which stopped the government borrowing any more than $300 billion in 2013.

Honestly! Send the Boongs to Antarctica to fend for themselves, or better yet drop them on North Korea as human weapons, the amount of wasted money that goes on stuff they either trash or neglect needs to be culled and give them a vasectomy too! No more Foreign Aid, and no more Baby Bonus to Abos or Reffos.

[Br.IanVonTurpie]

http://mobile.abc.net.au/news/2017-08-04/nt-indigenous-employment-scheme-axed-alleged-rorting/8775964

A Northern Territory Indigenous employment scheme has been axed after it was discovered a number of businesses had allegedly rorted the system of thousands of dollars.

The suspension comes after an independent audit into the system failed to pick up the alleged fraud, but did find, anecdotally, that money had been claimed for non-Indigenous people and people Indigenous to another country.

The Indigenous Employment Provision Sum (IEPS) scheme was brought in by the Country Liberals Party (CLP) in 2014 to incentivise companies to hire Indigenous people in the Territory.

The Gunner Government has now suspended it effective immediately after it uncovered at least six different companies allegedly falsely said they employed Indigenous workers to claim the benefits.

"This program was certainly well intentioned, well meaning, and was all about ensuring that we had more Indigenous Territorians in jobs," Deputy Chief Minister Nicole Manison said.

"We've felt like there is no way we should be continuing with the program, that we need to suspend it at the moment."
"We need to have a look at what comes in to replace it, but most importantly we need to hand this over to police so they can have a look at the matter."

The Government did not give a total sum of the amount defrauded or which businesses were involved, but said the figures ranged from thousands of dollars to tens of thousands for each of the six companies.

Audit into scheme missed alleged rorting
Ms Manison said it was up to the hiring companies themselves to check whether the employee was Indigenous.

"Generally that is something that the company goes and confirms that they do have Indigenous people being employed, however some questions have been raised around that," she said.

"There were checks and balances through the Department [of Infrastructure, Planning and Logistics] and of course if you have concerns about programs you can always refer it onto the Auditor-General."

A CLP-commissioned audit report, delivered by KPMG in December 2016, did not identify the alleged rorting incidents.

However, it did find that most organisations consulted during the audit process indicated that the scheme was vulnerable to fraud.

"[Organisations indicated] that unless there was better compliance monitoring arrangements that verified that the Indigenous people being claims for were actually undertaking work on the job, there is a potential for inappropriate claiming to be undertaken," the report said.

"While no specific examples were provided, there were a number of anecdotes identified during the consultation, including the claiming of IEPS for non-Indigenous workers, or claiming for people Indigenous to another country."

Despite the KPMG reporting findings on the potential for the system to be exploited, the Government said the incidents of alleged fraud were not picked up until the first case was reported to the Infrastructure, Planning and Logistics Department in March.

Ms Manison said the KPMG report also found there were a range of other reasons the scheme was ineffective

Who wants to employ Abos? If they are dumb enough to ask for "indigenous people" ... Clever dicks employ people who are indigenous to other countries!