Passionate Indigenous advocate resigns

The CDEP program was a not-for profit community-managed organisation in the inner city, run in conjunction with Centrelink.

It allowed people the opportunity to voluntarily give up their welfare entitlements in return for working 15-18 hours a week and earning those benefits. It also provided education and skills for the long-term unemployed to enter the workforce.

“I was involved with the CDEP since 1996 in Redfern. I started off as a truck driver and

CDEP participant,” said Mr Weatherill who graduated from the scheme to eventually become CDEP Coordinator in 2000, helping hundreds of others on welfare make the transition to full-time employment.

Mr Weatherill felt that being a former CDEP participant gave him an insight into the plight of the long-term unemployed. “I was one of the boys, sort of thing. For me it made it easier. I understood them. I knew what was expected of me,” said Mr Weatherill. “Around the Redfern area where a lot of people have alcohol problems and drug issues, CDEP was used to get people into a work ethic.”

Weatherill and his team would work closely in the community to develop programs and provide mentoring and support for those unable to break the welfare cycle. “We’d keep a close eye in the first month [on CDEP participants]. That’s how we pinpointed those who had the ambition to go on,” Mr Weatherill said.

“That was a very important part of the job – the mentoring, the daily visits. It supported them right through. We also always kept a spot open for anyone getting out of gaol who found it hard to get a job in the mainstream.”

The Federal Government’s decision to scrap the CDEP program in June last year saddened Mr Weatherill. “We tried to tell them these people need it – to give them a work ethic. We knew what people wanted to do. It made them feel proud when they got full-time work.”

Mr Weatherill believes that CDEP worked because it addressed the social problems that underscore chronic long-term unemployment.

“It gave them their own self-esteem. Working 15 hours a week – they were working for the dole. They didn’t have to go to the employment service. It made them feel good to have their own money at the end of the week,” said Mr Weatherill. “Working on CDEP they felt like they owned it.”

Mr Weatherill hopes the new government will consider re-instating the program.

“There is a rumour going around they will. It’s just a wait-and-see game,” he said.

“A lot people don’t have the confidence they had… Now they are forced to go to job networks and fill out forms and if they don’t go they get breached.”

Although Mr Weatherill is resigning because of health problems, after suffering from two strokes last year, he is still passionate about the Redfern Aboriginal Corporation and intends to be involved in the future, possibly as a director.

 “I’d get in there at eight o’clock. I felt like I was starting it up – it was like my baby. I was involved in everything from day one and was very passionate about it. Still am.”

Photo: Ali Blogg - Caption: Dennis Weatherill