Yarrabah protests CDEP scrapping

Jonathan Strauss
April 25, 2009
Issue 
792

CAIRNS— Residents of the Indigenous community at Yarrabah held a public meeting on April 22 to discuss the Rudd government's proposal to scrap the Community Development Employment Program (CDEP) on July 1.

This follows big changes made to CDEP by the Howard government in its last term. CDEP employs about 400 people in the community.

Callers to the local Indigenous radio station have criticised CDEP for largely failing to provide full-time jobs. Nevertheless, the scheme is acknowledged to provide work in Indigenous communities.

Yarrabah community members planned a petition in support of the continuation of CDEP and protests in Cairns and Canberra.

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