from the Sydney Morning Herald
Aboriginal protesters will converge on Canberra for the start of the parliamentary year to demand an end to income management (IM).
A key plank of the federal intervention to stamp out child sex abuse, IM ensures half of people's welfare money is spent on essentials, instead of alcohol, drugs and gambling.
But critics of the blanket quarantining system say the policy is "racist and onerous", and forces Aborigines further into poverty.
"When we are in Canberra we will be demanding our human rights and demanding all our money is paid to us in cash," said Barbara Shaw, resident of Mt Nancy Town Camp and member of the Intervention Rollback Action Group.
While she stayed in the capital, Ms Shaw said she would be forced to negotiate with Centrelink to have 50 per cent of her entitlements distributed as storecards, or deposited as credit in local shops.
She said the measures breached legislative protections against discrimination that exist in the ACT.
Protesters had sent a letter to the ACT Human Rights Commission, requesting support and legal advice.
"We need support, more and more, whoever feels that this intervention is wrong," said Valerie Martin, a Yuendumu resident from the Prescribed Area People's Alliance.
"It's really bad how they're treating us, taking away our rights.
"With the quarantining we are struggling to get the money to survive."
An official review into the emergency measures, handed to the federal government last October, proposed changes to discriminatory aspects of the IM system.
It recommended the scheme only apply to families whose children did not attend school or had been reported to child protection authorities.
But the Labor government has vowed to maintain strict controls on all Aborigines' welfare money, saying it has delivered benefits to women and children.
The protesters will leave from Alice Springs on January 28, and join supporters from around the country, including a group of activists that has already begun a 17-day walk from Sydney to Canberra.
They will converge on Parliament House on February 3 - the first day for federal parliament in 2009 - to protest for Aboriginal human rights.
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