The head of a peak advocacy body for social security says they have “significant concerns” about a proposal to deduct traffic fine payments from welfare cheques in West Australia.
The state government is reportedly in talks with the Commonwealth about the proposal as a means of reducing the Indigenous incarceration rate.
In some areas of WA almost half of Aboriginal inmates are behind bars because of unpaid traffic fines.
Chief executive of the National Social Security Rights Network Matthew Butt says imprisonment for fine defaulting should be removed altogether.
