SUNDAY - Calls for welfare crackdown on booze and drugs 💊

0:00Dave Roberts here. There you are surrounded by fans, sharing wings, sharing drinks, high-fiving random strangers. Everybody remembers the game. Nobody remembers the guy coughing behind you until a few days later. At 2 a.m., you wake up with the fever and your throats on fire. Now what? Urgent care, clothes, ER, slam, telehealth, maybe, but the pharmacy's clothes. You needed a medical emergency kit. These aren't first aid kits. They contain essential prescriptions used for over 30 common conditions. Sinus and ear infection, UTI, stomach bug, travelers diarrhea, and more. On hand before you need them. Use your doctor-developed guidebook to select the right prescription or call their telemedicine doctor standing by. It's like an urgent care and drugstore at home. When you're sick, traveling or stranded, you'll wish you ordered a medical emergency kit. Order online in minutes and it's shipped to your door and say $45 with my promo code blue at urgentcarekit.com slash blue. That's promo code blue at urgentcarekit.com slash blue. Well, this is a proposal that really made

1:02people sit up and take notice. An indigenous rights lawyer is calling for an overhaul of the welfare system. Dr Hannah McGlaid is behind the idea and she's talking about mandating welfare recipients going to rehabilitation and she's proposing making rehab compulsory for welfare dependent parents with drug and alcohol issues. Her idea has been sparked by a very sad case in WA. In 2023, three Aboriginal children who are allowed to stay with their drug addicted mother were later murdered by her. The children's grandmother says the mum would use welfare payments to fuel her habit. She says their mum needed to keep the kids in her care to receive welfare which she spent on drugs and drink. Indigenous policy leaders are now calling for an inquest and they think that something within the welfare system needs to change. Dr Hannah McGlaid has floated her proposal in the Australian newspaper and she's very kindly agreed to join us on 2GB

2:03breakfast. Hannah McGlaid, good morning. Good morning. I'm keen to hear first of all the reaction to your proposal. Oh, I haven't had a whole lot of reaction. Some support. I must say the immediate responsibility of the department in this case was the child welfare who knew full well of the risk that the children were facing. But it's very clear that there was social security involved in mum wanting to retain the children when she clearly was in the grips of a very severe methamphetamine addiction and psychosis, you know, with severe lifetime ongoing impacts of brutal violence. She would have been better off without the children while she was going through that life crisis and clearly the children would have been better off without her even though she's their mum. Absolutely without doubt and the police in this case made numerous reports to the child protection

3:03officers and they were minimized and downplayed. Unfortunately leading to these children being killed, murdered in a very horrific manner. The issue of social security and family pension payments being used to buy methamphetamine, you know, above children's needs and putting children at risk is a national problem and we have to do something about it. We need to increase obviously our child protection responses but we do have a methamphetamine addiction crisis across Aboriginal Australia and no doubt in non-abritional families and communities as well. That's what I'm wondering would a proposal like this work across the country regardless of where you're living in the community and what skin colour you have? You know what I'm hearing is that we probably don't have the rehabilitation services that we need. Where I live in the southwestern west of Australia, we actually have no residential treatment service for Aboriginal people. We have some mainstream services but we don't

4:05have one that really is set up run by and you know incorporating the Aboriginal culture which is seen to be essential to healing. So unfortunately I think and I heard from a health expert this week, we're not having the discussion about addictions that we need to be having and there's a clear correlation with child abuse and child removals. This is Hannah McGlaid, the Indigenous rights lawyer and academic joining us on 2GB breakfast. It can be a dangerous combination, can't it Hannah, when you've got endless welfare money when you mix that with addiction, whether it be alcohol or drugs? Yes and I think methamphetamine research has shown increases aggression and decreases empathy. In the week before killing her children Margaret, assaulted her daughter, hitting her in the face with a rock, you know, then the murder themselves were absolutely horrific. She did go to the refuge that morning and she asked for help, she wanted to be admitted, she wanted to be admitted to an Aboriginal hostel and she was refused because she had

5:09public housing that had been overtaken by similar people affected by the grip of methamphetamine addiction. So you know we have to look at the picture in its entirety and the call for an inquest was actually rejected. This poor grandmother who lost three kids when she was begging the department to give the children to her who knew full well the dangers that they were in can't even get an inquest. So opposition AG Julian Leesa has urged the state attorney general to do that and he's absolutely correct and why has the coroner's record declined an inquest? I think what we're seeing here is this refusal to look at you know the actual situation that too many Aboriginal children and no no doubt non-aboriginal children are being faced with. And the grandmother of the three murdered children say that the mother the murderer was motivated by that welfare money. Absolutely and I thought that before I heard grandmother's comments because it's common sense.

6:14She couldn't look after the children. She was help seeking in some ways for the children her Facebook account shows she was trying to get help but she couldn't because this drug is so addictive so highly addictive and damaging that she couldn't give it up herself and she needed that external decision making over her life. We even have a system of involuntary mental healthcare in Australia and that's very well known mental health legislation can commit people to health treatment in hospitals against their will whether they have recognised mental illness and a risk of danger to themselves or others and making the capacity and insight to do something about it. And when you talk about addictions welfare can be addictive as well when you're used to receiving that paycheck. I don't think it's too much to say to someone look if you've got a severe drug or alcohol addiction and you want to continue collecting the welfare we need you to go to rehab. I think so it's really common sense my 30-odd fund said to me because you know I come from a human

7:18rights background I believe in the human rights of the child but when children aren't having proper meals when they're living with violence and fighting and partying all night and they can't go to school when their basic needs are getting neglected we have to have real conversations about misuse of social security in those cases. Yeah we owe it to the children to save them before you have a tragedy like this one that occurred involving these three poor children in Western Australia. Your heart breaks for that poor grandmother who's been left behind and I'm going to be interested to see how the key players respond to this idea because I think it's got a lot of merit and I appreciate you coming on the program. Thank you. Dr Hannah McGlade the Indigenous Rights lawyer and academic what do you think of the proposal I think it makes sense if someone's in so much trouble that they're addicted to meth and looking after children and collecting welfare you've got to jump in the middle and say look if you want to keep on doing all of these things you need to do something for us and you need to do something for yourself you need to do something for these children

8:20go to rehab like what you're hearing make sure you've subscribed to Ben Fordon Dave Roberts here there you are surrounded by fans sharing wings sharing drinks high-fiving random strangers everybody remembers the game nobody remembers the guy coughing behind you until a few days later at 2 a.m. you wake up with the fever and your throats on fire now what urgent care clothes ER slam telehealth maybe but the pharmacies close you needed a medical emergency kit these aren't first aid kits they contain essential prescriptions used for over 30 common conditions sinus and ear infection UTIs stomach bug travelers diarrhea and more on hand before you need them use your doctor develop guidebook to select the right prescription or call their telemedicine doctor standing by it's like an urgent care and drugstore at home when you're sick traveling or stranded you wish you ordered a medical emergency kit order online in minutes and it's shipped to your door and say 45 dollars with my promo code blue at urgent care kit dot com slash

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