Tenders for the Australian government's Northern Territory Intervention 'Basics' EFTPOS card are due to close next Thursday the second of July.
A large cast of banks, card organisations and payments businesses will be trying to win the contract, which is expected to be awarded in September this year.
The card was created following the Australian government's NT intervention, (which was prompted by evidence of child abuse in some Aboriginal communities.
It enabled the government to implement a key part of the intervention, namely the new policy of Aboriginal income management.
Under this policy, Aboriginals must spend at least half of any government payments they get on approved items.
Because of the hasty way in which the government intervened in the NT, the initial Basics card contract was awarded to UK owned - Retail Decisions - without a tender.
Now however, the government is going to tender and opening up the opportunity to others to profit from controlling the way in which Aboriginals spend their incomes.
No comments:
Post a Comment