SYDNEY (AFP) - Australia's government plans to make Aboriginal people sign behavioural "contracts" in order to receive state health care, unemployment benefits and other social services, a report said.
Families and communities would be rewarded for such things as ensuring their children are washed, clothed and go to school, The Australian newspaper said.
Indigenous Affairs Minister Amanda Vanstone told the newspaper that under a radical shake-up, so-called "sit-down money" would end, a euphemism for receiving generous state handouts in return for doing little.
Aboriginal communities would sign contracts with government welfare officers, she said, in a bid to ensure the principle of mutual obligation -- the idea that people must give something in exchange for welfare.
"Passive welfare is over, but we want to work with communities to meet what are their obvious problems and needs," she said.
Other proposals include using electronic cards to control what indigenous people can buy using government payments and preventing children visiting community swimming pools if they do not attend school.
Vanstone denied the plan meant the government was applying double standards.
"If I take you out to a remote settlement ... you will agree they are not in the same circumstances."
One prominent Aboriginal rights activist slammed the plan as "fascism gone mad."
"This is not mutual obligation, nothing like it," Pat Dodson told the newspaper. "It's fascism gone mad. It's crazy stuff.
"This is not reform - this is social engineering at its worst."
Since it came to power in 1996, the government has been gradually trimming back Australia's welfare provisions across the board.
It was re-elected for a fourth term last month, winning control of both houses of parliament for the first time.
Surveys show standards of living among Australia's indigenous people are among the lowest for those of any country in the developed world.
11/10/2004 - 22:33 GMT - AFP