The first independent, multisite study of compulsory income management in Australia suggest little evidence to support political enthusiasm to extend the policy.
Coming to a community near you.
Sabrina Roy with her baby Xena at the Milingimbi general store in the Northern Territory in 2015.
Dean Lewins/AAP
The trial of the cashless welfare card, to control unhealthy spending in Indigenous communities, is being expanded partly due to emotive well-funded campaigns. Meanwhile, evidence is being ignored.
Almost half of the participants in the Cashless Welfare Card trial said it had made their lives worse.
AAP/Richard Milnes
It’s a mystery why another trial of the Cashless Debit Card is necessary – particularly given how it has led to further economic and social harm among its participants.
What do Ceduna and the other trial sites for the Healthy Welfare Card have in common? All are country towns with a mix of Indigenous and non-Indigenous residents.
Wikimedia Commons/Nachoman-au
Income management was first applied to Indigenous communities before being implemented more widely. The Healthy Welfare Card policy appears to be on this same path.
The government has promised increased funding for services to gain community consent for its welfare card trials.
AAP/Dan Peled
How can it be determined whether any improvements that may occur as part of the 12-month “cashless debit card” trial are the result of the card or increased funding for services, or a mix of both?
The government should follow the evidence-based advice before wasting more money on a new “trial” program that further infantilises mainly Indigenous welfare recipients and won’t work.
Since the NT Intervention a large body of evidence has built up showing that income management does not achieve its stated goals. So why does it continue?
AAP/Dean Lewins
Various studies, culminating in the final evaluation report of income management in the Northern Territory, have found such programs don’t achieve the claimed benefits. Why did the budget extend them?
Real and sustained engagement with Aboriginal people should be the starting point in rethinking Indigenous welfare policy.
AAP/Marianna Massey
In recent years, Tangentyere Council Research Hub has undertaken data collection in Alice Springs town camps as part of a longitudinal study of income management. The final report of around 300 pages was…
In the seven years since the Northern Territory Intervention, a large body of evidence has been built up showing few if any benefits from compulsory - as distinct from voluntary - income management.
AAP/Terry Trewin
The mess of federal budget negotiations has taken over the limited space for social policy debates. However, we are due to get final reports on a range of inquiries. These include the McClure report on…
While social services minister Kevin Andrews focuses on welfare spending data, there is precious little evidence for the efficacy of his policy approach.
AAP/Alan Porritt
The prime object of welfare reform should be to increase the well-being of people rather to reduce public expenditure. Good policy should be able to achieve both goals over the longer term. Too many current…
Howard government minister Mal Brough first proposed part-quarantining welfare payments in the lead-up to the Northern Territory intervention. Now it could become a mainstream welfare policy.
AAP/Tracey Nearmy
One of the bizarre bipartisan policy overlaps between the Coalition and Labor is in the area of income support known as welfare payments. Labor has been seen as the party that cared about the poor and…
It seems the Coalition will expand the compulsory income management scheme, which has little evidence backing up its worth.
AAP/Dan Peled
For a brief moment, it looked as though the Coalition would be better than the ALP on welfare policy. It appeared that the new government would listen to evidence for policy changes in its newly retitled…
If Finance Minister Penny Wong is serious about delivering budget savings to Australians, perhaps she should rethink the government’s commitment to its contentious income management program. By cutting…