First Steps in Closing the Gap
Welfare reform
The Government is committed to a welfare-reform agenda which acknowledges that passive welfare in Indigenous Australia has not contributed to individual or family wellbeing. It is cited as one of the underlying causes of substance abuse, family violence and community dysfunction.
Welfare reform is a central measure in the Northern Territory Emergency Response, through the implementation of income management across prescribed areas.
Under the Northern Territory Emergency Response, 41 communities and associated outstations as well as town camps in and around Darwin, Katherine, Tennant Creek, Alice Springs, Adelaide River and Jabiru are now subject to income management.
Income management ensures that welfare payments are spent in the interests of children. It provides better financial security for many mothers, grandmothers and other community members to feed and raise their children.
Early indications from the Northern Territory are that a significant proportion of managed funds are being spent on food and some community stores are reporting increased turnover in fruit and vegetables.
The Budget provides funds to continue the roll out of income management in the Northern Territory and strengthen Centrelink’s engagement with communities.
In December 2007 we announced funding to support a trial of welfare reform in four communities on Cape York. An important community-generated initiative, this trial also involves a landmark partnership between the Australian and Queensland Governments.
The Queensland Government has established a Family Responsibilities Commission to engage with families on their community obligations, including as welfare recipients. The State is also matching the Australian Government’s $48.8 million commitment to the trial, ensuring that communities will also benefit from improved services and outcomes in health, housing, education, policing, justice and child safety.
The Australian Government will introduce measures to enable participants in CDEP tocome under the jurisdiction of the Family Responsibilities Commission and associated income management arrangements, as part of the Cape York welfare reform trial.
At a local level, the services provided by both governments will be coordinated through a new single local agreement which identifies the responsibilities and commitments of all parties.
This work being progressed by the Australian and Queensland Governments and the Cape York Institute for Policy and Leadership to tackle the problems caused by drug and alcohol abuse and welfare dependency in four trial Cape York communities is an excellent example of collaboration across government and with the non-government sector.
In February this year, another joint initiative was announced, this time with the Western Australian Government, to introduce income management trials in selected communities in that State.
In his inquiry into the deaths of 22 Kimberley Aboriginal men and women, coroner Alastair Hope recommended that in cases of child neglect, compulsory income management should be made available to officers from the state department responsible for child protection.
In the trial to begin next financial year in the main towns of the Kimberley and the Cannington area of Perth, income management will be tied to the welfare of children of both Indigenous and non-Indigenous welfare recipients.
The trial will give child protection authorities the power to recommend to Centrelink that income-support and family payments are quarantined to be used for the benefit of children. It will be the first activation of income management powers in child protection cases under the National Child Protection Framework.
The Australian Government will fund money-management support services providing financial education training and financial crisis support to people affected by income management. The Western Australian Government will also be providing support services to help implement the trials.