Extending income management to all welfare recipients in the Northern Territory will disproportionately and adversely affect Aboriginal people in Northern Territory," said ANTaR National President, Dr Janet Hunt.

“It appears that the mooted idea that compulsory income management could be made a special measure under the Racial Discrimination Act, has been discarded by the Government as indefensible,” says ANTaR National President, Dr Janet Hunt. ANTaR has consistently opposed ideas that income quarantining could be seen as a special measure.

The Government is now proposing changes to compulsory income management in the Northern Territory from 1 July next year.

"ANTaR (Australians for Native Title and Reconciliation) acknowledges that Government will, end the suspension of the Race Discrimination Act but, by targeting low-income and disadvantaged people, these measures will still disproportionately and adversely affect Aboriginal people, who are over-represented in these groups. Additionally many more Aboriginal people who lived outside the original 73 prescribed communities of the NT will be affected for the first time,” said Dr Hunt.

“Extending income management to non-Indigenous Territorians does not really resolve the issue of discrimination, as the vast majority of people affected will be Indigenous, and it will be three more years before some version of income management is nationally applied, and thereby likely to affect more non-Indigenous people,” said Dr Hunt.

Additionally the proposed confirmation of the compulsory five year leases as ‘special measures’ and legislating for transition to longer-term so-called 'voluntary' leases goes directly against the wishes of Aboriginal communities. It could have the effect of denying Aboriginal people the right to control the development of their communities for generations to come.

"The continued government take-over of Aboriginal communities remains in breach of their right to self-determination and goes against established evidence that providing greater, not lesser control, to Aboriginal peoples results in better outcomes in terms of 'closing the gap' objectives. Also concerning is the continuation of the stigmatising approach to prohibited material," Dr Hunt said.

ANTaR also believes that the costs could blow out. It has cost around $100m/year to compulsory income manage 15,000 people. The cost of the estimated 20,000 people to be affected by the new policy must be considerably higher, with all the discretionary decision-making involved. These funds would be better spent on positive programs to help tackle the underlying problems that leave people on welfare.

“Parliament needs to scrutinize these measures to see if they if they do really respect the rights and improve circumstances for Aboriginal people in the Northern Territory. We welcome that fact that the Senate will have an enquiry to properly scrutinise these measures.” Dr Hunt concluded.

Media comment:
Dr Janet Hunt (Canberra) 0408 170 448
Dr David Cooper (Darwin) 0418 486 310
Mark Drury (Sydney) 0448 722 942