The normalisation of income management in Australia: Analysis of the parliamentary debates of 2007 and 2009-10

• Published in: The Australian journal of social issues Vol. 51; no. 4; pp. 433 - 448
• Main Author: Lovell, Melissa E.
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: Sydney Blackwell Publishing Ltd 01-12-2016
• Subjects: Aboriginal Australians; Aborigines and the law; Academic libraries; Citizenship; Coalition governments; Colleges & universities; Colonialism; Community; Debates; Discourse; Human rights; Income; income management; Indigenous peoples; Labor laws and legislation; Legal status, laws, etc; Legislation; Liberalism; Management; Native peoples; Neoliberalism; Northern Territory Intervention; Policy making; Political discourse; Politics; Racial discrimination; Racism; Retirement planning; Rights; Social policy; Social security; Speeches; Welfare dependency; Welfare reform; Australia
• ISSN: 0157-6321; 1839-4655
• DOI: 10.1002/j.1839-4655.2016.tb01242.x

Initially introduced as part of Australia's Northern Territory Intervention in 2007, Income Management (IM) explicitly targeted inhabitants of remote NT Indigenous communities. IM is a form of welfare conditionality that involves compulsorily 'quarantining' at least half of individuals' social security income. It has been heavily criticised for being racist, discriminatory, and a violation of individual rights. The introduction of New Income Management (NIM) in 2010 extended IM beyond Indigenous communities and introduced a new set of eligibility criteria that shifted the focus of IM from Indigenous people to working-age recipients of social security income. This in-depth study of the early parliamentary debates on the compulsory IM programs traces the patterns of political discourse that led to IM coming to be seen by many policy makers as a normal and legitimate technique within Australian social policy. Situating the IM programs within neoliberal concerns about welfare dependency and active citizenship, this article argues that the introduction of NIM heralded a shift from a conception of IM as part of a focused social experiment targeted at remote Indigenous communities to a potentially mainstream social policy option.