Labor punishing the poor

Regardless of the economic equity sentiment contained in the national apology, the former Minister for Health, Jenny Macklin, maintained that income quarantining would continue as long as it proved to deliver better outcomes for indigenous Australians. Income quarantining would continue, Macklin said, as long as there was "sound, evidence-based" research that the policies were closing the gap between Indigenous and non-Indigenous Australians.

The Australian Institute for Health and Welfare have consistently found that there is no evidence that income quarantining has had any positive health or economic benefits on indigenous Australians. The Department of Families, Housing, Community Services and Indigenous Affairs in its 2009 monitoring report 'Closing the Gap in the Northern Territory' even acknowledges that there was no evidence that income quarantining makes a significant difference to any of the originally stated objectives.

In 2011, the Gillard government failed in its bit to suppress a government report that showed federal spending on indigenous-specific programs had "yielded dismally poor returns". The report prepared by the Department of Finance and Deregulation, titled 'Strategic Review of Indigenous Expenditure" found) that income quarantining, which cost the federal government $165.9 million in 2009-10, should be "comprehensively evaluated before any consideration of further expansion."

In June 2011 however, the Gillard government released the discussion paper 'Stronger Futures in the Northern Territory' which signaled only minor changes to income quarantining provisions (mostly affecting quarantine exemptions for indigenous students). This was even though then Health Minister Jenny Macklin, mirroring the reservations held by Paul Toohey and Glen Brennan, said that there was a "stigma" surrounding income quarantining.

Regardless of the lack of evidence-based research about the effectiveness of quarantining and the high costs of implementing and administering the scheme – listed in the 2011 federal budget at $117.5 million over five years – the Gillard government has expanded income quarantining to ten communities, indigenous and non-indigenous, in NSW, South Australia, Victoria and Queensland.

Income quarantining in the suburbs

Introduced in July 2011, income quarantining, now recast as the benign sounding 'income management', is compulsory for long-term welfare recipients, including sole parents. The new regulations presume whole categories of economically and socially disadvantaged people are irresponsible with their income.

Just as NT income quarantining attached a stigma to those it affected, its expansion to communities now labeled among the "nation's most disadvantaged communities" expands the stigma. In expanding the policy it maintains the narrative that it is parents, and not governments, who are to blame for their children "missing out on the benefit of the growing economy and the opportunities it brings".

According to the Gillard government, the expanded income quarantining policy acts to"stabilise dysfunctional families" and removes barriers to participation in community and work. However, as with the NT model, there is no evidence to support that withholding government income will do either. If anything, income quarantining is more likely to put families at risk under greater social and economic pressure. The criteria for quarantining is families assessed by Centrelink social workers as "vulnerable to financial crisis". Under the expanded Gillard model up to 70 per cent of government payments can be quarantined under income management.

According to the Australian Council of Social Services (ACOSS, 2010) report 'The Contest for a Fair Australia' all Australians are increasingly under financial pressure because of a stagnating national economy. For ACOSS"anyone of us could face losing our jobs, or our homes, and our children could struggle to find work when they leave school." It is not only low-income Australians but it is middle-income Australians who are increasingly under financial pressure. Rising living costs over the last decade in electricity (91 per cent), housing (58 percent) and health (63 per cent) are leaving more people economically vulnerable.

There are about two million income support recipients in Australia who rely on government income. About 60 per cent of income support recipients have work-generated income of less than $20 a week. One-third of all Centrelink recipients have no private income at all. This rises to around half for all people on Disability Support Pensions. Households that are heavily reliant on benefits also have relatively few assets, with most reporting savings of under $1,000.

Arguably the rationale of 'under financial pressure' as a criteria for income quarantining is problematic. Many middle-class families who receive government incomes in the form of childcare subsidiaries and tax relief would ideally fit the criteria used for the Gillard government's quarantining model.