Jenny Macklin (Jagajaga, Australian Labor Party, Minister for Disability Reform) Share this | Hansard source

I thank the member for Mayo for his questions. As I am sure he is aware, I am a supporter of income management and I have to say I have pursued it with some policy vigour in many parts of Australia. The area that is relevant to this year's budget is the continuation and expansion of income management in Western Australia, where we have had income management in place for some time—in fact, since 2008.

We have had an independent evaluation of income management in Western Australia, which I assume the member for Mayo has seen. It certainly showed that the majority of people who participated in income management, either compulsorily or voluntarily, thought that income management made their children's lives better. I can inform the member that there are currently around 1,600 people participating in income management in Western Australia—1,100 of those are on voluntary income management—and there is money in this year's budget to continue that work in Western Australia for another year. I do thank the Western Australian government and the relevant ministers for their cooperation. We have recently expanded income management to the Ngaanyatjarra Lands in Laverton, and that is funded from money in this year's budget. We do understand that there are many people in that area who have been calling us to expand the program in this way.

The member for Mayo is right to say that, in his home state, the member for Wakefield has been very supportive of these initiatives. He and I have worked together on these matters in Adelaide, in Playford, and of course we have also put income management in place in Bankstown in New South Wales, Logan and Rockhampton in Queensland and Shepparton in Victoria. Those initiatives were in the budget two years ago. In this year's budget the initiative relates to Western Australia, and I have given the member the relevant figures.

Proposed expenditure agreed to.

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