Scott Ludlam (WA, Australian Greens) Share this | Hansard source

I just want to nail this down, because I still think the minister and I are talking past each other. I asked you a question directly about the link between income management and crime and the link between income management and infant mortality. These are the clauses we are debating. We are not trying to knock out the parts of government spending or government programs that have provided more youth workers or, in some instances, more police officers or better reporting. This is about income management. You cannot come in here and say you want to extend, entrench and continue to trial income management without a shred of evidence as to whether it has made any difference.

Minister, I appreciate you need to take advice on this stuff and this is getting down to detail. What is the role of income management in these things that we are proposing have actually helped people? Is there any evidence at all to support the government's legislated intention that income management is playing any kind of productive or positive role at all?