Andrew Bartlett (Queensland, Australian Greens) Share this | Hansard source

I'd like to also speak to the Auditor-General's report and concur very much with my colleague Senator Siewert's remarks. I want to take the opportunity to note and acknowledge her tireless advocacy in pointing out the innate and inevitable flaws in income management for over 10 years. As she said, income management was first introduced into the Northern Territory as part of the so-called emergency response by the Howard government—unfortunately, with support from the then Labor opposition—an approach that Labor then continued in a modified form when they were in government. There is one comment that Senator Siewert made, though, that I may not be able to agree with. She stated that this government has the ideological view that this top-down approach will automatically lead to better outcomes. I'm not actually convinced that they do think that it will lead to better outcomes.