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Welfare payments and school attendance :
36p. Includes bibliographical references. 'An Issues Paper for the Australian Education Union'. 'August 2008'. Making the welfare payments of Indigenous people conditional on measures such as their childrenâs school attendance is becoming an increasingly popular policy measure in Australia. The stated aims of such an approach include ensuring that money is spent on essentials such as food, clothing and housing, and increasing childrenâs participation in school. The former Coalition Federal Government supported the introduction of such schemes. The Rudd Labor Government has continued this policy approach, with support for three âincome managementâ models in Western Australia, Queensland and the Northern Territory. Though such schemes have been regularly characterised as trials, there has been little public information or discussion about their underpinning policy rationale. This approach marks an unprecedented new phase in welfare policy in Australia. This Issues Paper will set out the increasing influence of the concept of mutual obligation in Australia and its particular application to Indigenous policy. It canvasses the current trials linking welfare payments to school attendance and outlines what evaluations have indicated about such schemes to date. [p.2, ed] Making the welfare payments of Indigenous people conditional on measures such as their childrenâs school attendance is becoming an increasingly popular policy measure in Australia. The stated aims of such an approach include ensuring that money is spent on essentials such as food, clothing and housing, and increasing childrenâs participation in school. The former Coalition Federal Government supported the introduction of such schemes. The Rudd Labor Government has continued this policy approach, with support for three âincome managementâ models in Western Australia, Queensland and the Northern Territory. Though such schemes have been regularly characterised as trials, there has been little public information or discussion about their underpinning policy rationale. This approach marks an unprecedented new phase in welfare policy in Australia. This Issues Paper will set out the increasing influence of the concept of mutual obligation in Australia and its particular application to Indigenous policy. It canvasses the current trials linking welfare payments to school attendance and outlines what evaluations have indicated about such schemes to date. [p.2, ed]