Evidence-free policy making? The case of income management

This paper argues that current evidence fails to support the extension of income management. This paper is a new addendum to the Journal of Indigenous Policy Issue 12, which September 2011 and looked at the reports then available on the effectiveness or otherwise of the Federal Government’s income management program in the Northern Territory. However, further government reports on the Northern Territory Emergency Response policies were published later last year. This addendum covers the additional studies, looking again at the quality of evidence being used to justify extending IM and other programs. The two publications together examine the evidence claimed by the Government of benefits in the Northern Territory, as well as related data from the Cape York and Western Australian programs. The paper finds the evidence generally failed to support the extension of IM or other policies such as SEAM. It also examines the evidence in independent studies which often tell a different story. JIP 12 issue and now its addendum have been made accessible free online to stimulate debate on what constitutes good Indigenous policy making