Tony Abbott pledges to extend quarantine on indigenous welfare cash (The Courier Mail)

27 Jul Tony Abbott pledges to extend quarantine on indigenous welfare cash (The Courier Mail)

A COALITION Government would consider extending welfare quarantines across Australia, Opposition Leader Tony Abbott says.

Currently some welfare payments in Aboriginal communities are ”quarantined” so that money can only be spent on necessities.

Mr Abbott posed the question: ”If it’s right and just in the Territory why not elsewhere?”

He said it was difficult to propose policy while in Opposition, without the extensive data that he said the Government has access to on how income management has worked.

Mr Abbott said an incoming Coalition Government would ”carefully review” the idea of a wider application, ”with a view” to extending it more widely.

”Depending on how it’s gone we may extend it to more regions on a trial basis, or more generally across Australia,” he said.

”This is the kind of policy that a Government of real economic conservatives should consider.” …Go to article.