The availability of employment is a crucial factor in regard to the introduction of the concept of mutual obligation. The Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander unemployment rate is estimated at 26 per cent. This contrasts with a national average of less than 7 per cent. If the 33 000 people employed on CDEP are classified as unemployed, the Indigenous unemployment rate is closer to 40 per cent.

The need to address employment in reforming welfare is emphasised in the ATSIC report, The Job Still Ahead (Taylor & Hunter 1998). If Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander employment continues only at the rate current at the time of the 1996 Census, the direct welfare cost to the government increases from about $800 million in 1996 to $1.1 billion by 2006 (see also Taylor & Hunter, Ch. 11, this volume). However, if Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander unemployment can be reduced to the same level as that of the overall population (remembering that this was at 9 per cent in 1996, not the current 6.3 per cent), the government would save $274 million by 2006 and receive additional tax income of $177 million. This is a turnaround in the order of $450 million in government revenues. Surely, some of this potential saving can be used now to assist our people into employment and to break the cycle of welfare.