The dollar contribution to regional income from employment and non-employment (welfare) sources estimated from 2001 Census data is shown in Table 4.2. According to these calculations, the total gross annual personal income accruing to adult residents of the Thamarrurr region in 2001 amounted to $10 million. However, only two-thirds of this ($6.6m) went to Aboriginal residents despite the fact that they accounted for 92 per cent of the adult population. Of greater note is the fact that only 16 per cent of the total regional income of $4 million generated by mainstream employment accrued to Aboriginal people. The implications of this are reflected in relative levels of welfare dependency with 82 per cent of total Aboriginal income attributable to non-employment (welfare) sources compared to only three per cent of non-Aboriginal income. If CDEP income is also counted as welfare income owing to its notional link to Newstart Allowance, then the level of Aboriginal welfare dependency rises to 90 per cent.

Source: Calculated from customised ABS 2001 Census tables

While it is not easy to directly compare estimates made from census data with those made from administrative records, in order to gain a clearer picture of the composition of welfare income and to benchmark the census-based estimates of welfare income, information was obtained from Centrelink on the amounts paid in benefits (excluding CDEP) for a single fortnight as close to the census date as possible (Table 4.3). It should be noted that these data are for the total population owing to difficulties with Aboriginal identification in Centrelink records. It should also be noted that the annualised estimates shown are derived by simply multiplying the fortnightly payments by 26, although there is some justification for this given reasonable stability over time in fortnightly amounts. These data yield an overall estimate of welfare payments of $8.4 million in 2001, which is considerably higher than the census-based estimate of $5.3 million. If we add to this the census-derived figure from Table 4.2 of $4.6 million accruing to non-Indigenous workers, plus CDEP, then the gross personal income for Thamarrurr in 2003 can be estimated at $13 million.

Source: Centrelink, Darwin

Source: Centrelink, Darwin

Table 4.4 shows the distribution of Centrelink payments by payment type and amount for the fortnight ending 4 April 2003 as at April 2003. While the total number of customers is shown as 1080, and while the payment categories are mostly discrete, there is some overlap between family and parenting payments, and so the actual number of unique customers is probably fewer than shown here. At the same time, with the shift away from payments by cheque, electronic deposits directly into bank accounts now make up 82 per cent of all payments made at Wadeye. As a consequence, and because of frequent short-term population movement in and out of the region, an unknown number of Thamarrurr residents may well be recorded on the Centrelink database with a non-Thamarrurr address and so do not appear in the data shown here. The likelihood, then, is that these data represent a sample, albeit a large one, of the Thamarrurr situation.

While the amounts paid vary from fortnight to fortnight, this variation is only slight and the distribution by payment types shown here has been reasonably stable for the past two years. Thus, the annualised amounts, while estimates only, are fairly robust. Overall, then, an estimated annual total of $8.6 million is paid by Centrelink^[1] to residents of Wadeye and outstations in line with their citizen entitlements. The greatest share of this amount ($3.2m or 37%) is allocated as Newstart Allowances for those unemployed. Almost half of all Centrelink customers fall into this category. The next largest group are those in receipt of family payments amounting to $2.5 million (29% of total payments). In line with the youthful age distribution, pensions account for only 17 per cent of all payments, although Abstudy payments represent a miniscule proportion (0.7%) despite the relatively large numbers in eligible age groups. Only 25 individuals over the age of 16 years were in receipt of Abstudy, and only five aged less than 16.