FILE - In this Dec. 18, 2012 file photo, Senate Judiciary Committee Chairman Sen. Patrick Leahy, D-Vt. is seen on Capitol Hill in Washington. The Senate on Monday returned to the Violence Against Women Act, seeking to accomplish what Congress last year failed to do _ extend the federal government's chief means of protecting women from domestic abuse while broadening those protections to better include Native Americans, gays and lesbians. (AP Photo/Susan Walsh, File)
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FILE - In this Dec. 18, 2012 file photo, Senate Judiciary Committee Chairman Sen. Patrick Leahy, D-Vt. is seen on Capitol Hill in Washington. The Senate on Monday returned to the Violence Against Women Act, seeking to accomplish what Congress last year failed to do _ extend the federal government's chief means of protecting women from domestic abuse while broadening those protections to better include Native Americans, gays and lesbians. (AP Photo/Susan Walsh, File)
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FILE - In this Dec. 21, 2012 file photo, House Majority Leader Eric Cantor, R-Va. speaks during a news conference on Capitol Hill in Washington. The Senate on Monday returned to the Violence Against Women Act, seeking to accomplish what Congress last year failed to do _ extend the federal government's chief means of protecting women from domestic abuse while broadening those protections to better include Native Americans, gays and lesbians. (AP Photo/J. Scott Applewhite, File)
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FILE - In this Nov. 29, 2012 file photo, Sen. Patty Murray, D-Wash. is seen on Capitol Hill in Washington. The Senate on Monday returned to the Violence Against Women Act, seeking to accomplish what Congress last year failed to do _ extend the federal government's chief means of protecting women from domestic abuse while broadening those protections to better include Native Americans, gays and lesbians. (AP Photo/J. Scott Applewhite, File)
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Anne Easby-Smith, left, and Trace Robbins, right, who work for House Speaker John Boehner, help to prepare the Rayburn Room on Capitol Hill in Washington,Wednesday, Jan. 2, 2013, where members of the House of Representatives will pose for pictures at an oath of office ceremony with Boehner. (AP Photo/J. Scott Applewhite)
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The U.S. Capitol is seen amid reflections from inside the Cannon House Office Building on the last day of the 112th Congress, on Capitol Hill in Washington, Wednesday, Jan. 2, 2013. On Thursday, all members of the House of Representatives and one third of the Senate will be sworn in as the 113th Congress begins its work. (AP Photo/J. Scott Applewhite)
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FILE - In this Nov. 13, 2012 file photo, a man walks in front of the Capitol in Washington. The debate in Washington over taxes and spending is likely to continue damaging the fragile economy well into 2013. The political standoff has already taken an economic toll, creating uncertainty about the future and discouraging consumers from spending and businesses from hiring and investing. (AP Photo/J. Scott Applewhite, File)
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FILE - This Friday, Dec. 28, 2012, file photo shows the Capitol dome on Capitol Hill in Washington. The brinkmanship in Washington over taxes and spending is likely to continue damaging the fragile economy well into 2013. The political standoff has already taken an economic toll, creating uncertainty about the future and discouraging consumers from spending and businesses from hiring and investing. (AP Photo/Susan Walsh, File)
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Clouds roil over the White House in Washington on the morning of Sunday, Dec. 30, 2012, as Washington has less than 48 hours to avert the “fiscal cliff,” a series of tax increases and spending cuts set to take hold on Jan. 1. Republican and Democratic negotiators in the Senate were hoping to reach a deal to avoid going over the cliff on Sunday. (AP Photo/Jacquelyn Martin)
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House Minority Whip Rep. Steny Hoyer of Md., pauses during a news conference on Capitol Hill in Washington, Thursday, Dec. 27, 2012, where he urged House Republicans to end the pro forma session and call the House back into legislative session to negotiate a solution to the fiscal cliff. (AP Photo/ Evan Vucci)
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President Barack Obama walks past a Marine honor guard as he steps off the Marine One helicopter and walks on the South Lawn at the White House in Washington, Thursday, Dec. 27, 2012, as he returned early from his Hawaii vacation for meetings on the fiscal cliff. (AP Photo/Charles Dharapak)
Department attacked on income management
Bureaucrats have been accused of cherry picking some "positive perceptions" of income management in the Northern Territory to justify its expansion in other states.
Australian Greens senator Rachel Siewert used a senate estimates hearing to grill officials from the Department of Families, Housing, Community Services and Indigenous Affairs (FaHCSIA) about an independent evaluation of income management in the NT released late last year.
That preliminary report said income management was a disempowering control measure and there was little evidence it was helping people.
Senator Siewert said the report found no measurable evidence of any positive impact from income management or that it was changing behaviour.
In a heated exchange, Senator Siewert asked why, in the light of those findings, the federal government had proceeded with its Stronger Futures legislation (which continues the NT intervention for 10 years) without addressing problems with income management.
The laws expand income management for people on welfare to trial sites in Bankstown (NSW), Playford (South Australia), Shepparton (Victoria), and Rockhampton and Logan (Queensland).
Department secretary Finn Pratt said the preliminary report had "mixed findings".
"There is much in the report that points to positive signs as to negative ones," Mr Pratt said.
Department official Liz Hefren-Webb said it was based on interviews of about 800 people and some had said income management had improved their lives.
"We consider that pretty valid evidence about how they feel about the program," she told the hearing.
Senator Siewert said that in five-and-a-half years the department had not measured the success of the program other than some positive perceptions from participants.
"How much more time do they need?" Senator Siewert told AAP.
"How can the expansion of income management continue without a strong evidence base, and in the face of the growing costs and community opposition to the regime."
The hearing was told administration costs of income management were between $6600-$7900 per person per year in the NT.
Mr Pratt said that would drop if more people were put on income management.
Asked if there were plans afoot to further expand income management, he said that was a government decision.
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