Income management (IM) has applied in the Northern Territory (NT) since 2007. IM is designed to ensure that income support payments are used to pay for necessary goods and services rather than discretionary items and activities. Initially targeting Indigenous Australians living in remote and very remote communities, it has been applied across the entire NT...

The Australian and Northern Territory (NT) governments are undertaking large scale reforms to public housing in remote Indigenous communities in the NT. In addition to substantial investment in housing and related infrastructure, these changes include reforms to land tenure designed to underpin investment in housing and associated infrastructure and to provide a right of access...

In April 2011, there were several major disturbances at Villawood Immigration Detention Centre (IDC). On 20 and 21 April, a total of nine buildings were set on fire and destroyed. The loss of amenities included the classroom, gym, medical centre and kitchen. Other protest activity included detainees demonstrating on the roof and threatening acts of...

The Ombudsman is investigating over 200 cases of suspected unwarranted detention under the Migration Act. These reports on sixteen of the cases were tabled in Parliament 21 March 2007; the government's responses to the recommendations are also provided.

In 2005 and 2006 the Australian government referred to the Commonwealth Ombudsman the cases of 247 persons who had been detained by the Department of Immigration and Multicultural Affairs (DIMA) and later released on the basis that they could not be detained any longer as an unlawful non-citizen. This office agreed to investigate and report...