From welfare to work, or work to welfare: Will reform of the Community Development Employment Program help close the employment gap?

This research will explore the effective dismantling of the Community Development Employment Program (CDEP) established in 1977. Billed by government as central to Closing the Gap, Indigenous organisations have raised concerns that the changes will cause rising unemployment, loss of services and the collapse of enterprises previously underpinned by CDEP. It is crucial to document and understand these changes: a task that this research team is uniquely positioned to undertake. With ground-breaking empirical research and a pioneering application of theories of work and the state, the project will track the impacts of this policy change and elucidate the workings of the state that have led to it.