RAMINGINING, AUSTRALIA—Living in Australia’s Northern Territory, a vast stretch of sun-baked desert, swamps and tropical forests, a tough-as-nails truck is the only way to get around.
But with each 10-hour drive in his mud-splashed Toyota Land Cruiser to visit relatives, Albert Djiwada wonders whether the trip will be his last.
While the retired public-housing manager receives a monthly pension of $786, the Australian government demands Djiwada spend at least half of his stipend on food or clothing in a government-approved store. It leaves little leeway for discretionary purchases, such as parts for his decrepit truck, which wheezes and rattles each time he starts it up.
Djiwada faces the spending restrictions because he’s an Aboriginal and, therefore, his pension is subject to income management — a central tenet of the controversial legislation known as the “intervention policy,” brought in purportedly to improve the lives of indigenous Australians.