On 21 June 2007 the Commonwealth Government announced the introduction of the Northern Territory Emergency Response. This measure was introduced to protect Aboriginal children from abuse and build the basis for a better future for those residing in Indigenous communities. A series of reforms, including the quarantining of welfare payments, were to be introduced in prescribed areas of the Northern Territory from September 2007. Centrelink had the task of adjusting the arrangements for the delivery of benefits for all residents of the prescribed communities.

The presentation will describe how Centrelink uses customer address information to automate the identification of customers living in affected communities. The presentation will also describe the development of Centrelink's Indigenous Community Code framework, demonstrate the type of information that is recorded for each community and how this information is used to support the delivery of services.

Centrelink is now able to obtain comprehensive information about customers within Indigenous Communities throughout Australia. This information is used to support its own service delivery activities and is made available to other Commonwealth social welfare agencies.

Centrelink is sharing intelligence on Indigenous Communities with other Government Agencies through the Indigenous Communities Working Group convened by the Office of Spatial Data Management.