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Abstract The compulsory income management or welfare quarantining programmes introduced by Australian governments over the past 11 years have provoked major public contention. One key source of conflict has been around whether these programmes have been introduced via co-design processes enabling the consent of local communities, or alternatively whether they are merely top-down programmes imposed with minimum consultation on specific geographical sites. This article argues that most consultation processes have been limited and tokenistic, and rarely included actual income management participants. An alternative bottom-up community development process is proposed based on the principles such as social inclusion, participation and empowerment