The Community Development Programme (CDP) is a remote-area Work for the Dole scheme that principally affects Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people. The program is billed by  the government as 'helping people find work, and allowing them to contribute to their communities and gain skills while looking for work.' But there is mounting evidence that CDP is creating significant hardship for Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people and communities, leading to increasing pressure for the scheme to be scrapped or radically overhauled.

This Topical Issue gathers together a series of short articles to provide background to these developments as well as providing thoughts on a productive way ahead. The contributors are academics and representatives from key Indigenous institutions, all of whom have a longstanding interest in the field and are deeply concerned by the current policy direction.