Sharon Claydon (Newcastle, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Hansard source

I am very pleased to rise to speak tonight in opposition to this government's deeply flawed, punitive and, frankly, racist bill to impose a permanent and compulsory income management system in the form of a cashless debit card. This bill, the Social Security (Administration) Amendment (Continuation of Cashless Welfare) Bill 2020, will make the cashless debit card a permanent feature in all of the trial sites—Ceduna, the East Kimberley, the Goldfields and the Bundaberg and Hervey Bay area—and permanently replace the BasicsCard in the Northern Territory with the cashless debit card, effectively extending the cashless debit card system to the entire Northern Territory.

There are many other components of this bill, some of which I might get time to discuss, but what I really want to draw the attention of this House to tonight is the fact that this bill highlights what is a fundamental problem for this government, and that is the continuation of failed approaches. I say this based on much of the evidence that has come before numerous inquiries into the cashless debit card. It is based on historical experience, on our 13 years of the Intervention into the Northern Territory and the drastic consequences for First Nations people in the Territory as a result of 13 years of an income management system that has been a vehicle for nothing but disempowerment and the continuation of stigmatisation and, indeed, trauma for many of those First Nations peoples and communities.

It infuriates me that this government lacks the imagination to make an effort to understand the systemic issues around poverty and disenfranchisement and, indeed, the marginalisation that many First Nations peoples and communities feel. Legislation like this, which is before this House this evening, is some of the laziest policymaking I have seen. I say this because this government appears to have learnt nothing when it comes to looking at the history of policymaking in First Nations affairs. This legislation runs completely counter to the commitment that the Prime Minister made back in July in this very chamber, where he was praising a new approach from the government. He said that there would be a new partnership formed, and this was in light of an ongoing failure to make any inroads into the Closing the Gap targets. The Prime Minister said that we were going to remedy this by having a new partnership with First Nations people and that First Nations people would not only have a say in how something is delivered but would also be part of a co-design process in order to determine those service deliveries in their communities. I'm sorry, but there's nothing in this legislation that stands up to that promise the Prime Minister gave in this House to First Nations people in Australia.

As I said, this is a shocking continuation of the failed approaches to consultation, engagement and public policy making. I said earlier that this is lazy policymaking. I say that because the government perceives a crisis—and this is exactly what happened in the intervention period as well—and introduces a range of measures that are purported to be temporary. They are to manage a situation now. Remedies are to be put in place and eventually people will be able to resume control of their lives once communities are stabilised, people's health improves, housing is provided and all of those things. Of course, none of those underlying issues have been addressed in these communities. None of those things have been improved.

What is the exit strategy from this income support management program? What is the pathway to get people off income management and for them to be able to live autonomous lives, control their own income and make the decisions about themselves and their families that you, I and non-Indigenous people in this country take for granted? Well, there isn't a plan. Indeed, when we have examined this, the research has shown how demonstrably—

Mr Stephen Jones interjecting—

Mr Katter interjecting—

Other people will have an opportunity to speak. When they get the microphone they can knock themselves out. At the moment I am pointing to the profound lack of evidence based policymaking that is taking place in this country. I am pointing to the evidence that has been made available to the government. Let's not forget that this government actually commissioned, at a cost of $2½ million, Adelaide university to evaluate the cashless debit card trial. Yet did the government wait to hear what that important piece of research, that important evaluation of this program, had to say? No. It was pretty clear that the government was going to make a decision about the permanent rollout of this cashless debit card without any evidence. Indeed, Minister Ruston made clear in Senate estimates that she had not read the report. Fancy paying $2½ million for a report and not bothering to read it. They wonder why we on this side of the House dare ask questions about the fundamental lack of evidence that is informing the government's policy position tonight.

I'll wind up my contribution. I will end by saying that this is a shameful, shoddy and lazy piece of legislation before this House. As I said at the start, this bill continues to highlight the fundamental flaws and failed approaches that this government has taken in relation to any policy in First Nations communities in Australia. This has been the most interrupted speech I've delivered in this parliament for some time.

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