Max Chandler-Mather (Griffith, Australian Greens) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

CHANDLER-MATHER () (): If you have ever been on Centrelink or the NDIS or dealt with the aged-care system you might relate to this story. My office was recently contacted by a paraplegic man in my electorate who for this speech I will call 'Michael' who had been receiving an aged-care home package for the last eight years. His provider had been, until recently, managing his important care needs diligently. But one day Michael's aged-care provider number changed by a single digit. This small, seemingly insignificant change in the system has unfortunately had massive consequences for Michael. The department of aged care treated this as though Michael had switched providers entirely, erasing all his previous history. His care plan, which had been in place for years, was wiped out. He even got levied with an automatic debt of $13,000 which he could never repay. Michael's wife discovered the issue in April and she's spent countless hours trying to resolve it. She has been in contact with Services Australia and with the aged care department and has been passed from one department to another. Every time she called she received a different reason as to why they could not help. There was no resolution and no-one seemed to be able to offer any concrete assistance. Eventually, Michael sought help from my office and, with a single phone call to Centrelink, the issue was resolved entirely—one call from my office. It should not have taken that. It should have taken one call from Michael.

Years on from robodebt, this is still happening in our welfare system. It's a punitive system which we should be able to trust in to make sure everybody has the essential care and dignity that they need to live a good life but, instead, often treats welfare recipients or recipients of social care or social services as suspicious and punishes them for failures they have nothing to do with. This is a problem because a lot of the time the people accessing these services are incredibly vulnerable and, despite doing everything right, are often on the wrong end of bureaucratic decisions that they struggle to understand and that often take months or sometimes years to resolve.

We deal with these issues almost every day. I am sure a lot of members' offices deal with similar issues. Why is it that the most vulnerable in our society are often treated with suspicion, second-guessed and forced to jump through countless hoops when, on the other end of the spectrum, we have massive multinational corporations paying no tax at all? It's desperately unfair and a question of broken priorities when we know that the real culprits of our cost-of-living crisis and the people that get away with breaking the rules are those large multinational corporations that often end up paying zero dollars in tax by using big, expensive corporate lawyers to get around loopholes in our tax laws. I think those are the people that should be treated with suspicion. Those corporations are the ones that should be cracked down on, not people like Michael.

This week we found out that the LNP are making cuts to the hugely beloved rhyme time and storytime programs for babies, toddlers and children in Brisbane libraries. This is the Brisbane City Council LNP administration. These popular programs are often booked out, but the LNP have proposed cutting them by 25 per cent. In my community in Griffith, Bulimba Library will lose its children's storytime entirely and the babies' program will be cut in half. Carindale Library will have half of its programs cut. Holland Park Library will have its babies' program cut in half. Mount Gravatt Library will have its children's storytime cut in half.

To know what these programs mean to people you can look no further than the over 4,000 signatures in just a few days on the Greens petition to save these programs. Any parents of young kids know how crucial programs like these are for young families in Brisbane. Programs like these are not only valuable to babies' and children's early learning in helping to make reading a part of children's daily lives; they are a sanctuary for new parents adjusting to parenthood and create a community in a time and place where it is sorely needed. My own family loves our rhyme time group at our local library, and I know we are not alone in appreciating the amazing work of our local librarians.

These are, frankly, modest programs that provide a huge social benefit. Across all of Brisbane, this entire program costs the Brisbane City Council $780,000. This is in the context of a $3 billion council budget. The LNP are cutting a $780,000 program that is often oversubscribed for families, particularly young families with babies, toddlers and children, in the middle of a cost-of-living crisis. How could they possibly justify that? You can still sign the petition online or contact your local LNP councillor and tell them what you think of cutting these precious programs for young families across Brisbane in the middle of a massive cost-of-living crisis.