Rachel Siewert (WA, Australian Greens) Share this | Hansard source

Saying that these are reserve powers is a very cute way of fooling people into thinking that it is all okay, this is not really going to happen. It is absolutely outrageous legislation. You are giving yourselves the power—whether it is reserve or not, the fact is that it is in the legislation and it can happen—to virtually take control of a non-government organisation, put observers in there and take their assets, if you are funding them. If you are providing an organisation with a service you are now writing into legislation that you can take their assets and give them to yourselves, to another organisation or to another person. It is absolutely extraordinary. As I have already articulated, we will be supporting this amendment. In fact, it is also incorporated in one of the amendments that we will move, which is to oppose parts 3 to 6. This is an extraordinary piece of legislation. The government is trying to be cute, to tie it up by taking this power, micromanaging communities—because that is what it is—and calling them ‘reserve powers’. It is absolute nonsense. It is a furphy trying to disguise the fact that you are taking these extraordinary powers. We will be opposing this.