Kim Carr (Victoria, Australian Labor Party, Minister for Human Services) Share this | Hansard source

This has everything to do with this portfolio, the portfolio of Human Services, which is about the delivery of services to the public of this country. It is very much about the approach that is taken to undermining the levels of participation in our society in economic or in social terms. What we have seen in the United Kingdom with those that have followed this practice of so-called empowering of citizens through this policy of the Big Society—a policy which is now being adopted in this country by those opposite—is that there has been a massive fraud. A massive fraud has been inflicted upon the people of the United Kingdom. What we have seen is the massive cutting of government programs, privatisations and, of course, the disempowerment of local communities. What we have seen is an approach which, of course, has meant that the architect of the Big Society, Phillip Blond, who was in Australia just last year, has managed to persuade those opposite to follow this course of action. (Time expired)