Lidia Thorpe (Victoria, Independent) Share this | Hansard source

I rise today to speak on the Social Security (Administration) Amendment (Income Management Reform) Bill 2023 and the government's renewed attempt to forcibly control us as First Nations people through the racist, apartheid-style, paternalistic enhanced income management scheme, newly christened with the name 'SmartCard'. It's very smart of the government to be giving their cashless debit card a new name, hoping maybe we won't notice it is the same gammon scheme that is effective at nothing but further oppressing and controlling us. The government went into this election promising to end compulsory income management. We were promised change. Their blatant hypocrisy and racism, in reintroducing the cashless debit card 2.0 that locks in a compulsory income management, has been blasted by stakeholders across the board.

The committee inquiry into this bill showed almost unanimous calls to abolish compulsory income management. Income management has overwhelmingly been rejected by experts and First Nations communities for being ineffective, expensive and racist. It stands in conflict with First Nations rights, closing the gap, principles of self-determination and free, prior and informed consent. Any real commitment from the government must be to stop its attempts to forcibly control First Nations people, once again, and listen to our sovereign voices.

There is not even any evidence that it works. But there is plenty of evidence that shows the harm and violence it inflicts on individuals and communities, especially on First Nations people and our communities who, by design, it disproportionately targets. Yet for some reason, despite the overwhelming and almost unanimous evidence provided to the Community Affairs Committee on the need to urgently abolish compulsory income management, and the many problems with this bill, the committee report only referred to the government's plans to reform income management and the need for more in-depth consultation for transition arrangements.

Evidence shows there is no need for transition arrangements. If there were a full shift to voluntary income management, that would mean those who want it can still use it. But, in practice, this government continues to force more than 20,000 of almost entirely First Nations people in the Northern Territory, alone, to be on the scheme. And when will this forceable management end? Who knows. The lack of sunset clause of the bill means, yet again, people will be caught up in an even farther-reaching violent income management system.

This bill grants the government the power to expand income management across the country, where the social services minister can designate any state, territory or area as a voluntary income management site. The government is even collaborating with the same company, Indue, that ran the cashless debit card scheme. Every $6 spent on the administration of these cashless cards reaps in just one dollar benefit. It's full abolishment would save $286.5 million over the forward estimates.

I see no change here. I see absolutely no sense here. Think of where that money could go. If the minister cared for what our people needed, they would be bending over backwards to fully fund and resource Aboriginal community controlled organisations to provide services to our people on our terms. Instead, they opt for control, coercion and power over us—yet again.

All forms of income control have roots in the paternalistic racist systems of control over incomes, which were operated by Aboriginal protection boards for much of the 19th and 20th centuries. These so-called protection acts were used to forcibly separate our families, create division, disempower our people, try to destroy our cultures and assimilate the oldest culture in the world into the settler colonial society.

Our people were subject to near total control of movement over who they could marry or what jobs they could do. Our wages were stolen, our savings were taken and our property was seized. Your police services in this country stole our children from their families and put them to work. You continue to steal our children today at even greater rates. You do all this in the name of protection. The only thing we need protection from is colonisation. John Howard would be so proud of this Labor government. He championed income management during the NT intervention, where he said that First Nations people were incapable of self-determination, of managing their own affairs, of looking after themselves.

As the Labor government puts this bill in front of us, as the white saviours they are, once again, they are telling us what's good for us. We see through it. We have seen this type of protectionist colonial interference in our lives before. Labor needs to keep its election promise to abolish not just the name of the system but the nature of it.

To remind them of their promises, I will go through a list of all the times the government promised to end the cashless debit card. In April 2022, before this government was elected, Jim Chalmers, in a doorstop interview in Brisbane, said: 'Labor will abolish the cashless debit card. We couldn't be any clearer than that.' Mark Butler, in an interview on ABC Radio Adelaide, said, 'What we've said is we'll abolish the cashless debit card.' Katy Gallagher, in a TV interview on Sky, said, 'It shouldn't be used,' and that, 'We should abolish it.' Jim Chalmers, in a doorstop in Sydney, said, 'Our commitment, our assurance to Australians is that we will abolish the cashless debit card.' In June 2022, Amanda Rishworth, in a radio interview on ABC Eyre Peninsula and West Coast, said, 'We want to abolish the compulsory cashless debit card.' Amanda Rishworth, in a post-election statement on ABC radio interview, said, 'Labor made a commitment to abolish the privatised cashless debit card.'

In July 2022, Justine Elliot, in a media release, said:

… the government is delivering on its commitment to abolish the Cashless Debit Card program …

Amanda Rishworth, in a media release, said: 'The Albanese Labor government will abolish the cashless debit card.' Amanda Rishworth, in an interview on Sky News, said, '$170 million of taxpayers' money was spent on this with no evidence that it will work.'

Amanda Rishworth, in a media release, said:

The Albanese Labor Government is delivering on its election commitments and will today introduce legislation to Parliament to abolish the Cashless Debit Card.

Justine Elliot, in a radio interview on ABC Perth, said: 'We know how destructive it's been, right throughout the country. I've spoken with many people whose lives are being destroyed by being forced onto the cashless debit card.'

Anthony Albanese, in a question without notice—from the Hansardsaid:

… we're about empowering communities, not taking power away from them … not a patronising position that says, 'We know best,' not one that extended the cashless debit card into communities.

In August 2022, Amanda Rishworth, in a TV interview on ABC, 'It will just be a matter of calling up Australia to exit from the program.' Amanda Rishworth, in a press conference in Darwin, said, 'We've been very clear that our first point is to abolish the cashless debit card.'

From September 2022, a joint media release by Amanda Rishworth, Linda Burney, Bill Shorten and Justine Elliot reads:

The Government will abolish the cashless debit card program.

A joint media release by Amanda Rishworth, Linda Burney and Justine Elliott reads:

The Albanese Labor Government has today delivered on a key election commitment and secured the passage of legislation to abolish the failed cashless debit card program.

Amanda Rishworth, in a press conference at Parliament House, said, 'We have always said when it comes to income management it is up to communities to choose how they use income management, how they enable people to get onto income management.' On 28 September, Linda Burney, in a press conference at Parliament House, said, 'Labor's fundamental position is that we do not believe in mandatory income management.' Justine Elliot, in a press conference at Parliament House, said: 'I am so proud to be part of the Albanese Labor government and to be abolishing the cashless debit card. This card has destroyed lives.' In October 2022, Anthony Albanese, in an address to the New South Wales Labor Conference, said, 'Australians voted to abolish the discrimination of the cashless debit card, and it is gone.' This system is not gone.

I call on the government today to make good on their promise and call for (1) all forms of compulsory income management to be abolished immediately; (2) the income management reform bill to be amended to make income management through enhanced income management voluntary, allow participants to exit the scheme at any time, include a sunset clause and remove the extended powers of the minister; and (3) substantive investment in social services and wraparound supports for communities, developed through a self-determined approach. Until you do this, let's tell the truth: it's putting black people back on rations.

Labor, why are you so gammin? Why are you doing this to our people? Why are you destroying our people's lives through a racist regime that involves controlling people's lives and not allowing any self-determination? You know the harms of this card. You all walk around freely with your credit cards. Can you imagine, for one moment, having to choose which shop you can go to and the racism that you have to deal with when you pull out your income BasicsCard—the racist card?

How about every politician in this place also being mandatorily put on this racist card that will control your lives? How about we do that for the next week and see how you like it? No more fancy dinners, no more fancy events, no more fancy clothes, no more fancy food and your whole life controlled by a card that says that you need help and that you can't have control over your own life anymore—you have to have this card that will control your life, which is controlled by the government because we need to maintain control of First Nations people in this country. That's what the King wants us to do after all: keep us on the bottom rung, keep us desperate, keep us homeless, keep us imprisoned, keep us poor and keep us experiencing the systemic racism every single day of our lives, no matter where we are or who we are.

Labor, you should be ashamed of yourself. I don't how some people sleep at night when they do this to their own people. Let's not support this. Let's get our people off the rations that this colonial system has to offer. We're giving back the beads, the trinkets and the blankets, and we simply want our land back.