David Shoebridge (NSW, Australian Greens) Share this | Hansard source

Again, I hear Labor senators interjecting and saying, 'That's not true.' Say it to the Council of Single Mothers and their Children. Say that it's not true to Anglicare Australia. Say it's not true to ACOSS. Say it's not true to the National Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Legal Services, who are telling Labor that this is unfair. They're telling Labor that, just like so many attacks on welfare, it's going to come and hit the most vulnerable.

The robodebt royal commission recommended Services Australia design its policies and processes with a primary emphasis on the recipients it's meant to serve, including avoiding language and conduct which reinforce the feelings of stigma and shame. This bill does the opposite. It treats people as guilty and it targets the most vulnerable. This measure also breaks the fundamental principle that welfare should be based on need and clear criteria, not on ministerial discretion or politics. This measure concentrates power in the minister's hands, with no administrative review, or, if there is review, it's legal review before the courts. We know judicial review is not available to people on welfare and even less available to people who have had their welfare taken off them by the decision of a Labor minister.

We know from overseas exactly who these policies hurt. In New Zealand, similar provisions saw 71 per cent of sanctions applied to Maori people, despite being only 36 per cent of benefit recipients. Their welfare expert advisory group has recommended removing this sanction because of its attacks on New Zealand's First Peoples. In the United States, fugitive felon provisions disproportionately affect elderly and vulnerable people, often unaware of warrants being issued against them. This part of the bill is deeply unconscionable. It should never have found its way into this bill without review. It's a betrayal of commitments Labor has made. It's an attack on the most vulnerable and it should not pass.