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

That's how people are feeling about this piece of legislation—the Social Security and Other Legislation Amendment (Technical Changes No. 2) Bill 2025. You snuck a section in without any scrutiny. We have a letter that over a hundred organisations signed—legal services, disability services, Aboriginal services—to say, 'This is not okay.' Then you side with the opposition, who you'd expect it from, to rush this through. I'd be putting my head down in shame, too, Minister. Shame. You have not even thought about this. We know that your government continues to undermine democracy in this country. Accountability and transparency have gone completely out the window. This is not about anything else but the cops' failure to find Dezi. You think, by putting this into a bill, it's going to find Dezi. You will demonise all of those families and children just for one fella that you can't find.

This bill is the latest example of Labor quickly and silently sneaking a whole new schedule into a bill, hidden in a broader government amendment, last-minute before passing it in the House, meaning that many members did not even realise this punitive change had been included. We were all caught by surprise. You didn't think we'd read the fine print. The proposed new schedule 5 was not subject to scrutiny by the Parliamentary Joint Committee on Human Rights, which I sit on. It has bypassed the human rights committee, and we're meant to scrutinise any relevant legislation. It didn't even come to us.

This is not an accident. Labor is trying to sneak these changes through because the proposed schedule 5 on benefit restriction notices is actually an outrageous extension of police powers into the welfare system, the tax system and the workplace. Cops have no place in those systems. These changes would allow police to advise a responsible minister to cancel a person's concession card and social security payments where an arrest warrant exists against them. This would affect payments such as pensions, JobSeeker, youth allowance, family tax benefit and parental leave pay. This last-minute is unrelated to other provisions in the bill and has been made as a kneejerk reaction to the ongoing search for Dezi Freeman.

It is a reactionary, poorly considered move from the government that will have dangerous consequences. It goes against several international human rights instruments. Shame on you, Labor. Do you care about human rights in this country, or do you just like violating them? It goes against what this country is meant to be about, including the International Covenant on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights, the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights, the Convention on the Rights of the Child and the Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities, among others. How many human rights do you want to breach? What happened to the assumption of innocence until proven guilty?

This brutal measure means that social security payments can be cancelled on the assumption that someone is guilty of a serious offence before they get their day in court, but what if they're not guilty? Has your government considered what consequences this could have for someone who is innocent? Cancellation of these payments will not just have consequences for the accused; it will hurt their families, children and dependents. Especially in our case, in our communities, one wage can feed a whole family—an extended family. That means we can't afford rent, bills or food. This will lead to homelessness, poverty and child removals, but you love those because you make money from our misery.

We know how this vicious cycle ends. Instead of providing support services to those in need, Labor time and again criminalises people further and introduces harsher and harsher measures. We know who will be most affected by these changes—victims-survivors of domestic violence, children, disabled people and, of course, First Nations people in this country, particularly women. Under these powers, a woman fleeing an abuser could lose the only income keeping her and her kids safe.

The proposed changes do not afford the person under warrant access to legal advice or an appearance in court before the cancellation of the payment. These are actually standard processes with the cancellation of Centrelink payments. Minister Plibersek and the police claim these measures will help catch people, but they have provided no evidence for this—nothing. Cutting off income doesn't make someone easier to find; it makes them more desperate, and desperate people will do desperate things. It may push them to commit crimes to survive. Plibersek and the police put the broader community at risk with these measures. These changes are unacceptable. They're an unacceptable expansion of police powers. Giving police power to interfere in the social welfare system is very, very dangerous. This country is becoming more and more of a police state, and it happens one murky bill at a time.

Honestly, what you fellas are doing, Labor, is worse than what the coalition have done. I don't know if you're trying to be like them or what your go is, but you continue to breach people's human rights in this country and you should all hang your head very, very low. Even your own Ged Kearney called this out. I hear she's very upset. She didn't want this to go ahead. It shows how powerful a backbencher is these days!

Increasing police powers doesn't make our community safer. Police target us, criminalise us and kill us. We cannot let Labor get away with this sneaky, dangerous, brutal move. That is why today I will move an amendment to remove schedule 5 from this bill. A broad alliance of civic society organisations are calling for this Senate to oppose the entire bill unless schedule 5 is removed from it. I stand with them and I call on every senator in this place: if you believe in human rights, then you should stand with them also.