Penny Allman-Payne (Queensland, Australian Greens) Share this | Hansard source

Just to be clear—I am not criticising the work of people in offices dealing with people on income support. What I am criticising is a department and a system that is not 100 per cent lawful, and the government cannot assure people on income support that it is. That is a problem.

Secondly, it is not actually people in Centrelink who are the ones cutting off people from their payments; it's people sitting in job service provider offices, private offices—people who are not being overseen by the government to the level that they should be. It is a government responsibility to decide whether someone's payment gets cut off, and the government has continued the practice of the coalition to outsource that decision-making. That is a problem.

Finally, again, I am continually amazed at the level of understanding that the government has when errors are made by the department when absolutely none of that is shown to people on income support when they make errors. They are the ones who are at risk of losing housing, of not being able to eat and of not being able to get their kids what they need to go to school. Cutting off someone's payment, even if it's temporarily suspended, is catastrophic. There is such a difference between how we treat the department when they make an error and how we treat people on income support, who you refuse to get above the poverty line. Honestly, do not keep repeating the line that no-one should be left behind when you repeatedly leave behind people on income support.

Don't lecture the Greens about having to make hard budget decisions. Maybe have one less submarine, which you're never going to get. We are shovelling billions of dollars out the door to the US, to an essentially fascist regime that bombs anybody any time they feel like it, come hell or high water, regardless of international law. You are giving over $360 billion to them, and it is not making us safer. Yet you say to people on income support: 'Maybe next budget. Maybe the one after that. Maybe the one after that.' Well, if you are not going to do it, again, don't lie to people. Do not go out there and say, 'We're not leaving anyone behind,' because you are. Frankly, I don't know how people making those decisions can sleep at night. You talk to me about me needing to talk to people at Services Australia. Well, go and talk to the people who are trying to get by on poverty payments when inflation is going up, fuel is going up, food is going up, rent is going up. There's hardly a rental in the country that they can afford. So don't stand here and tell me that I don't know, or the Greens don't know, how to balance a budget. What we know is that we need to look after Australians. We need to look after the most vulnerable, and no-one is buying the argument that $360 billion of submarines and AUKUS make us safer.

While the planet cooks, you continue to shove money out the door to fossil fuel companies, telling us that you're acting on climate, while propping up fossil fuel companies. Maybe give some of that money to people on income support. The hypocrisy of it: we are giving gas away for free, but we can't help people on income support to live above the poverty line. If you do not like me yelling about it, too bad. Do something.