Rachel Siewert (WA, Australian Greens) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

I move:

That the Senate take note of the document.

I wish to speak on Auditor-General report No. 14, Performance audit—Design and implementation of the Community Development Programme: Department of the Prime Minister and Cabinet; Department of Employment; Department of Human Services.This report was tabled last week and to say that it's shocking would be putting it mildly. You'd think that we were talking about two completely different programs.

I'm a member of the Senate Finance and Public Administration References Committee, which is inquiring into the Community Development Program—an inquiry, which I might say, is being ably chaired by Senator McAllister. We have heard the most amazing and shocking evidence around the faults in this program. It was like we were talking, as I said, about two completely different programs. It's almost like the ANAO are saying, 'They've implemented this really well, but they've implemented a really poor policy design.' Is that what they're saying? It's absolutely incredible. They also rely on Andrew Forrest's Creating Parity report as if that is some accredited document that is signed off by all of the community. That report has been soundly rejected by a large number of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples and it has been critiqued extensively, in terms of the deep concerns that a lot of people have about that report. But the ANAO report almost references it as if it's the bible of what we should be doing in Aboriginal policy in this country, when, as I said, it has been soundly rejected by a large number of people.

The ANAO's report makes no sense when you actually look at what's happening on the ground. It's almost like a doctor saying, 'Gee, the surgery was really good; it's a pity the patient died'! Hundreds of thousands of people have been penalised and thrown off income support. There are about 35,000 people on the CDP in rural and remote areas, and 85 per cent or more are Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples. There are more penalties and more people breached off income support with that program than there are for the whole of the income support process and those that have compliance issues. It is having a dramatic and fundamental impact on people's lives.

At our Senate inquiry hearing in Kalgoorlie, one of the people that gave evidence was the superintendent of police in the Kalgoorlie region. He spoke about the impacts of the program that he had seen on communities—the consequences of people being breached and the consequences for people having to move from, for example, Warburton. I myself went to Warburton and spoke firsthand to the people affected by this—and to those in a number of other communities, I might add. They say a number of people are having to move into Kalgoorlie because they don't have access to any funding supports. They're trying to find work or some other visible means of support. And they're having to leave their children back in their home communities. That's having a cascading effect—on grandparents, for example. We've had a number of reports about the reduced spending in communities because people have been breached and don't have money, and of people in communities who have work who are basically spending the whole of their wages now in supporting other community members.

The problems with this program are absolutely intense. As I said, it's like we're talking about two completely different programs. There was very little to no consultation when RJCP was rolled over into the Community Development Program. The program is so bad that even the minister knows that it needs reform. The minister has tried once, with an even worse policy—which, thank goodness, was one of the zombie bills, when that bill was before the last parliament. But even the minister has acknowledged that.

David Leyonhjelm (NSW, Liberal Democratic Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

Thank you, Senator Siewert. Your time for speaking has expired.

Rachel Siewert (WA, Australian Greens) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

I seek leave to continue my remarks.

David Leyonhjelm (NSW, Liberal Democratic Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

Thank you, Senator Siewert.

Debate adjourned.