Warren Snowdon (Lingiari, Australian Labor Party, Shadow Assistant Minister for External Territories) Share this | Hansard source

I acknowledge the contribution of the member for O'Connor. It won't surprise him to know that I have a different view. I don't think anyone, including the member for Barton, who so eloquently outlined Labor's position—no-one in this place that I'm aware of—is saying that people who voluntarily want to go onto a cashless debit card shouldn't. That's not the point.

I want to refer to a range of issues but also to clearly reinforce the messages of and to support the amendment that's been proposed by the member for Barton. This bill, the Social Security (Administration) Amendment (Continuation of Cashless Welfare) Bill 2020, makes an absolute mockery of things—and I am now referring particularly to my own electorate of Lingiari. In 2007, when the obnoxious Howard government intervened in the Northern Territory at the behest of Mal Brough, who was then the minister, and introduced the BasicsCard into the Northern Territory—imposed it on the Northern Territory—I opposed it then and I oppose it now. Nothing has changed from my point of view. It is also opposed by Aboriginal people across my electorate, and this bill makes an absolute mockery of the government's claims that it's working with Aboriginal communities. It is clearly not. And clearly it is not prepared to sit and listen.

We've got all the palaver going on about the great changes to the way in which the coalition of peaks have entered into a partnership with the state premiers and territory first ministers and the Prime Minister around closing the gap. Well, this bill makes an absolute mockery of that. This is one time where we're supposed to think that the government is working hand in glove with Aboriginal people, sharing decision-making, consulting with people and allowing them appropriate input. Here is the evidence that it's not.

We know, as the member for Barton pointed out so well, that 68 per cent of those impacted by this bill are First Nations people. How can a minister who has had a review undertaken at a cost of $2.5 million admit to a Senate inquiry, as the member for Barton has pointed out, that, prior to the introduction of this bill, she hadn't even read the review? She hadn't even read it. We don't know what's in it because we haven't seen it. We'd like to have a look at it. But what we do know is that there is no evidence that has thus far been produced to show the accuracy of the claims being made by the government about the way in which this particular card has had a positive benefit on any community across Australia.

Firstly, in the brief time that I've got, I want to go to what is happening in the Northern Territory. The member for Barton referred to Aboriginal Peak Organisations Northern Territory and their calls on 8 October of this year around this card. They said:

There is still no proof that compulsory income management works. In February this year the University of Queensland released a report on their review of four CDC trial sites.

This was a review of the four sites that are being now made permanent.

The overwhelming finding was "that compulsory income management is having a disabling rather than enabling effect on the lives of many social security recipients."

Later in the same statement, APO NT say:

The bill is a new Intervention. It will perpetuate the torment of our powerlessness. It denies our basic freedom to control our lives. It locks the many of us who live below the poverty line out of the cash economy and undermines our small businesses that rely on cash payments.

What clearer evidence could you have of the dissatisfaction of Aboriginal communities in the Northern Territory than these statements? They say:

To the government, this is just a law change. But to us, it's about our everyday lives becoming even more of a struggle. We are sick of governments doing things to us rather than with us.

I wonder what the minister who is responsible for Indigenous affairs in this government thinks about the way this bill has been handled and the consultation process that has taken place. Clearly, if we as a parliament are to believe what's being said to us, there's a view that we should have a voice to the parliament. What this bill demonstrates is that there's no intention by the government to actually listen to Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people—none at all. APO NT also say:

This bill disregards our view—

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