Lisa Chesters (Bendigo, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Hansard source

Thank you, Mr Deputy Speaker. I was speaking in relation to those policies. There are positive things that are happening in the communities of Bundaberg, Hervey Bay and Maryborough. The Queensland state Labor government has focused on an employment program. Trains are being built again in Maryborough; that is creating hope and opportunity for many people who are unemployed and looking for work. If we had a government which focused on job creation and if we had a government which focused on using its taxpayer dollars wisely—to make Australian and to buy Australian—it would be just one area where we could focus on employment.

I'm speaking about the overall approach that this government have towards people who are on welfare payments, whether they be on JobSeeker or the pension. They see people who are on these payments as 'leaners'. They see people who are on these payments as people who have very little to do and very little to lift themselves up with. And those aren't my words—'lifters' and 'leaners'—those were the words of the current Prime Minister when he was the social services minister. These aren't my words that I'm putting into the Prime Minister's mouth; these are his own words, repeated time and time again by his backbench and members of his frontbench. It is disappointing that we have a Prime Minister who was the social services minister that oversaw the expansion of the cashless debit card, a card that is not aimed at lifting people or giving people the confidence to control their finances. Instead, it is a blunt instrument. Broad based management income, as I've said, does not work.

I strongly urge the government to listen to Labor's proposed amendments, to make sure they rethink this, like with so many other proposals that they've put before us. Their ideology underpins our social welfare system in this country, and it needs a rethink. There is a real lack of evidence for the cashless debit card to continue. Since it was introduced during the Howard government's intervention in the NT, there's been no credible evidence—none whatsoever—that proves that compulsory broad based income management works. We strongly oppose the government wanting to make sure that these existing trials are made permanent. We strongly oppose any further expansion. If the government could roll it out everywhere, I reckon we'd see it everywhere, and I know in my community of Bendigo there would be pushback. Like many communities in regional areas, a blunt instrument like a cashless debit card does not go to the heart and the core of complex problems.

The majority of people on payments are doing the right thing; they are spending it where they need it. They simply don't have enough. The government is trying to cover up for their lack of payment by saying it's the individual's fault that they can't manage their finances. For the second group, the group that may need help and support with a cashless-style debit card, it should be voluntary, and it was voluntary before this government made it compulsory. By having people volunteer to be part of a program, it will be more successful. People will not resent the fact that their finances are being managed. From time to time, individuals do acknowledge that they need help with their finances, and that's where the social workers come in, the financial counsellors come in and the support programs come in. That's another thing that we in Labor are advocating for—that more needs to go into the wraparound social support services for that small group of people who identify that they do need help with managing their finances. They do exist and they are seeking help. But, at the moment, the queues for a financial counsellor are very long. Those meetings are quite often on the phone and hard to interpret. There just aren't enough social workers on the ground, particularly when it comes to remote and regional Australia. And there is not enough done to work on our cultural engagement with our First Nations people. At the end of the day, it comes back to: do you want a successful policy which sees people actually allow themselves a determination going forward to have the means to live their life, to look for meaningful work and to move forward, or do you want to keep seeking to punish people, like we've seen at the trial sites, with a program that doesn't deliver genuine reform?

I urge the government to rethink this plan. Like so many of their other plans in this place, it's a blunt instrument that does not work. It's the perpetuation of their ideology. It is a way to punish people as opposed to support people. It tries to reinforce their mantra, their doctrine, that it is the individual's fault, that the individual is bad at managing money, that the individual is not able to look after themselves. And it is quite an imperialist view, one which we've heard for centuries not just in this country but all over the world. It is time that we stop this. It is time that we empower people to feel good about moving forward, that we help them if they need support, that we make sure that the payment is a liveable payment, that we ensure there are real job opportunities for people in these communities so they're not trapped on welfare, that we ensure we are there to support them if they need support. It is time that we stop using blunt instruments like the cashless debit card to permanently entrench poverty and control.

It was disappointing that the member for Petrie jumped up to cut off my speech. I think it demonstrates the very nature of this government. They don't like to be criticised. They don't like to be held to account. They don't respect the parliament. They don't respect difference of opinion. It is really disappointing that, rather than making a debate in this section, rather than getting up and making a speech on this bill, they would seek to interject and use the parliament to cut off speakers. It demonstrates how they feel that they are above the rest of us, that they are above debate, that they are above analysing, that they just treat the rest of us like—they disregard us.

Finally, this is a bad bill. It goes against everything. It goes against the evidence, it goes against the people's wishes and it goes to the core of what this government is: mean, tricky, controlling and deliberately misleading. They are not there for the Australian people, and the Australian people will remember that, particularly in Queensland, when it comes to the next federal election.

Government members interjecting—

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