Susan Templeman (Macquarie, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Hansard source

This government is big on claiming they support freedoms, but there's a stench of hypocrisy rising from the government benches. In their minds, all people deserve freedoms but some people deserve fewer freedoms than others. According to the Deputy Prime Minister, there should be freedom from legislation for any targets on zero emissions by 2050, and the Prime Minister has the freedom to keep the modelling of their so-called targets secret.

But they don't let others enjoy such freedoms. There are people who have no freedom to buy what they want when they want to because they're on a cashless debit card. We know the government has left the door open to put age and disability pensioners on that card. And there are people who will have the freedom to vote taken away from them, if the Prime Minister has his way, by forcing voter IDs onto every one of us on polling day in some Trumpian move to solve a problem that does not exist.

People on the NDIS feel they're losing promised freedoms to make decisions about their own lives, and domestic violence support workers have raised with me why this government has not given women the freedom to have control of the new DV assistance payment. They have asked, 'Why do women escaping abuse and control need a government or agency to make the decisions for them as they try to secure their own freedoms?' If you're vulnerable your freedoms matter less to this government.

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