Jenny Macklin (Jagajaga, Australian Labor Party, Shadow Minister for Families and Payments) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

I am pleased tonight to speak on the Social Services Legislation Amendment (Queensland Commission Income Management Regime) Bill 2017. This bill amends the Social Security (Administration) Act to enable a two-year continuation of the income management element of Cape York welfare reform in the communities of Aurukun, Coen, Hope Vale and Mossman Gorge. The Cape York Welfare Reform is an initiative of the Cape York Partnership, an Indigenous organisation that has led a wide-ranging reform agenda in Cape York. Although not part of the Cape York welfare reform partnership, this bill also applies to the community of Doomadgee.

The Commonwealth government announced in the 2017-18 budget that it will extend income management in all five locations for two years, until 30 June 2017, so this bill extends by two years the income management component of Cape York Welfare Reform. Labor will support this bill following consultations with local communities and also following a short Senate inquiry that Labor insisted on so that parliament was able to receive submissions from local stakeholders in the Cape. The feedback from local groups is that income management in Cape York is working and having a positive impact on local communities. I want to detail some of those views for the House tonight. The BBN Aboriginal Corporation in Mossman Gorge says:

There is a board base of support in Mossman Gorge for the direction of the reform journey that we have been on and need to stay on. Welfare Reform has supported good progress but still there is still a lot to be done.

In their submission, the Coen Regional Aboriginal Corporation states:

Giving local people real power to hold other community members to account through the FRC—

the Family Responsibilities Commission—

gets our 100% support.

They note:

Coen now has the best school attendance of any Indigenous community school in Queensland and we are the only one that can beat the Queensland Average School Attendance.

The Aurukun Shire Council wrote:

The FRC must stay strong for our people. In Aurukun we have been down a hard road but we need to keep on going to make more positive changes.

The Hope Vale Aboriginal Shire Council, in their submission, stated:

In Hope Vale the FRC has done some very good work since 2008, especially in terms of school attendance ... The FRC and Cape York Welfare Reform have made big, transformational changes to our community and this is very clear to people that knew this place beforehand and now.

The Cape York Institute made clear:

Income Management applied through the FRC model gives Indigenous people the power and authority to help their own community members build basic capability to understand their primary obligations to their children and their community, and their obligation to use welfare payments to pay the rent and electricity, and to provide food and clothing for the household.

Further, they note:

A number of people, particularly women stay on Income Management because it protects them from humbugging. This is not a sign of further dependency, but a sign of people wanting to meet their basic responsibilities using the best methods available to them.

The Cape York Institute also expressed concern that the advances made as a result of income management in the region would be lost if the system were to abruptly end on 30 June 2017.

That last point is an important one. The existing arrangements are due to expire on 30 June, and the manner in which the government has handled this legislation is, I would have to say, disappointing. Unfortunately, the legislation has been rushed through by the government, allowing only a very short Senate inquiry. The government really should have introduced this legislation into the parliament some months ago so as to enable a much more thorough consultative process. The government knew that this legislation would need to get through the parliament before 1 July, and yet here we are in this last week and they expect it to go through the House and the Senate.

The last evaluation of the Cape York welfare reform was released in 2012. I was the Minister for Indigenous Affairs at the time, and I remember it very well. It is time that there was an updated evaluation, and that really should have been done before this extension. So tonight I am calling on the government to make sure that there is a proper independent evaluation done in the next two years so we do not have to have a repeat of this debate that we are having right now. Nonetheless, we are satisfied that the continuation of income management does have the support of the leadership of the local communities, and we will support this bill today.

I just want to comment very briefly on our broader position on income management. We believe in community driven approaches to deal with chronic alcohol abuse. Any legislation that extends income management in a particular jurisdiction must be driven and supported by the local community, as it is in these places. We understand—and this is a very important point—that the vast majority of social security recipients are more than capable of managing their own personal finances and doing so responsibly. However, where individual communities believe that income management can make a positive difference, we will certainly discuss it with them. Labor's position on income management is very straightforward: we do not believe that it should be rolled out nationally and we certainly do not believe that it should be imposed on those communities that do not want it. I have personally spoken with the mayors in each of the communities in the areas affected by the legislation. I have listened to them, and they certainly do believe that income management is a positive thing for their communities and, as I say, they support its continuation.

I was actually the Minister for Indigenous Affairs in the previous Labor government, responsible for working with these Aboriginal leaders in the Cape to deliver these very changes. The Cape York partnership work is of course based on the principles set out in Noel Pearson's 2005 Cape York Agenda. This Cape York welfare reform agenda aims to support people in the communities that we have talked about in this bill to take responsibility for the welfare of their families and their community. The primary aim is to ensure that their children are safe, fed and well educated.

One of the really interesting things about this reform has been the creation of the Family Responsibilities Commission. This was established under Queensland legislation back in 2008. As the Family Responsibilities Commission submission sets out:

Local Commissioners are Elders or respected community members who encourage individuals appearing before the Commission to take the necessary steps to make lasting changes which will benefit their health, wellbeing, home and community life.

I just want to take a brief quote from their submission. They say:

The Local Commissioners have continued to grow in local authority since 2008 with the majority of conferences being conducted in the four Welfare Reform Communities without the presence of the Commissioner or his Deputy Commissioner in the financial year to date.

All Commissioners have equal authority in the decision-making process. Decisions made at conference are made fairly and with the best interests of the client and their family in mind. The authority of the FRC is the strength of its Local Commissioners, with decisions in conference involving community members (FRC clients) being made by their own Indigenous leaders.

Having met many of the commissioners in these local communities over the years, I do want to say a very special thank you to each of the local commissioners in the four Cape York communities and to Commissioner David Glasgow for their extraordinary work over the period since 2008.

As we have noted, the primary objective of the commission, as set out in the FRC Act, is to hold conferences with community members to encourage individuals and families to engage in socially responsible standards of behaviour while promoting the interests, rights and wellbeing of children and other vulnerable people living in the community. The way it works is that the commission sits down with a community member who is a Social Security recipient living in one of these four areas and works to make sure that their lives can be improved. The FRC can direct that part of an individual's income support payment can be managed by Centrelink to pay for the priority needs of their family. The percentage of payment income managed varies between 60, 75 or 90 per cent.

Since the Cape York Welfare Reform began back in July 2008, the four communities have seen improved school attendance, care and protection of children and community safety. The 2012 evaluation of the Cape York Welfare Reform did find that progress has been made at what they call 'the foundational level' in stabilising social circumstances and fostering behavioural change, particularly in the areas of sending children to school, caring for children and increasing individual responsibility. I would say again, though, that a new evaluation is long overdue. This data now from 2012 is quite old. I do want to say, particularly at a personal level, that this is still a very new and very different approach and it does deserve detailed examination. I do hope that we will see the government properly fund an independent evaluation. I do thank the various local communities for making submissions to the Senate inquiry at very late notice; they have been important in making sure that both the House and the Senate do understand that the communities themselves support the continuation of income management in Cape York. Labor will support this bill, and I commend it to the House.

Cathy O'Toole (Herbert, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

Income management supports 25,033 vulnerable people in locations across Australia, including individuals referred by child protection authorities. A high proportion of income-managed participants are Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people. This schedule amends the Social Security (Administration) Act to extend the completion date to 1 July 2019. This change will enable income management to continue in four Cape York Welfare Reform communities for a further two years, as well as Doomadgee.

The Family Responsibilities Commission, the FRC, which is established under Queensland government legislation, is a key part of the Cape York Welfare Reform. The Cape York Welfare Reform is an initiative of the Cape York Partnership, an Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander organisation which has led a wide-ranging reform agenda in Cape York. In 2008 Aurukun, Coen, Hope Vale, Mossman Gorge signed up to the Cape York Welfare Reform project in partnership with the Cape York Institute, federal and Queensland governments. Doomadgee also signed up, although it is not formally part of the Cape York Welfare Reform partnership. The Coen Regional Aboriginal Corporation has said that:

Giving local people real power to hold other community members to account through the FRC gets our 100% support.

The Aurukun Shire Council has said: 'The FRC must stay strong for our people. In Aurukun, we have been down a hard road, but we need to keep on going to make more positive changes.'

The aim of income management was to end passive welfare, restore communal and family harmony and create more vibrant and prosperous communities. The trial focused on achieving gains in social responsibility, education, economic opportunity and home ownership. In the 2017-18 budget, the federal government announced that it will extend income management in all five locations for two years until 30 June 2019. This will allow for further progress towards positive change within local Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander communities.

At this point, I must make it very clear that, whilst Labor supports this bill, it is imperative we acknowledge the absolute importance of proper consultation with local communities. Labor understands that walking alongside and working with Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people in a respectful manner is the only approach that will deliver success in the implementation and rollout of programs of this nature. 'Do not do to us or for us without us' is a good motto to follow. Any legislation that impacts on income management in any jurisdiction must be driven and supported by the members of the local community. It would be fair to say that the vast majority of social security recipients are more than capable of managing their personal finances. However, where individual communities believe that income management is and can make a positive difference for the people in the community, we must work with that community in order to ensure the best possible outcomes. Labor's position on income management is very simple. We do not believe that it should be rolled out on a national scale as we do not believe that it should be imposed upon communities that do not want to participate.

I recently attended the Indigenous workers' conference held in Townsville, which commemorated the anniversary of the 1957 Palm Island strike, where seven very courageous man working on Palm Island led a strike against the appalling living conditions and the discriminatory treatment of the Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people on the island. This strike took place because the petition to the superintendent demanding improved wages, health services, housing and working conditions was ignored. Although poor conditions were a major cause of the strike, the trigger was the superintendent's decision to deport local Albie Geia, who had allegedly disobeyed an overseer. Geia refused to leave Palm Island, united the community and declared the strike on 10 June 1957.

The conference was open to the public to provide an opportunity to educate the broader community about the many challenges the people of Palm Island and other Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander communities have endured over time and still face today. I joined the ACTU secretary, Sally McManus; mayor of Palm Island, Councillor Alf Lacey; and HESTA general manager of business development and policy, Mary Delahunty, on a panel where we discussed what needs to be done to progress community equity and employment into the future for Palm Island.

These men were never paid properly. They did not get sick leave. They did not get holiday pay. They did not have an opportunity to save for their retirement. These hardworking men did not have an inheritance to leave their children. They worked their whole lives with nothing to show for their labour. And, what is even worse, they were taken forcibly from their homeland. If supporting this bill opens the door to working with Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander communities who wish to engage in an income management program that will mean that communities can build their capacity to achieve real employment opportunities, if it means that communities get an opportunity to build a prosperous future for all members, it is a good initiative. If it means that we will never see the opportunities for a strike like the 1957 strike on Palm Island to happen again, it is a good initiative.

What is very clear is that our first nation people are very tired of being told what to do and what is good for them. Our Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander elders are willing to work together with governments, organisations and departments on the challenges and barriers that their communities face each and every day. Labor has respected this request, and it was Labor that insisted a Senate inquiry be established that enabled the Senate to receive submissions from local stakeholders in the Cape York region. The shadow minister, the honourable Jenny Macklin, has spoken with all the mayors, and they are very supportive of this extension.

The Cape York Partnership's work is based on the principles set out in Noel Pearson's 2005 Cape York Agenda. The Cape York welfare reform agenda aims to support people in the communities of Aurukun, Coen, Hope Vale and Mossman Gorge to take responsibility for the wellbeing of their families and their community. The primary aim is to ensure that children are safe, fed and educated. The Family Responsibilities Commission was established under Queensland legislation in 2008. As the FRC submission to the inquiry sets out:

Local Commissioners are Elders or respected community members who encourage individuals appearing before the Commission to take the necessary steps to make lasting changes which will benefit their health, wellbeing, home and community life.

The commission commenced operation on 1 July 2008 and conferencing began on 12 August 2008, with the first sitting being held in Coen. The primary objective of the commission, as set out in the FRC Act, is to hold conferences with community members and to encourage individuals and families to engage in socially responsible standards of behaviour whilst promoting the interests, rights and wellbeing of children and other vulnerable persons living in the community. The commission may work with a community member who is a social security recipient living in an area prescribed by regulation as a welfare reform community if the person or their partner is in receipt of certain welfare payments. The FRC can direct part of an individual's income support payments to be managed by Centrelink to pay for the priority needs of that family. The percentage of payment income managed varies between 60, 75 and 90 per cent.

Since Cape York welfare reform began in July 2008, the four communities have seen improved school attendance, care and protection of children, and community safety. A 2012 evaluation of Cape York welfare reform found that progress has been made at the foundational level in stabilising social circumstances and fostering behavioural change, particularly in the areas of sending children to school, caring for children and increasing individual responsibility. I reiterate that the most recent evaluation of income management was in Cape York in 2012. A further evaluation is overdue and I urge the government to ensure that a full evaluation occurs within the period of the extension.

We thank the various local community groups for making submissions to the Senate inquiry at such very late notice. Those submissions have played a very important role in showing the community's support for the continuation of income management in Cape York. Extending income management for two years ensures continuity of support for vulnerable participants and will also allow the government time to work through future directions for welfare quarantining. The amendment is compatible with human rights. Income management will advance the protection of human rights by ensuring that income support payments are spent in the best interests of the welfare payment recipients and their dependants, as decided by them. Income management will be successful if it includes a focus on education at all levels within the community. Efforts must be made to ensure that jobs are made available in communities where regular fly in, fly out workers are delivering services, especially at the entry level. If organisations that deliver services in Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander communities took an active role in developing a reconciliation action plan, purposeful roles would be identified for local community members. Developing a quality reconciliation action plan is a journey, and a journey that is best undertaken in consultation with the relevant Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander communities.

Employment is a human right and the dignity of work cannot be underestimated for any human being. Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander children living in communities must have hope like any other child—hope that they too can live a life of purpose, choice, meaning and citizenship.

Bob Katter (Kennedy, Independent) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

I listened to the last two speakers from the Labor Party side. The Labor Party will stand in infamy on the issue of Aboriginal affairs. John Howard quoted the great architect in Great Britain who built the magnificent cathedral, amongst many other things. When asked, 'What do you want written on your tomb?' he said, 'My epitaph is this cathedral.'

I am probably doing a little bit of skiting here, but this morning I saw a number of the councillors from the regional shire councils of Queensland, down here for their annual conference. I saw a group of five whitefellas and two blackfellas, and they were just talking like ordinary people. That would have been unthinkable 35 or 40 years ago. When I was given the portfolio and given directions by our federal president to fix up 'the Aboriginal thing', as he called it, in Queensland, he said he would stand behind me—it wasn't all honourable; remember, I'm scared of land rights! They wanted to put the fires out in Queensland, where there was great confrontation between the government and the First Australian people, and that was how I ended up in the portfolio. It was sort of like bringing the gunslinger to town. I was the gunslinger, and I think I was a gunslinger who was going to be shot; that was my opinion at the time.

The first thing that I could see was that the whitefellas were running the whole show. I went to Yarrabah, which is the biggest First Australians community in Australia, with 4½ to 5 thousand people, and met the 22 people that made all the decisions in Yarrabah, and every single one of them was a whitefella. Some of the architects of self-management—Roy Gray, Alfie Neal, Mickey Cornley—some of these blokes would say, 'It hasn't been good; it hasn't turned out as well.' I said to them, 'If I came to this place and saw 22 decision makers and they were all whitefellas, and now I come to this place and I see that 21 decision makers are blackfellas, that is really what it is all about!'

Whilst the ALP lives in infamy—when they got control of the state government in 1990 they immediately reversed almost everything. They put great impositions upon the councils, which meant they had to get whitefellas to come in and become CEOs. The First Australians, my brother cousins, lacked experience in these sorts of things—administration, handling of finances and education—and to a large extent the 28,000 people concerned, it could be argued, did not have the ability to run their own affairs. Of course, in the five years that I was minister, they proved that they could. There was not a single adverse report from the Auditor-General throughout that five-year period. In other words, every single community—they were not running perfectly and their books were not perfect, but there was no money going astray and the services were being delivered.

We kept a whitefella in there, and he was there as an auditor. He was there to audit the service delivery—water supply, sewerage, upkeep on the roads—and also to audit the money. He was to go over once a fortnight to the community council and audit the operations. He was there also as an adviser, if they wanted to ask advice, and he had a written direction from myself that if he appeared anywhere near those council officers, except for that half-day audit, he would be sacked instantaneously. I sent that direction for him: 'You're not in the driver's seat anymore; you're just checking that the driver's driving on the right-hand side of the road. That's all we're doing here.'

You have to understand that these people were now parcelling out $30 million. They had to deliver these services, and they did it. They did it to a point where this morning I could see those people speaking as equals, which was something that was unthinkable 30 years ago. When I introduced all the legislation in Queensland—as the media would have it, 'the most radical legislation in Australian history was coming out of the most conservative government in Australian history', which is probably a reasonable call—I said that, to those people that did not see the horror of what was but could see the brief small pinpoint of light of what might be today, we pay tribute. I saw the outcome this morning.

The Courier Mail had a front page article of what they call the 'cattle leases'—a bit of comic humour. My son went to a number of meetings and they kept talking about cattle leases, and he said: 'There's no cattle leases. That's our argument. You haven't given pastoral leases out.' They said, 'Mate, it's not cattle leases'. They refer to the nearly 1,000 leases that went through under the administration that God gave me the great privilege of being responsible for.

I cannot think of a single initiative that I took during that period of time that came from me. Let me dwell on the housing for a moment. A person came in today—a blackfella mate of mine—and he said he just reckons you're so terrific. And he said something about the housing. What happened in the housing was, there was a bloke called Greg Wallace, a black bloke from Hope Vale—Noelie Pearson and Mattie Bowen's home town—and Greg got them working for the dole. It was the first time 60 Minutes has ever done a repeat program. There was such an enormous positive reaction throughout Australia that these people were voluntarily working for the dole. They did not feel that they should take the money. That is really the essence of the legislation that is coming forward today. They should not take that money without working. They voluntarily started working for the dole, and it spread into all the other community areas.

Gerhardt Pearson, Noelie's brother, rang me up and he said: 'Bobby, why don't we use the Work for the Dole labour to build the houses?' I said, 'That's a fantastic idea', in sharp contrast to the ALP people who have held these portfolios. I rang up Gerry Hand, and he said: 'Great idea! Let's just do it.' So we did it. I had enough money to build about 400 homes. We built nearly 2,000 homes because, instead of flying whitefellas in—paying the fare in and the fare out; providing them with accommodation; providing them with food and serviced rooms, which cost a fortune; paying them a living-away-from-home allowance—we did not pay any of those things. Not only did we not pay any of those things but half the award was being met from the dole payments.

The architects were Eric Law and Lester Rosendale. Lester died a couple of years ago. But they were truly great men. They could foresee something that other people could not. The leadership there was responsible for each of these decisions. I happened to be lucky enough—God was good—and I happened to be there at the time and was able to play a key role in making sure these things happened. While I am saying we did it, it was not easy. The Premier, I think, rang up the state president some eight times—something like that—to have me sacked. But then the Premier reverted—and I say this in tribute to Joh Bejelke-Petersen—and that same Lester Rosendale, his father said, 'You know, we founded Hope Vale.'

This is the place where Noel Pearson and Matty Bowen, one of the greatest fullbacks in rugby league history, came from. It is where I think the first Australian Lutheran priest came out of. That was George Rosendale, who is one of the Rosendales. They had so many firsts. They had the first Australian member of parliament—Eric Deeral came from there as well.

George Rosendale told me how this was established. Joh Bjelke-Petersen got the land for it—140,000 hectares—and Joh and he camped out for three months together on horseback. They picked out the site for the town and cleared the main street with hand axes. He said: 'Whilst it sounds like we did a lot of work, we had a hell of a lot of fun—fishing, shooting and running around together. It was good fun.' In the later years Bjelke-Petersen changed completely and became the crusader of the reforms that we were putting through.

Most of all I had to confront why no-one had jobs. They had the highest crime rate, the highest suicide rates and the highest mothering rates at Yarrabah. Why was my home town of Cloncurry, with 50 per cent or more of First Australian descent—I often claim to be First Australian myself—not like that? Foremen in main roads were blackfellas. Engine drivers in the railway were blackfellas. They were in all the senior positions in the town. A couple of the blackfellas' kids from Cloncurry went away to become doctors. The football teams were often led by First Australians. So why was it so different in Yarrabah?

For those who like reading books I strongly recommend Hernando De Soto's The Mystery of Capital. I was reading Robert Ardrey's The Territorial Imperative at the time, which also impacted upon me. I could clearly see that the one thing we needed was a title deed. I will illustrate what I am talking about here. We have to go into these welfare cards to deal with the symptoms, but what is the problem? The problem is that in Cloncurry you could go down to the river, as I did, and take up 15 acres of vacant crown land and become a landowner. With that title deed I could borrow money off the bank.

Doomadgee is one of our top centres. The rugby league team there won the premiership for a number of years. A man came up—and I will not use his name without his permission—and said, 'Bob, I have got one of those blocks.' I said, 'Is it one of those 30,000-acre blocks?' He said yes. This is in a 40-inch rainfall area. He said he wanted to get cattle. I asked if he had been to see the banks. He said, 'Of course I went to see the bank.' He had a couple of trucks working at the mines. I asked, 'What did they say?' He said, 'They said, "No go, mate. We want security. We want mortgageability. We want a title deed."'

Another bloke there—and he did not like me a lot—got up at a council meeting and said: 'I don't need any title deeds. I have got 1,000 head of cattle together. They are my cattle. I'm a Gungalida man.' I said, 'Since you are stupid enough to stand up in a public place and shoot your mouth off, I would say that the lawyers will be ringing you up this afternoon.' I went out of there to lunch with the most prominent family in Doomadgee and before I had sat down he said, 'Did you hear that bloke who said he owned all the cattle? No, they don't own cattle. They are my cattle. I'm a Gungalida man.' They cannot go out there and work because they cannot get a return for it because you have got no security of ownership of land. Therein lies the problem. We issued 800 deeds. There have been none issued in the 29 years since. It is a disgrace and a reflection upon the ALP. Mal Brough was a great exception to the rule.

Paul Fletcher (Bradfield, Liberal Party, Minister for Urban Infrastructure) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

The Social Services Legislation Amendment (Queensland Commission Income Management Regime) Bill 2017 will amend the Social Security (Administration) Act 1999 to allow the income management element of Cape York Welfare Reform to continue for two additional years until 30 June 2019. This applies to the Cape York Welfare Reform communities of Aurukun, Coen, Hope Vale, Mossman Gorge and Doomadgee.

Income management ensures that welfare payments are spent on priority needs, with an aim of reducing social harm and driving positive social change. There are currently 196 people in these communities who are on income management. Income management in Cape York is the only income management measure with a legislated sunset date. Current legislation allows for all other income management measures to continue beyond 30 June 2017. This bill will align income management in Cape York and Doomadgee with the end date of the broader income management program, which currently supports tens of thousands of vulnerable people across Australia.

The extension of income management in all existing locations will ensure continuity of support for participants while government works through future directions for welfare quarantine. Ceasing this program without a mechanism to replace it could place vulnerable people—in particular, women and children—at risk and lead to increased levels of violence, hospitalisation and abuse. The proposed approach to the extension of income management in Cape York was discussed with the Queensland government and the Cape York Partnership, which agreed this was the best approach and met the needs of Cape York Welfare Reform at this time. I commend the bill to the House.

Question agreed to.

Bill read a second time.

Message from the Governor-General recommending appropriation announced.