Milton Dick (Oxley, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

During the term of this government, we've seen its complete lack of compassion, lack of thought and lack of attention to vulnerable Australians doing it tough. Rather, we've seen those opposite instead looking after their mates at the top end of town with the budget, as we know, for big business—a tax handout of $80 billion to the big multinationals and the big banks. But what we have here today is something on a new level, even for those opposite. Not only does the Social Services Legislation Amendment (Drug Testing Trial) Bill 2018 neglect vulnerable Australians doing it tough, but it goes on the attack to degrade and demonise those people, who instead should be receiving our support. This bill, instead of helping them, will only hurt them.

In the face of zero evidence, what we see before us is this government's second attempt to establish a two-year trial of drug testing for 5,000 recipients of Newstart allowance and youth allowance in three trial locations, including Logan in Queensland, which is in the electorate of my friend and colleague the member for Rankin, just next to my own. Don't be fooled. If the government gets its way, this will only be the beginning. This is despite the government being unable to provide any evidence supporting the establishment of their drug testing trial or revealing the cost. We're talking not just about the cost to the budget but also about the cost to individual Australians, the cost to families and the cost to communities who will bear the brunt of this reckless policy.

The government previously tried to introduce this measure as part of the Social Services Legislation Amendment (Welfare Reform) Bill 2017. That bill was subject to a Senate inquiry which reported on 6 September last year. The report of this inquiry stated that a number of serious areas of concern 'were raised in submissions and oral evidence in relation to the proposed establishment of drug testing trials', including:

This feedback should ring alarm bells that this legislation is poorly thought out and poorly designed.

Labor opposed many of the measures in the welfare reform bill, including the drug testing trials, the first time around, and we are doing so again this time. Many concerns have been raised about this measure by health and welfare groups, including St Vincents Health, the Royal Australian College of Physicians, ACOSS and UnitingCare, just to name a few. Not one health or community organisation has come out publicly in support of the trial. Let me say that again: not one health or community organisation has come out publicly in support of the trial—not a single one. There is not a single strand of evidence to support this vindictive policy and not a single health or community backed organisation that supports it. This government is on its own on this one, and clearly it must think it knows more than the experts do.

Instead, medical professionals and the drug and alcohol treatment sector have raised significant concerns not only about the impact these measures will have on jobseekers but also that they won't be effective in identifying those with a serious problem or providing them with treatment. Experts warn that these changes will not help people to overcome addiction, because that is not how addiction works. Instead, they will be pushed into crisis, poverty, homelessness and potentially crime. Let me repeat that: they will be pushed into crisis, poverty, homelessness and potentially crime.

Nonetheless, the government persist. Even in the face of this overwhelming evidence that people will not be better off, they persist with this poorly thought-out policy. The director of the St Vincent's Hospital Melbourne Department of Addiction Medicine had this to say on the measures proposed by the government:

There will be more crime, more family violence, more distress within society.

That's right: there will be more crime, more family violence and more distress within society. She continues:

We can expect at Centrelink offices there will be aggression and violence as people react to this. Had [the government] spoken to the various bodies who work in this area—

who know best, they would have listened.

Kevin Hogan (Page, National Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

The debate is interrupted in accordance with standing order 43. The debate may be resumed at a later hour, when the member for Oxley will have the right to continue speaking.