Jerome Laxale (Bennelong, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

Week after week in this place, we see the continued and ongoing contempt that the modern day Liberal Party have for vulnerable Australians. One of the most contemporary examples of their disregard for vulnerable Australians was, of course, the implementation and support of the illegal robodebt scheme. The member for Cook's automated debt recovery system targeted welfare recipients, seeking to claw back alleged overpayments without adequate evidence. The scheme was illegal, and the consequences were devastating. Innocent individuals, many already struggling to make ends meet, were burdened with crushing debts pushing them further into poverty and despair. The emotional and financial toll of this heartless and illegal scheme cannot be overstated.

While the victims continue to face the impacts of this scheme on their day-to-day life, the member for Cook rose in this very place to reject any adverse findings against him that were made by the royal commission. That's right—he really stood up here to say that he had no role or responsibility for robodebt. While vulnerable Australians are still hurting, the member for Cook felt that the most important thing for him to do in this place this week was to play the victim. Instead of apologising and taking responsibility, he said, 'It's not my fault.' And, unbelievably, the Leader of the Opposition chose to back him in. He continues to support the member for Cook despite the adverse findings of the royal commission.

The Liberals' disregard for and outward attacks on vulnerable Australians do not end there. We had the opposition leader this week saying that the Liberals would attempt to reverse increases to JobSeeker. Then we had the coalition's proposal of doubling the income-free area, which could see an additional 50,000 people become eligible for JobSeeker overnight. The coalition is happy to see longer term reliance on casual work and JobSeeker rather than actually providing genuine support to transition recipients into the workforce. So deep is their contempt for vulnerable Australians on JobSeeker that they would rather oppose increases to the rates of JobSeeker, rental allowance and single parent payments.

And we haven't even spoken about their disgraceful week opposing the constitutional recognition of Indigenous Australians. All week, we had the opposition leader and shadow ministers line up and jump up in order to jeopardise the success of this important referendum. Liberal backbenchers continually espouse falsehoods about what the Voice would mean for this country and Indigenous communities. We have an opportunity to enact a generous offer from Indigenous Australians. The Voice will be representative of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander communities. It will be empowering, community led, inclusive, respectful, culturally informed and gender balanced.

But members of the Liberal Party say that Indigenous people have already had their say and that the status quo is fine. They're fine with the fact that the national target of no gap in life expectancy between First Nations people and other Australians is not on track to be met by males or females. They're fine with the fact that the number of Indigenous and Torres Strait Islander children commencing school that are developmentally on track has gone backwards since 2018. They're fine with the fact that Indigenous children continue to be vastly overrepresented in out-of-home care.

The Productivity Commission's review of the National Agreement on Closing the Gap reinforced yet again what Indigenous communities have been saying for years: Closing the Gap is not working, because Indigenous communities are not empowered with a proper voice or say in their own affairs. Yet the Liberal-National coalition would prefer to maintain the status quo as they continue to campaign against the Voice to Parliament.

Their continued attacks on the vulnerable extend to stopping more affordable and social housing from being built. A decade of inaction under the former government has left us grappling with significant housing challenges nationwide, and they're doing everything in their power to stop a solution to our nation's housing challenges. Week after week, we go on without this crucial policy implemented because it's being blocked by the Liberals, who are enabled by the Greens political party. The delays caused by their opposition to the Housing Australia Future Fund mean that every day $1.3 million that could have been utilised for social and affordable housing is not being spent.

There's a theme here. The Liberal Party's repeated attacks on vulnerable Australians, from the robodebt scheme to opposition to the Voice, demonstrate a disturbing lack of empathy and compassion. This is the modern day Liberal Party under the leadership of the Leader of the Opposition.