Claire Moore (Queensland, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Hansard source

We hear that reviews are not good enough. Yes, it was good enough for 12 years to come up with a bandaid response in budget after budget and one-off payment after one-off payment, with no attempt to look at the whole system, no attempt to plan for the future, no attempt to engage with the people about whom we are speaking—the very people who will actually need to be supported by the process. The process that has been put in place by this government, which Senator Evans referred to in his answers, is going forward using the people who have the need and actually working with them to see what the long-term solution is, not a short-term bandaid. We know that, the more you do not address the key problem and the more you take a short-term response, the harder the program and the problem are going to be. That is what we have lived with in this country for 12 years: we have not sought to find an overall solution to balance the needs and to actually engage the whole process to look at what can be done for the people who have the most need. We have tried to get the good news program, the good news headline, so that we can feel good for a couple of days while, at the same time, taking every opportunity to throw dust in the eyes of the people who are trying to do a longer term response.

No-one pretends that this is easy. Minister Macklin has been open about how she understands that people are suffering, and that has never been denied. But continuing to put the bandaid on it, as some people in the opposition think is the way to go, is not the best response. As long as we continue to scare, it will not— (Time expired)