John Madigan (Victoria, Democratic Labor Party) Share this | Hansard source

My question is to the Minister representing the Minister for Immigration and Border Protection, Senator Cash. In recent months, the number of asylum seekers denied access to Medicare, work rights and financial support has increased significantly. Reports indicate that the waiting time to be considered by the Department of Immigration and Border Protection for financial support alone has increased from a few weeks to over 3 months. One organisation has indicated to me that, in the past month, every referral they have made for community assistance support has been rejected. Can the minister outline why highly vulnerable asylum seekers living in the community are all of a sudden being rejected from community assistance support when in previous months this was not the case?