Rachel Siewert (WA, Australian Greens) Share this | Hansard source

Yes—well, wrapping up the debate. The government cannot even justify why they are continuing this trial, or why this chamber should not support my motion. I realise they are trying to ram through the budget omnibus bill, but at least they could do East Kimberley the dignity of actually responding to this debate. So I am greatly disappointed about that.

Also, Senator Gallagher, with all due respect, you just repeated what the ALP said in the debate—flawed, though it be, in terms of lack of consultation. There was not adequate consultation in Ceduna or in East Kimberley, in the same way that there has not been in Geraldton. I am extremely disappointed that you continue with the myth that this is not income management and that it is not different to what happened in the Northern Territory. It is different in that it is 80 per cent, not 50 per cent, that is being quarantined. And there was budget help for people in the Northern Territory—supposedly—when the NT intervention rolled out. So that is not a difference to what this particular trial is, compared to the approach on income management.

The ALP and the government, into the future, will be held accountable by the community for their flawed approach that they are taking to income support. If the ALP think that it is not on the government's agenda, it is certainly on the agenda of Andrew Forrest, who recommended this in his report in the first place. The recommendation there was to roll it out across Australia, and coalition members continue to talk about it. So wake up. That is their agenda—to roll this card out across Australia to people on income support. When the member for Durack was trying to convince the community in Geraldton about accepting this card, she was sort of saying, 'We won't apply it to people that are on the disability support pension or carers; we'll just apply it to people on Newstart or Youth Allowance. So we'll just try to change the facts.' But the facts are in the legislation there.

It is very clear that the government want to roll this out wherever they can—or certain members. To be fair, maybe it is not all coalition members, but there are a number who do. There are a number who want to see this approach taken to supporting the most vulnerable in our community. Please say no to this flawed approach, because it is punitive and does not help people in the long term, just as the Northern Territory intervention did not help people in the long term. We still have the entrenched issues of disadvantage in the Northern Territory in the same way that we will continue to have those entrenched issues of disadvantage in the East Kimberley and in Ceduna in the long term, until we start addressing the underlying causes of disadvantage, those systemic underlying causes that have clearly been identified.