Janet Rice (Victoria, Australian Greens) Share this | Hansard source

by leave—I move Australian Greens amendments (1) to (4) on sheet 1656 together:

(1) Clause 2, page 2 (at the end of the table), add:

(2) Clause 2, page 2 (at the end of the table), add:

(3) Page 18 (after line 6), at the end of the Bill, add:

Schedule 3 — Cessation of income management

Part 1 — Amendments

Social Security (Administration) Act 1999

1 After Part 3D

Insert:

Part 3E — Ceasing to be subject to income management or cashless welfare arrangements

124PT Definitions

In this Part:

program participant has the same meaning as in Part 3D.

subject to the enhanced income management regime has the same meaning as in Part 3AA.

subject to the income management regime has the same meaning as in Part 3B.

124PU Ceasing to be subject to the enh anced income management regime

(1) A person who is subject to the enhanced income management regime may make a request to the Secretary to cease to be subject to the enhanced income management regime. The request cannot be withdrawn or revoked.

(2) If the person does so, the Secretary must give the person a notice stating that the person ceases to be subject to the enhanced income management regime. The notice comes into force on a day specified in the notice (which must be no later than 7 days after the day on which the request was made).

(3) A notice under subsection (2) has effect accordingly.

(4) A notice under subsection (2) is not a legislative instrument.

124PV Ceasing to be subject to the income management regime

(1) A person who is subject to the income management regime may make a request to the Secretary to cease to be subject to the enhanced income management regime. The request cannot be withdrawn or revoked.

(2) If the person does so, the Secretary must give the person a notice stating that the person ceases to be subject to the income management regime. The notice comes into force on a day specified in the notice (which must be no later than 7 days after the day on which the request was made).

(3) A notice under subsection (2) has effect accordingly.

(4) A notice under subsection (2) is not a legislative instrument.

124PW Ceasing to be subject to cashless welfare arrangements

(1) A person who is a program participant may make a request to the Secretary to cease to be a program participant. The request cannot be withdrawn or revoked.

(2) If the person does so, the Secretary must give the person a notice stating that the person ceases to be a program participant. The notice comes into force on a day specified in the notice (which must be no later than 7 days after the day on which the request was made).

(3) A notice under subsection (2) has effect accordingly.

(4) A notice under subsection (2) is not a legislative instrument.

124PX This Part has effect despite other provisions etc.

This Part has effect despite anything in:

(a) any other provision of this Act; or

(b) the 1991 Act; or

(c) the Family Assistance Act; or

(d) the Family Assistance Administration Act.

Part 2 — Repeals

Social Security (Administration) Act 1999

2 Section 123SB

Repeal the following definitions:

(a) definition of balance of the qualified portion, of acategory B welfare payment;

(b) definition of balance of the qualified portion, of acategory D welfare payment;

(c) definition of category A welfare payment;

(d) definition of category B welfare payment;

(e) definition of category C welfare payment;

(f) definition of category D welfare payment;

(g) definition of exempt welfare payment recipient;

(h) definition of qualified portion, of a category B welfare payment;

(i) definition of qualified portion, of a category D welfare payment;

(j) definition of Queensland Commission;

(k) definition of unqualified portion, of a category B welfare payment;

(l) definition of unqualified portion, of a category D welfare payment.

3 Sections 123SC and 123SD

Repeal the sections.

4 Subdivisions A and B of Division 3 of Part 3AA

Repeal the Subdivisions.

5 Section 123ST

Repeal the section.

6 Transitional rules

(1) The Minister may, by legislative instrument, make rules prescribing matters of a transitional nature (including prescribing any saving or application provisions) relating to the amendments or repeals made by this Schedule.

(2) To avoid doubt, the rules may not do the following:

(a) create and offence or civil penalty;

(b) provide powers of:

(i) arrest or detention; or

(ii) entry, search or seizure;

(c) impose a tax;

(d) set an amount to be appropriated from the Consolidated Revenue Fund under an appropriation in this Act;

(e) directly amend the text of the Act.

(4) Page 18, at the end of the Bill (after proposed Schedule 3), add:

Schedule 4 — Obligations of Minister

1 Definitions

(1) In this Schedule:

compulsory income management area means an area in which persons are:

(a) subject to the enhanced income management regime within the meaning of Part 3AA of the Social Security (Administration) Act 1999; or

(b) subject to the income management regime within the meaning of Part 3B of the Social Security (Administration) Act 1999.

publication deadline means the day that is 6 months after the day that this Schedule commences.

(2) An expression that is used in Part 3AA or 3B of the Social Security (Administration) Act 1999, as in force immediately before this item commences, has the same meaning, when used in this Schedule, as in that Part.

2 Local services plans

(1) The Minister must, for each compulsory income management area, prepare a written plan (a local services plan) for:

(a) improving community services in the area; and

(b) addressing social issues in the area.

(2) In preparing a local services plan for a compulsory income management area, the Minister must:

(a) have regard to the principle that the plan should prioritise evidence-based local investments; and

(b) cause consultation to occur with the following:

(i) community organisations, including First Nations organisations, that operate in the area;

(ii) health services that operate in the area;

(iii) businesses that operate in the area;

(iv) the State in which the area is located;

(v) each relevant local council.

(4) The Minister must cause the local services plan for a compulsory income management area to be:

(a) published on the Department's website on or before the publication deadline; and

(b) tabled in each House of the Parliament within 7 sitting days of that House after the plan is published under paragraph (a).

(5) A local services plan:

(a) is not a legislative instrument; and

(b) does not affect any legal rights, liabilities or duties.

These amendments would go to the heart of what we have been talking about in the whole debate about compulsory income management right back from the very beginning—right back to the Intervention, through the imposition of the cashless debit card—which is that compulsory income management doesn't work. There are social problems that need to be addressed, but compulsory income management is not the way to address them. We have heard so much evidence, and there is so much evidence on the public record, of how compulsory income management is a failed tool.

So we're supporting this bill tonight because it goes some way to moving some people off compulsory income management: the people on the cashless debit card in the four trial sites. But we are particularly concerned that that leaves over 20,000 people in the Northern Territory, and overwhelmingly First Nations peoples in the Northern Territory, still having to suffer being under compulsory income management. As we've previously discussed, if it's voluntary, that's fine, but if it's being imposed on people as a blanket measure, it is inappropriate. It doesn't work. It's harsh, it's punitive and it's a failed measure.

This amendment would allow anybody in the Northern Territory who is on the BasicsCard or being transitioned off the cashless debit card to apply to be off compulsory income management. Just as people in the trial sites who are being moved off compulsory income management can apply—they can pick up the phone and ring Services Australia a week after royal assent—we reckon that should be available to people in the Northern Territory as well. If people want to stay on income management, fine. But if this amendment were passed, what it would mean is that anybody who is suffering and has said, 'We do not want to be on compulsory income management. It is a failure. It is impacting our lives,' would also be able to pick up the phone and ask to be off compulsory income management, and within a week they would be off it.

This is what we are hearing from across the country. This underpins our commitment to the fact that compulsory income management is having a massive, punitive, destructive impact on people and that it needs to be abolished. While we welcome the government's commitment to do an 18-month consultation process with a view to be ending compulsory income management in the Northern Territory, we think that is taking far too long. There are many people who are now languishing under the impost of compulsory income management who should be allowed off it. Our amendment would allow them to pick up the phone and to say, 'Take me off income management, please,' and that would happen.