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

RICE () (): I move:

That the Social Security (Administration) (Declinable Transactions and BasicsCard Bank Account) Determination 2023, made under the Social Security (Administration) Act 1999, be disallowed [F2023L00189].

Labor government promises—we had some last night in the budget. The government promised that no-one was going to be left behind, and yet we have so many people that are being left trapped in poverty. On compulsory income management, we've got another huge broken promise from the Labor Party. The Labor Party have made so many promises when it comes to compulsory income management. When they were in opposition they promised to repeal the cashless debit card. They ran an aggressive scare campaign against compulsory income management that went out to pensioners, telling them that they might be subject to it in future. They had petitions. They had sign-ups. They were using compulsory income management to try and win votes. But, despite this unfounded scare campaign, those of us who knew the damage that compulsory income management was doing welcomed the fact that, finally, Labor were actually taking a stand. In their scare campaign, they were actually acknowledging that compulsory income management was a bad thing and it didn't work. It was so good to finally hear them come out like that.

In April last year, there were comments about this by the Labor social services spokesperson, Linda Burney. When she was asked what Labor would do about the BasicsCard, she confirmed it would be voluntary:

… our fundamental principle on the BasicsCard and the cashless debit card, it should be a voluntary basis. If people want to be on those sorts of income management, then that's their decision. It's not up to Labor or anyone else to tell them what to do. At the moment it's compulsion and that's not Labor's position.

Hear, hear, Linda Burney—from April last year. On the same day, it was reported on the ABC that, if federal Labor were to win the election in the following month, they would make the controversial BasicsCard optional within their first term of government, making a commitment that any broad based income management should be voluntary. We never imagined how short term and cynical the Labor government's approach to compulsory income management would prove to be. Rather than seeing an end to compulsory income management, what we've seen is a rebranding. After a long campaign led by community groups to get rid of the cashless debit card, we've had a change of government, but what else have we had? We've had a change of colour and a change of brand on the compulsory income management card. We've gone from the cashless debit card to the SmartCard. It's a different name, with different colours on the card, but what has changed in the policy?

This regulation that we are seeking to disallow is part of setting up the framework for not just the ongoing cashless debit card but legislation, currently before the Senate Community Affairs Legislation Committee, that would actually allow the expansion of the cashless debit card, with no sunset clause, and allow the cashless debit card to be expanded into more geographic areas than it has been, without having to come back to parliament. Compared to the old cashless debit legislation, where there was a sunset clause, this will have no sunset clause. This regulation is part of setting up that framework to allow that to occur.

This regulation is a disallowable instrument that would establish the framework for the smart card by specifying the bank account, terms and conditions and blocked entities under the smart card. This instrument includes provisions that will enable the new enhanced income management regime to operate. So basically this regulation, as I've said, is part of setting up this framework for an expanded cashless debit card. It's an expanded framework. Labor have betrayed their pledge to voters at the last election.

Under the Labor government, there are more than 20,000 people still trapped under compulsory income management. We need a voluntary system that genuinely supports people, rather than setting up a framework that continues compulsory income management, that allows compulsory income management to be expanded and that allows compulsory income management to go on indeterminately into the future.

Why does this matter? It's because we know from direct accounts, academic experts, community groups and countless reports that compulsory income management is harmful. There have been many inquiries into compulsory income management over the years. One person who submitted to an inquiry explained:

… it was a struggle before to make it through fortnight to fortnight, but it's been even harder since I've been on the card. Because it's so much harder to budget not physically having the money in your hand, like being able to see I've got this much left. You've got to add bloody credit on your phone. You've got to have a phone that you can get on the internet and check the bank account each time. That's more money you've got to bloody spend just to check to see how much money I'm spending each time.

Another person said:

… I have difficulty with my eyes … I've been getting the start of cataracts and I find it hard to even see things and you've got to check your balance all the time on my phone with this stupid Indue thing and half the time I can't see it. But I'm of the old school where I can manage my money better without going through this Indue crap.

…   …   …

I've had so many hassles with it.

A First Nations woman reported:

Electricity and certain basics—you can't pay your bills with it. I feel like a kid not being able to pay my power bill with BasicsCard and need to call Centrelink to ask them to transfer my money for me.

A single mother forced to survive under compulsory income management outlined how compulsory income management made her life worse. She said:

I survive on cash, everything I own is from garage sales or op shops. Most of my food comes from the farmers market or roadside stalls. I cannot afford to buy new things from shops, nor can I afford a lot of store-bought items. I'm not alone it's the only way single mothers can afford to live and feed their children on what is the lowest paid yet most important job.

We have at this point a decade and a half of evidence that compulsory income management doesn't work.

Since the Howard government first launched the Northern Territory intervention in 2007, we have had community members, academics and parliamentary inquiries repeatedly telling us—over and over and over again—that the government should stop imposing compulsory income management. Associate Professor Elise Klein, OAM, said recently, 'The government and its agencies have never been able to show a credible evidence base to support compulsory income management.' Indeed the peer-reviewed evidence base has continually shown that compulsory income management causes more harm than good. Regardless of peer-reviewed research showing the harms associated with CIM, the government continues to implement CIM regimes, the current bill included, based on ideology. This body of peer-reviewed research demonstrates numerous and inbuilt issues with CIM, including the exacerbation of financial hardship, the experience of stigma and discrimination, and evidence of disproportionate targeting of Indigenous communities.

One example includes research published from the ARC centre of excellence the Life Course Centre, which examined compulsory income management in the Northern Territory. This research showed a correlation with negative impacts on children, including a reduction in birth weight and school attendance. The research implications were significant and drew attention to several possible explanations for the reduction of birth weight, including how income management increased stress on mothers, disrupted existing financial arrangements within households and created confusion as to how to access funds.

There have been independent studies, inquiries into bills, inquiries by the Parliamentary Joint Committee on Human Rights and academic reports, and still the government isn't listening. We had hoped that this Labor government would listen, yet they are not listening. This regulation that we're seeking to disallow, I remind you, is setting up a framework to allow the expansion and the extension of compulsory income management. This isn't evidence based policy. It's ideology and it's not even Labor ideology. It's ideology that Labor is implementing because they're too scared of the right-wing shock jocks who will attack them if they deviate from Liberal policies.

Of course, at the same time as we've got the Labor government implementing these Liberal policies, they've been failing to act on what would genuinely make a difference. Why is it perceived that people have a problem with managing their income? It's because they haven't got enough. We need to increase income support. The people forced to endure compulsory income management are the people relying on income support payments that are way below the poverty line, so the harm of compulsory income management is compounding the government's failure to lift payment rates.

Witness what happened last night. Not only is the government expanding compulsory income management but, rather than lifting income support rates above the poverty line, we had the paltry increase of $2.85 per day. They manage hundreds of billions of dollars in tax cuts for the ultrawealthy but they only managed to find $2.85 a day for people living below the poverty line. Here's a list of what $2.85 won't buy you. It won't buy you a carton of eggs at $4.60; a two-litre bottle of milk at $3.10; a five-pack of instant noodles at $3.95; a kilo of onions at $3.50; or a kilo of potatoes at $3.80. The increase in the budget is an order of magnitude short of what's needed, but the government has got the audacity to say that people need harsh punitive measures controlling their lives rather than a guaranteed livable income that ensures people aren't living in poverty.

As we debate this disallowance and the impact of compulsory income management on people relying on income support, it's a stark reminder that poverty is a political choice. Of course the Labor Party is desperate to talk about anything other than how they are leaving people behind in poverty. When I asked the question of the Minister for Finance today, I got no answers to my questions as to why we couldn't lift income support above the poverty line. We got lots of words about balance and targeted measures and compassion, but the reality is that this government is leaving people in poverty and is expanding punitive measures that will only help to trap them in that poverty. That's why they are arguing that somehow they need to stick with the stage 3 tax cuts that are going to give $9,000 a year to every one of us in this place—that's $25 a day compared with the $2.85 a day that's been given to people on income support.

The Labor Party are arguing, I understand, that this disallowance shouldn't proceed because it's got unintended consequences. They say that it's going to harm people who have voluntarily gone onto income management, and that, therefore, we should withdraw it. I ask the Labor Party to look at the figures. As of December 2022, there were more than 20,000 people in the Northern Territory on income management. Of those, just under 2,000 were on voluntary income management. The vast majority of people who are going to be impacted by expanding this regime of compulsory income management are those 18,000 people in the Northern Territory—the remainder of those 20,000 people that are on compulsory income management in one form or another.

Let me say very clearly to the Labor Party: if you came to this parliament with a good bill and appropriate regulations which genuinely fulfilled your promise to the people at the last election and which genuinely were implementing voluntary income management, you would find a very different reception from us, but, at this stage, all we have is promises. The Labor Party have shown that their promises aren't really worth the air time, or the paper they're written on. You need more than promises that things are going to get better. What we are told with the bill, which is going to solidify, put in place and expanded compulsory income management, is the minister has no intention of doing that. But that is what that bill allows.

I ask the Labor Party government to listen to those impacted by your policies. If you pay attention to what people with direct experience are saying, you will make better legislation. But if you keep bowling up with centre-right proposals that are clearly designed to garner Liberal support, we will not allow you to maintain the pretence that this is progressive legislation. It's harmful, it's damaging and it's against the principles that you set out in opposition. The choice to bind up voluntary income management with a program that harms 10 times as many people through compulsory income management, despite all of the evidence, is a deliberate and cynical choice by the Labor Party. Voters across the country deserve better.