Lidia Thorpe (Victoria, Independent) Share this | Hansard source

I want to thank Senator Rice for moving to disallow these instruments and bringing to light another attempt by the government to control us. These instruments allow child protection workers to decide that our families need to go onto income management. Shame! It shows how the so-called child protection services do not protect us. It is the opposite: it takes our children away. We're in a child removal crisis, and this is what Labor does. Child protection is another way that the government polices our communities. They are removing our children at higher rates than ever, with over 25,000 First People children currently removed from their families, making up well over 40 per cent of removed children, when we are a small minority of the population. Guess what, Labor? That is genocide. And now the same people removing our kids would have the power to put us on the government's racist income management scheme: the smart card. It is clear that by 'protection', this government actually means 'control'.

The very idea that First Peoples need protecting from ourselves is a racist, colonial narrative. We have seen this type of protectionist, racist, colonial interference in our lives before. We live it every day. Our people were once subject to near total control of movement—control over who they could marry, who they could have kids with and what jobs they could do. Our wages were stolen, our savings were taken and our property was seized. You go to jail for that now, don't you? Let's lock up every politician that has subjected us to this genocidal regime. How would you like that? Let's put you on a BasicsCard. The police services of this country stole our children from their families and put them to work. Today, police and child protection services continue to steal our children. Now, apparently, you'll be trying to put us back on rations through the smart card. The smart card is rations. We're not rounded up on the missions no more, Labor. We know that something like eight out of 10 people on the BasicsCard and more than half the people on the CDC are First People. No surprise, there. The government knows this, and it's no accident.

There was a recent review into the new enhanced income management which introduced the smart card. All the witnesses except one pointed to how harmful the scheme is and called for abolition of compulsory income management. Yet this will be just another report that the government will file away under 'Look away; not our problem' and give themselves a pat on the back for having such good intentions in the way they control black people.

If the media wants a story about broken election promises, look no further. Labor went to the election promising to get rid of the cashless debit card. Last year I gave a speech recounting all the times they promised this. It is so clear that the government does not intend to abolish compulsory income management. The Australian Human Rights Commission has warned time and time again that the cashless debit card bill is not in line with this country's international human rights obligations. How do you sleep at night, Labor? Honestly: how do you sleep at night? If the minister cared for what our people needed, they would be bending over backwards to fully fund and resource Aboriginal community controlled organisations to provide services to our people on our terms. Instead, they opt for control, coercion, native police, and power over us yet again.

The systems aren't broken; they are working exactly as designed. This is a continuation of the genocide on our people, and every Labor politician in this place is complicit—some in their own genocide, as we know. If there is no intent on genocide, the government must stop its forcible control of First Nations people once again and listen to our sovereign voices. So I call on the government today to make good on their promise and call for all forms of compulsory, racist income control of our people to be abolished immediately. Thank you.