Catryna Bilyk (Tasmania, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Hansard source

It was a real mixed bag of questions today from the opposition. There weren't really any gotcha moments, though, I've got to say. Before I begin my response, I want to acknowledge the amazing work done by the Minister for Indigenous Australians, my colleague Senator Malarndirri McCarthy; by her predecessor, Linda Burney; and also by Senator Stewart. I've found the work that Minister McCarthy has done in trying to close the gap has reinforced the fact that, if she wasn't before, she's a real leader in Indigenous matters.

On Thursday, we'll celebrate 17 years since Prime Minister Kevin Rudd delivered the National Apology to the Stolen Generations, and it's 60 years since the start of the Freedom Ride, as the Prime Minister mentioned earlier today. These anniversaries help us to remember the injustices and the mistakes of the past and to focus on what is not working. Unfortunately, as we heard today from the PM, there are areas in which we can improve, and I don't think there's any government that thinks it's perfect. We are seeing improvements on 11 out of 19 targets in the national agreement, but, sadly, only five are on track to be met. We said, when we came to government, that we would make the CDP voluntary to those that wanted it to be voluntary in those areas. Over the past two years, we've been transitioning to that effect. This is being done in partnership with the First Nations working group in terms of areas like remote jobs.

As I said, the Albanese government made an election commitment to abolish the cashless debit card and to make it voluntary in those communities through the SmartCard. We're delivering on a long-term plan to reform income management. Income management has been in place since 2007, and we're committed to working through this matter in partnership with the communities that would be affected by any changes. First Nations people and other stakeholders were the ones that called for a measured approach to reforming income management, and decisions must be made in partnership with them.

We've heard that any reform needs to reflect the complex needs of the participants and to mitigate any disruption to their ability to manage their own money. We've conducted the widest engagement on income management ever undertaken, and we make no apologies on this side for taking a measured approach to this reform. We want to see appropriate supports, tailored to community needs, for any decisions made on the future of IM to be put in place.

There were a couple of questions, as we know, on income management, but the other question that perplexed me somewhat was the question from Senator Hume in regard to Public Service cuts. We know that Mr Dutton has $350 billion worth of secret cuts, and we know that he vowed to cut overall government spending if elected to government. So, on this side, we're actually calling on the opposition leader to reveal details of his planned cuts. Where are the cuts going to come from? Are going to come from Health? Are they going to come from Education? Are they going to come from DVA? Are they going to come from Defence? Are they going to come from the AFP? TAFE, judging by what the previous speaker said, could well be in the firing line, and, as we on this side know, Mr Dutton certainly doesn't like our fee-free TAFE process.

We do know he wants to cut the Public Service. He probably wants to go back to using all those contractors for his mates, getting all those people back into little contract jobs—not something that we would support on this side. Mr Dutton said he would not detail where the spending cuts would come from until after the federal election, so he's saying, 'Trust me.' What a line—'Trust me; I'm a politician'! Come on! Come out and tell us where these cuts are going to come from. It's not good enough. The people of Australia should know what services are being cut and what services they will not be able to access.

The coalition's plan to wind back the Public Service will result in slower processing of government payments, such as pensions, and, as promised, we've reduced the number of consultants and contractors that were engaged by the former government. But what Mr Dutton hasn't seemed to cotton on to—