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

People voted for change in this election. So people on income support are understandably devastated and angry that the new, supposedly progressive Labor government is rolling out the previous Liberal government's broken and punitive employment services system, Workforce Australia. Under this new system, people on income support have to complete enough activities to accrue 100 points a month or have their payments cut off. They also have to navigate a new, confusing, inaccessible online platform that has already had technical difficulty after technical difficulty. Despite calls from welfare advocates and recipients, the government rushed the implementation of Workforce Australia, and it has been causing harm since day one. Users of the new platform have said things like: 'this whole experience is very stressful for an old person', 'it is damaging my mental health more' and, 'I am, frankly, terrified that this will lead to myself and others being penalised for not participating correctly in a system that we know literally nothing about.'

Community groups, advocates, welfare recipients and the Greens have been calling for a minimum three-month pause to payment cut-offs while people attempt to navigate this new, confusing system. But later this week the government's measly 30-day suspension ends, and people risk losing their payments while food costs are massively high and millions of people on Jobseeker, DSP, youth allowance and the age pension are struggling to stretch a dollar far enough to survive.

This week I will proudly present to the Senate a petition of more than 31,450 people are calling on the government to prevent another robodebt-like disaster by suspending Workforce Australia payment cut-offs for three months. I urge the government to listen to these voices and take immediate action to ensure that no-one loses their income support payments during this cost-of-living crisis.