Minister Plibersek must apologise for Sky News comments about advocacy groups

Yesterday the social services minister took to Sky News to make abhorrent remarks about civil society organisations representing single mothers, First Nations legal advocates and peak legal and social services bodies. Minister Plibersek is taking advantage of our natural emotional reactions to acts of violence as cover for removing the right to due process for welfare recipients accused of a serious offence, just because they are welfare recipients. The list of organisations she impugned can be found here: Growing calls for Labor to abandon new powers to stop Centrelink payments

We won’t restate her words here because they are truly shameful. The minister knows what she said and she should apologise.

We want to remind the government of Commissioner Holmes’s words in the Robodebt Royal Commission Final Report:

Anti-welfare rhetoric is easy populism, useful for campaign purposes. It is not recent, nor is it confined to one side of politics, as some of the quoted material in this report demonstrates. It may be that the evidence in this Royal Commission has gone some way to changing public perceptions. But largely, those attitudes are set by politicians, who need to abandon for good (in every sense) the narrative of taxpayer versus welfare recipient.

Media contact: email media at antipovertycentre.org or call/message 0413 261 362 via Signal
Quote tweet from @maximumwelfare: "Here is the list of organisations the Social Services Minister has suggested oppose her unlawful amendments because they don't take rape or murder or child abuse seriously. Most of these are directly involved in stakeholder engagement with her office." The quoted tweet from @antipovertycent says: "We say again: If you think you're doing the right thing, you don't do it like this. You don't lash out, run from even the smallest amount of public pressure or seek to hide this amendment in an unrelated bill and reject all parliamentary scrutiny." The list of organisations is Anglicare Australia, Antipoverty Centre, Anti-Poverty Network SA, Australian Autism Alliance, ACOSS, Australian Federation of Disability Organisations, AUWU, Basic Income Australia, Children & Young People with Disability, Community Mental Health Australia, Community Restorative Centre, Consumers of Mental Health WA, Council of Single Mothers & their Children, Disability Advocacy Network Australia, Down Syndrome Australia, Economic Justice Australia, Everybody’s Home, First Peoples Disability Network, Inclusion Australia, Justice & Equity Centre, Law Council of Australia, Mental Health Lived Experience Peak Qld, NATSILS, National Ethnic Disability Alliance, National Mental Health Consumer Alliance, NSW Council for Civil Liberties, People with Disability Australia, Physical Disability Australia, Queensland Advocacy for Inclusion, Single Mother Families Australia, Wirringa Baiya Aboriginal Women’s Legal Centre, Women with Disabilities Australia.

Image source: x.com/maximumwelfare/status/1986278847508357203

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