Organisations calling on the government to abandon Schedule 5

of the Social Security and Other Legislation Amendment (Technical Changes No. 2) Bill 2025

Last updated on 20 November 2025. A list of public statements from the below organisations can be found at the end of this page.

Schedule 5 was added as a late amendment to the Social Security and Other Legislation Amendment (Technical Changes No. 2) Bill 2025, introduced by Minister Plibersek on 28 October 2025. It is unrelated to the original bill and does away with the right to due process for welfare recipients accused of a serious violent or sexual offence by granting police and ministers new powers to stop Centrelink payments before a person has had access to legal assistance or appeared before a court. More background information is available here.

The below civil society organisations representing welfare recipients, First Nations people, survivors of family violence, disabled people and legal advocates support the call for the government to remove Schedule 5 from the bill:

1. ACT Mental Health Consumer Network
2. Anglicare Australia
3. Antipoverty Centre
4. Anti-Poverty Network SA
5. Australian Autism Alliance
6. Australian Council of Social Services
7. Australian Federation of Disability Organisations
8. Australian Unemployed Workers’ Union
9. Basic Income Australia
10. Children and Young People with Disability
11. Community Legal Centres NSW
12. Community Mental Health Australia
13. Community Restorative Centre
14. Consumers of Mental Health WA
15. Council of Single Mothers and their Children
16. Disability Advocacy Network Australia
17. Down Syndrome Australia
18. Economic Justice Australia
19. Everybody’s Home
20. First Peoples Disability Network
21. Health Justice Australia
22. Human Rights Law Centre
23. Inclusion Australia
24. Justice and Equity Centre
25. Justice Reform Initiative
26. Law Council of Australia
27. Mental Health Legal Centre
28. Mental Health Lived Experience Peak Qld
29. National Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Legal Services (NATSILS)
30. National Ethnic Disability Alliance
31. National Mental Health Consumer Alliance
32. NSW Council for Civil Liberties
33. People with Disability Australia
34. Physical Disability Australia
35. Queensland Advocacy for Inclusion
36. Single Mother Families Australia
37. Social Responsibilities Commission of the Anglican Diocese of Perth
38. Tenants’ Union of New South Wales
39. Western NSW Community Legal Centre
40. Wirringa Baiya Aboriginal Women’s Legal Centre
41. Women with Disabilities Australia

To add your organisation to this list or for media enquiries contact media at antipovertycentre.org

Public statements from organisations

• Welfare rights and community sector advocates, 30 October
• Australian Council of Social Services and Economic Justice Australia, 3 November
• Aboriginal legal services, 4 November
• Law Council of Australia, 5 November
• Joint statement from disability peak organisations, 6 November
• Australian Federation of Disability Organisations, 6 November
• Anti-Poverty Network South Australia, 7 November
• Antipoverty Centre, 7 November