Shame Labor shame: New powers to cancel Centrelink payments before conviction pass the senate
Today the government has successfully granted police and ministers new powers to cancel welfare payments for people accused of a serious violent or sexual offence, disposing with the presumption of innocence and removing the right to due process – on the simple basis of a person’s income.
Labor defied calls from 116 legal and academic experts plus 64 organisations representing welfare recipients, First Nations people, people with disability, family violence survivors, legal advocates and community services to abandon Schedule 5, which was introduced as a late amendment to an unrelated social security bill on 29 October after the Social Security and Other Legislation Amendment (Technical Changes No. 2) Bill 2025.
The government had hoped this draconian new power could be slipped in unnoticed, waiting until after inquiries into the bill by the Parliamentary Joint Committee on Human Rights, the Senate Community Affairs Legislation Committee and Senate Standing Committee for the Scrutiny of Bills concluded before quietly introducing it as the bill passed the lower house. Since then, dogged questioning from senators including Lidia Thorpe, David Pocock and Penny Allman-Payne has revealed Labor’s careful scheme to hide this change and avoid all scrutiny.
Minister Katy Gallagher told the senate on Monday that the government requested the amendment to be drafted on 24 October, only four days before it passed the house. She falsely implied that ACOSS and Economic Justice Australia had been consulted on Schedule 5 when asked to explain why the government was ignoring so many experts. And today, she let slip that the government had been discussing the amendment since September, while parliamentary inquiries were in progress and there was still ample opportunity for it to be included in committee processes.
Senator Pocock even gave Labor the opportunity to allow for an inquiry to take place after the bill had passed to identify issues that need to be addressed with the new powers, but the government refused even this meagre level of scrutiny. While opposition Senator Kerrynne Liddle raised significant concerns about the lack of proper process and transparency in the second reading debate on 5 November, the Coalition voted with Labor to defeat Senator Pocock’s motion. This extraordinary secrecy and underhanded approach have now been normalised by the two major parties, while every single member of the crossbench voted against it.
Quotes attributable to Antipoverty Centre spokesperson and DSP recipient Kristin O’Connell
Labor have chosen to adopt a Turnbull policy they previously renounced in 2022 that entangles policing and the welfare system, undermining the rule of law and separation of powers. It is a policy that fuels prejudice towards welfare recipients in the precise way that Robodebt Royal Commissioner Catherine Holmes warned politicians against.
These extreme new laws, which involve police and government ministers in individual social security decisions, are an attack on the presumption of innocence, which we are all entitled to – regardless of our income level.
If the government believed it was doing the right thing, it would not do it like this. It would invite feedback from and listen to experts concerned about risks and disproportionate harms that will be felt by First Nations people, disabled people and people in violent homes and relationships.
Instead, Minister Tanya Plibersek chose to accuse these people and organisations of not taking rape and child abuse seriously, as they tried to raise the alarm about unintended consequences of this egregious attack on the rule of law. She should be ashamed of her conduct and, and so should every person who voted for this.
Welfare recipients have a right to be treated equally under the law, and should not be subject to punishment before having access to legal advice for any reason, ever. This heinous new law must be reversed.
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