2017-09-04
News that the Mayor for Logan travelled to Canberra on Monday to request that the Federal Government suspend drug testing trials in the region, and that request has been refused, shows supreme arrogance by both the Minister for Human Services and the Minister for Social Services.
“There has been such limited community consultation that not even the Mayor for Logan knew that the Government would be trialling drug testing of income support recipients in his region until he saw it in the media”, Australian Greens Senator Rachel Siewert said today.
“Now the Mayor has come up to Canberra to ask both Ministers to suspend a trial in his community and he has been met with a flat no from both Minister Porter and Minister Tudge. This is supremely arrogant and shows the Ministers don't care about community consultation or views.
“Mayor Smith has justifiable concerns that the trials will increase stigma in the community and he is right to be outraged about the lack of consultation. He should have been asked about it before the trial site was announced, it shouldn’t have got to this.
“During the inquiry into drug testing it became obvious that there was little to no proper consultation on the measure, nor could the Department confirm they had checked in with state and local government about announcing the trial sites in each area.
“This further confirms that drug testing income support recipients is an ideological measure and the Federal Government does not care about consulting with community to work towards genuinely positive outcomes”.