2021-07-02
Concerns about the vaccine rollout and quarantine, scrutinizing a budget that will inevitably increase the wealth gap and disturbed by the Government’s attempts to prevent cross bench members moving formal motions and clamp down on charities
By Senator Rachel Siewert
It’s hard to believe I wrote to you all in April as we went into a lockdown and here we are again.
As always I hope everyone has kept safe and is doing ok. I know how frustrating it is when we seem to be seeing some end in sight but we have such a failure of Federal leadership on quarantine and the vaccine rollout resulting in most of Australia being back in lock down or with restrictions. It’s shocking the way the Prime Minister keeps shifting the blame to individuals and isn't taking any responsibility for the shambles the vaccine rollout continues to be.
I was fortunate to attend the Kimberley Women’s roundtable in Broome in May. It was wonderful to be included in this roundtable and hear about the work of First Nations women in the Kimberley and to see their plans for future being developed. Plus it’s always great to get up to beautiful Broome!
May was filled up with the Budget and then two weeks of Budget Estimates. Some were calling it an election budget because there weren’t the usual really blatant nasties but as usual people on the lowest incomes were left behind and of course the Government chose to give handouts to billionaires and big corporations rather than invest in people.
Instead of addressing growing poverty in our communities, the Government has decided to spend $62 billion a year in handouts to big corporations and billionaires, $15 billion to prop-up coal, oil and gas, $8.5 billion in tax rorts for property investors with no new funding for public and community housing, $213 million on more compliance measures for people on income support and $42 million to further entrench the Cashless Debit Card.
We spent a lot of time at Budget Estimates grilling the department on the shambles of the vaccine rollout and crisis in aged care. We found out at Estimates that the Government isn't even tracking how many aged care workers have been vaccinated.
We have just arrived back from a hectic two weeks in Canberra. I was absolutely livid when the Government and ALP ganged up to make changes to Senate procedure meaning that the cross bench can no longer move formal motions. Motions are a key part of how we make change, put pressure on the major parties and raise important issues. We would not have a disability royal commission, banking royal commission or my private members bill on opal fuel if it wasn't for motions.
I can’t even count how many Newstart and Jobseeker motions I have moved and which after many years resulted in the ALP finally supporting an increase to the Jobseeker payment which they were previously reluctant to support and go on record. Motions make a difference and are an important campaign tool and the two major parties have once again used their numbers to water down democracy and accountability.
At the moment the Government is proposing to amend regulations that will significantly impact the ability of charities to carry out their vital work advocating for the most vulnerable in our community. Under proposed changes, a charity could lose its charities status if the Australian Charities and Not-for-profits Commission (ACNC) Commissioner decides they may ‘potentially undertake unlawful activities’. This is an intimidation tactic to silence not-for-profits from taking action on incredibly important issues such as the climate crisis and social justice.
It’s shameful that the Government is targeting charities and not-for-profits who are working to improve the lives of all Australians and we will keep working with the sector to stop these terrible changes.
With the community pressure we managed to stop the Government rushing through the Streamlined Participation Requirements Bill last week. The Government has a habit of trying to rush through a lot of legislation at the last minute before we go on Parliamentary sitting breaks and the June sitting weeks before the winter break were not different.
This bill was particularly nasty as it made savings out of people looking for work and impacted hundreds of thousands of people on income support, delaying people’s payments and ‘saving’ the Government $191 million over a 12 month period, meaning that on average people on JobSeeker would lose $457 and those on Youth Allowance $346.
We were given very little time to scrutinise this bill and the Government just wanted to get it through. Fortunately there was enough pressure to stop them rushing this cruel and complex bill through and we will keep campaigning against it and calling on the crossbench and ALP to oppose it in the Senate.
Thanks to Sophie Greer for her work as State Director. I look forward to working with her in her new role in Jordon’s office. And a big welcome to Liberty Cramer, our newly appointed State Director.
Stay safe and look after yourselves.
Header photo: Meeting with UNICEF Youth Ambassadors at Parliament