The Federal Government must abandon plans to use social security as a policing tool by allowing the Home Affairs Minister to cancel someone's social security payment if there is a warrant out for their arrest for a serious crime, ACOSS and EJA said today. Allowing social security to become a police tool is a dangerous step in the wrong direction.
Joint statement attributable to ACOSS CEO Cassandra Goldie and EJA CEO Kate Allingham
The Government's schedule 5 amendment to the Social Security and Other Legislative Amendments (Technical Change No 2) Bill would introduce the power for the Home Affairs Minister to cancel someone's social security payment if there is a warrant out for their arrest for a serious crime.
The bill includes some positive reforms to debt waivers, which are long overdue and which we support. However, this last-minute amendment was introduced last week by the government, after the inquiries into the legislation had concluded, and so did not receive the proper scrutiny by Parliament.
Our major concern with this amendment is that it would allow a government to cancel someone's payment based on advice from a senior person in the police, without a conviction. This could see innocent people have their social security payment cancelled.
Police should not have any involvement in determining someone's social security entitlement, and it is particularly concerning that this amendment would allow this over-reach to occur even in the absence of proper judicial process.
Given the history of social security being used as a punitive tool in this country, this rushed addition to the legislation sets a dangerous new precedent. We are also concerned that communities that are traditionally targeted by police could be further disadvantaged by this amendment.
By the nature of the payments included in this amendment, such as family assistance payments, we also know children will be involved in these decisions. As far as we can tell, there is no appeal mechanism, and so the impacts this legislation will have on families may not be resolved once the written notice has been issued.
When the Turnbull Government proposed a similar measure in the 2018/19 budget, we opposed it. We equally oppose this amendment.
We urge the Federal Government to abandon Schedule 5 of the bill.
