The Government’s proposal to drug test income support recipients in trial areas has been thoroughly rejected by medical experts for the third time today.
 
“There was a clear sense of frustration at the Senate inquiry hearing today from the medical professionals who are not being listened to and a number of references to the fact that the Government continues to doggedly pursue this policy despite strong evidence that it will not work, Senator Rachel Siewert, Australian Greens spokesperson on Family and Community Services said today.
 

The Greens have questioned why the Government has only released partial compliance data on the Jobactive Targeted Compliance Framework saying that it indicates that they have something to hide.
 
“The Minister has released an abysmal report on Jobactive that means it’s basically impossible to figure out what is going on with the Jobactive program and the demerit point system of the Targeted Compliance Framework", said Senator Rachel Siewert, Greens spokesperson on Family and Community services. 
 

The Senate Community Affairs Legislation Committee have heard of a stunning lack of consultation with key stakeholders in the NT on the expansion of the Cashless Debit Card in the Northern Territory.

“The issues that the Government is trying to address through compulsory income management were meant to have been “fixed”  through the controversial Intervention over a decade ago”, Senator Rachel Siewert, Greens spokesperson on First Nations issues said.

The Greens have condemned the Government and Senator Hanson’s attempts to stitch up an inquiry into the Family Law system saying they have multiple concerns about the inquiry.
 
“There is no doubt that the family law system has serious problems which need addressing, however this committee is not fit for the task” said Senator Mckim, Australian Greens spokesperson on Attorney General
 
“This is clearly a political stitch up between the Government and One Nation and the Greens have no confidence in the committee as currently constituted to do the job.
 

The senate has supported a Greens motion calling for the Government to provide data on jobactive compliance to the senate by tomorrow.
 
“Last Friday the Government provided piecemeal jobactive compliance data to selected media outlets, in their continuing campaign to demonise people on income support, however this data was not made publicly available via the Department’s website or on request” said Senator Siewert, Australian Greens spokesperson on Family and Community Services.

The Greens have today called for the Government to stop demonising income support recipients to detract from the overwhelming community support for an increase to Newstart
 
“The senate inquiry into Jobactive found that the program is not fit for purpose, yet this Government is using data from the flawed Targeted Compliance Framework from that system to support their ideological narrative”, Australian Greens spokesperson on Family and Community Services Senator Rachel Siewert said.
 

The Senate has again supported a Greens motion calling on the Government to urgently increase Newstart.
 
“Yesterday my urgency motion that the low rate of Newstart is making people sick was supported by the Senate and my motion today calling for an increase was also supported.
 
“This follows my motion in July calling for an immediate raise to Newstart which was the first time the senate had voted to support an increase in Newstart.
 
“This Government needs to listen to the community and the Senate.
 

The Greens said today that Bupa’s failures in its aged care facilities is a warning about what can happen when large multinational businesses take on provision of a large proportion of social services.
 
“We now have a large percentage of our aged care services in this country at risk.
 
“This is a failure of the system of oversight and the Government have failed to properly regulate providers and is yet another multinational company getting away with behaving badly in Australia.
 

The Greens are calling on the Parliament to reject the Government’s attempt to introduce the Cashless Debit Card to the Northern Territory with legislation introduced into the House today.
 
“The Intervention and income management was a failure that caused harm to communities in the NT, and did not meet its objectives”, Australian Greens spokesperson on First Nations issues Senator Rachel Siewert said today.
 

The Senate has today passed a motion acknowledging World Suicide Prevention Day, urging all Australians to help shine a light on suicide prevention.

“The statistics show us that suicide is getting worse in Australia and so we must keep “shining a spotlight” on this issue.”, Australians Greens spokesperson on Mental Health Senator Rachel Siewert said.