The Greens have strongly condemned the Government’s attempt to reintroduce their Bill to drug test income support recipients after it was thoroughly rejected by the last Parliament.

"This is an ideological approach, this is clear as the evidence is so overwhelming that this approach doesn’t work", Australian Greens spokesperson on Family and Community Services Senator Rachel Siewert said.

"The evidence further indicates that this "tough love" approach actually entrenches disadvantage and poverty rather than addressing underlying barriers.

The Government has again relied on cherry-picked data to make misleading claims about the success of the Cashless Debit Card in the Hinkler region.
 
“The Government claims that unemployment has dropped in the QLD trial site but they have used the data for the much larger region of Wide Bay as the basis for this claim,” Australian Greens spokesperson on Family and Community Services Senator Rachel Siewert said.
 
“It’s like saying that unemployment has dropped in Canberra using the figures for the whole of NSW, it’s ridiculous!
 

The Australian Greens have called on the Prime Minister to immediately reject any proposal to expand robo-debt to vulnerable Australians.
 
“The Government is proposing to make savings out of the most vulnerable members of our community, after throwing millions and millions in tax cuts to the wealthy” said Senator Rachel Siewert, Australian Greens spokesperson on Family and Community Services.
 

The Greens have said the Prime Minister’s refusal to meet with Alwyn Doolan and accept the message sticks he carried for 8,500km is out of touch.

The Australian Greens have expressed deep concern on Minister Wyatt’s comments regarding the movement away from a constitutionally enshrined Voice to Parliament.
 

The Australian Greens have today rejected calls to increase Newstart for only those over 55 saying that it is the Government's responsibility to look after all Australians.
 
“People in this country should not be living in poverty, and if you are living on Newstart that is what you are doing”, Australian Greens spokesperson on Family and Community Services Senator Rachel Siewert said.
 
“All people on Newstart are suffering and all need to be helped.
 

The Australian Greens have today labelled the Morrison Government heartless saying they are using nonsense arguments to try and justify their refusal to increase Newstart.

“While we welcome a decrease in the number of unemployed Australians this does not mean that we shouldn’t be raising the rate of Newstart for the people still stuck on the payment” Senator Rachel Siewert, Australian Greens spokesperson on Family and Community Services said.

The Greens have today come out in strong support of the First Nations communities in Western Australia suing the Federal Government in a landmark action over the remote work-for-the-dole scheme, CDP. 
 
“If the Government will do nothing to stop the damage this program is doing to First Nation’s peoples,  then communities will”, Greens spokesperson on First Nations issues Senator Rachel Siewert said. 
 

The Greens have repeated their call for the Government to reform the ParentsNext program and make it voluntary after whistleblowers on ABC's Background Briefing have come out showing how dysfunctional the program is, just one year after it's rollout. 

"The nature of the program and outsourcing services to private for profit providers is a recipe for disaster", Senator Rachel Siewert said.

A Greens motion to send Centrelink’s compliance program including “robo-debt” to a Senate inquiry has been supported by the Senate today.
 
“It’s been more than two years since I chaired the first hearing of the Senate inquiry into the notorious robo-debt program”, Australian Greens spokesperson on Family and Community Services Senator Rachel Siewert said.
 
“We heard a lot of evidence. There were nine hearings across Australia, and what will always stick with me, is that at every hearing, we heard about the impacts of the program.