At 11.35pm last night the first media began to filter a story that the card trials in Ceduna and Kununurra would be permanent and a national roll out was expected to be in place by June/July 2017 ( source: The Australian)
As people by now know, the trial of forced income management cards in Ceduna was scheduled to end today, the 14th March. Indeed the legislation clearly states this end date, and no new legislation has been sent to the senate or House of Representatives for debate at this time.
The current trial legislation does contain a caveat that extends the duration of the entire trialing process outside these current trial regions until 2018, however it was not stated in the current legislation that existing trial locations could be extended in themselves.
We have been on the phones overnight with some very upset and desperate people forced onto the trial program, and again since the early hours today trying to contact Mr Tudge, and so far we have been sent to the Indue hotline number twice, redirected to Mr Porters office twice, brushed off and told to talk to ‘the government’ by ALP politicians who seem very keen now to embrace their opposition status, without actually opposing anything, and now, an Alan Tudge office representative has stated in response to our questions, that ‘new legislation’ has been drawn up’ that apparently covers the continuance and permanency of the card.
This ” new” Legislation somehow does not appear anywhere on gov_doc source sites and to our knowledge no new legislation has been debated in parliament over the past months – and we have been watching very closely. When we questioned the existence of this legislation, we were referred to Indue LTD, a private corporation, to address matters of government legislation and Australian social welfare governance.
According to a senior ALP MPs office, It does appear to them that the Minister is using an instrument within the existing legislation to avoid a Senate decision on trial extensions, we have scoured this legislation with a fine tooth comb several times however, and we see no such a ‘device’ existent in the current legislation. It was also confirmed by the same office, that the LNP will still need to go through legislative process and senate/parliament after June 2018 , and before any national roll out decision can begin to be made.
A Centerlink senior management contact has stated they have and I quote ” no clue” what legislation is in play or not at this time.
It appears to us at this time, that the decisions announced via media today by Mr Tudge are based yet again on flawed data and concocted “results” and ancedotal eveidence taken from those who stand to make the most gain ie: Mayor Alan Sutor and similarly financially invested others who are beneficiaries of over 8.5 million in social funding external to the 1 million offered via wrap around serivces.
Key points:
– We hold that the announcement of this decision to extend the trial and to the effect that forced income management will be made a permanent feature of the Social Security payments system is unjust and has been abusive to those in the trial regions who have been given NO information whatsoever to date over matters that pertain to their futures.
– We hold until further notice, that these decisions/statements announced today by Mr Alan Tudge are NOT covered by existing legislation and so, may be baseless in law. We urge those able to, to return their Indue LTD cards TODAY and demand they be returned to normal benefits processing and payments systems.
– After a brief examination of The Orima First Wave report due to be released today, we can state categorically it appears to mirror almost word for word the earlier release of the Ceduna Progress Report released October 2016. This First Wave report appears to be a more polished though equally as fact-vagrant and anecdotal evidence based preview of a deeply troubled program that again, reduced the outcomes for and to the people forced onto the trial, to a mere two pages.
– In the section on Crime Safety and Security (p29 on in initial conditions report) the Orima First Wave report uses the same anecdotal rather than statistical data as was used on the Progress Report Oct 2016 with the addiction of significantly specious commentaryregarding peoples sudden “mistrust of SA police data”.
– The Orima First Wave report ignores entirely the five card related suicide deaths: 2 in Ceduna and 3 in Kununurra, and makes no mention of the suicide rate or at risk ratios overall.
– The Orima First Wave again uses incorrect SUU admissions and MAP results we have already proven false if not intentionally fraudulent in the Oct 16 Progress Report response video on our page.
– Neither, Kevin Donnellan (Minister Porter) 0408 491 956 Rachelle Miller (Minister Tudge) 0475 804 886 have decided to make themselves available today for any comment or feedback. The latter’s lack of concern is shocking.
We remind people that the date set for purchase/sale of Indue LTD payments systems by Stargroup ( A News Limited Subsidiary) was the 13th of March – just one day before trial legislation ended.
Recently we shared information regarding Stargroup/Indue in a page release here: https://www.facebook.com/SAYNOSEVEN/posts/336015026793318
If you would like to join us in the fight against forced income management please join us here: https://www.facebook.com/SAYNOSEVEN/
The Say NO Seven
