Social Security and Other Legislation Amendment (Technical Changes No. 2) Bill 2025

Senator ALLMAN-PAYNE (Queensland) (11:13): People should be under no illusion as to what is happening here. We've just been told that this came up in September. Senator Gallagher: No.

I said that two days ago. I've been clear. Senator ALLMAN-PAYNE: The government has told us, over the course of the debate on this bill, that this came up as an issue in September.

We have had multiple weeks of either Senate sittings or time that could have been devoted to an inquiry into schedule 5 since that time. If the government realised in September, but before the original inquiry into this bill was to take place, that it needed to insert this schedule, it could have sought to send that off to an additional hearing. But that wasn't done.

Senator Gallagher: That is not what I said. Don't verbal me! Senator ALLMAN-PAYNE: The government also had the choice not to put schedule 5 in this bill and to put it in a separate bill that could have had an urgent inquiry, because that happens in this place all the time.

Things come in to the parliament urgently, and, on a Friday morning after a sitting week, there's an urgent hearing, or there's a hearing at 8 am before the day starts, to inquire into something that deserves scrutiny. So the suggestion by the government that there was no time to give adequate scrutiny to schedule 5 is a furphy. It's convenient.

Schedule 5 offends the rule of law. We have been told that by numerous legal experts and the Law Council of Australia. Schedule 5 infringes on people's rights.

I'm sorry, but I don't think the police telling you that they need this thing is sufficient. Senator Gallagher: That is not what I said. Don't verbal me!

Senator ALLMAN-PAYNE: We got told during this debate that organisations that are critical of schedule 5 were told it was happening, and now that it is happening—and it will happen, because Labor, who loves to carry on when the Greens vote with the coalition, is about to vote with the coalition on a bill that contains provisions that offend the rule of law and trample on people's human rights, without having any inquiry or scrutiny.

That is a fact. You should be ashamed of yourselves. What is the point of Labor?

What are you for? You are definitely not who you used to be, and that is on full display in this bill. It is a typical example of slotting in something that is semi-good along with something that is really egregiously appalling and hoping that it'll get through.

Make no mistake, the Greens will be voting against this bill. We will stand against trampling on people's human rights and we will stand against passing laws that infringe the rule of law. I would implore the coalition to think very seriously about whether they want to support a bill that does those things and was not subject to sufficient scrutiny.

I'll leave it there.