As at 10 October 2025, there were 32,556 on income management (IM): - 9,598 on old IM (BasicsCard) and 22,958 on enhanced IM (SmartCard) - 6.7% (2,221) were voluntary, the rest under compulsory measures. - 82% (26,599) on IM identify as Indigenous. www.aph.gov.au/api/qon/down...

Today @tanyaplibersekmp.bsky.social succeeded in establishing new powers to cancel Centrelink payments before conviction. Thanks @senatorthorpe.bsky.social @andrewwilkiemp.bsky.social @davidpocock.bsky.social @pennyallmanpayne.com for trying to stop this dangerous law.

It's staggeringly unlikely this stupid power will ever be used. Congratulations to the Albanese Government and @tanyaplibersekmp.bsky.social for embarrassing themselves, for insulting the welfare and legal sectors, and wasting everyone's time for no public or political benefit whatsoever.

So Labor and the Liberals teamed up to pass legislation to give police the power to recommend cancellation of Centrelink payments of people who have not been found guilty of a crime by a court of law. It’s discriminatory financial punishment of people in poverty who are already over-policed

Earlier, @davidpocock.bsky.social calls out Plibersek for saying critics of the amendment (to cut ppl's welfare before they're guilty) "are on the side of rapists & murderers" "What a way to make laws: to rush something through, point the finger at those who dare question these provisions"

Here, again, is the human cost of the government's unlawful system of payment suspensions Constant cycles of punishment that you cannot escape - even when you're in hospital www.kingaroy.org/invisible-ca...

Senator Thorpe criticises the government for ignoring these 100+ experts and groups to sneak the amendment through "without any scrutiny" "I'd be putting my head down in shame too, Minister"

New: 100+ legal experts, welfare groups & academics demand the Minister bin an amendment, allowing police to cancel welfare payments for people who have not been found guilty of any crime @tanyaplibersekmp.bsky.social is trying to ram this amendment through today Read more: archive.is/UHu9J

"Our national debate pretends as though all jobseekers can simply try harder and land a job. It is an argument that wilfully ignores the reality of a labour market where entry-level jobs have nearly collapsed." Kasy Chambers on @thepointau.bsky.social today

In this country the Anglican peak body argues for freedom from the poorhouse and the Catholics argue in favour of the dignity of sorting buttons out the back of Vinnies in 'return' for what is your entitlement

"Australia needs a fundamentally different model based on voluntary participation" This, from Anglicare's new report, should be the baseline for all reform proposals to employment services: Remove all compulsion & punishment - provide actual support www.anglicare.asn.au/research-adv...

This 🧵. "a masterclass of maladministration, contempt for the law, ideological malice - and plain stupidity ...The department's focus on behavioural change, via mutual obligation punishments, is criminally deranged." Labor is pursuing LNP's pointless cruelty with gusto. Great work from Jeremy.

'Mutual obligations' are not mutual, but in adopting the Targeted Compliance Framework the Australian Government chose to abandon their legal obligations entirely. This system harms, creates liability daily and it must cease. Minister can order it now, or be ordered to later in court.

The moral repugnance of conditional unemployment benefits had been with us for a very long time. Here however is conclusive evidence of unlawful practices to keep punishing those receiving benefits. This is after a RC into #RoboDebt. Breathtakingly savage. #Auspol #ALP

NEW: I have obtained, under FOI, a secret Department report that initially recommended the Targeted Compliance Framework - aka, the unlawful "mutual obligations" scheme It reveals that, like Robodebt, they recklessly built this thing to punish "entitled" frauds who never existed

Why did DEWR outsource "independent" assurance, giving Deloitte access to its own AI tools to spit out slop? Because all it ever wanted from Deloitte was justification to keep MOs punishments going I have FOIed a bunch of Ministerial briefings & the theme is the same: We must keep the system on

Why did DEWR outsource "independent" assurance, giving Deloitte access to its own AI tools to spit out slop? Because all it ever wanted from Deloitte was justification to keep MOs punishments going I have FOIed a bunch of Ministerial briefings & the theme is the same: We must keep the system on

Another lingering question I have about all this: why did Deloitte even have access to the Department's AI tools - when it was meant to be doing "independent" assurance of the unlawful mutual obligations system?

Deloitte caught in false claim it owned up to AI in tainted report. It told finance it had explained the cause of errors to DEWR. False - initially it used the same snow job it tried on the media "oh just some errors in citation". www.afr.com//politics/de...

go ahead, write another take about what australia can learn from mamdani. claim all the ALP needs to do is magically get more bold. call on the left to do better video content. get paranoid that the rise of mamdani could also upend the establishment here. conflate left populism with right populism

This decision last week flew under the radar - case could have significant ramifications for Centrelink debt decisions

labor backbencher putting up their hand in the caucus room to ask for permission to go to the toilet

Many of the groups calling on @tanyaplibersekmp.bsky.social to abandon her plan to involve police & ministers in cancelling Centrelink payments for someone accused of a serious offence work directly with people affected by family violence. To suggest they don’t take it seriously is vile. Apologise.

A new FOI into the Deloitte nonsense has revealed: -there were MORE AI errors in the Deloitte report than previously admitted -DEWR knew about this for weeks & did nothing -DEWR's Secretary lied in Estimates, when saying Deloitte never apologised to her archive.is/F8qtG#select...

#BREAKING 🚨 FOI documents show AI-tainted Deloitte report was 'much worse' than previously thought (by YOU?) or disclosed. It appears DEWR Secretary Natalie James may have misled the Senate in relation to the conduct of her previous employer. ✍️ @paulkarp.bsky.social www.afr.com/politics/ai-...

Huge result for now. Rapid response starting last Thursday to establish a united front of community and civil society organisations. Gonna be much tougher for them to get this through from here 👍

Got through to the parliamentary office. That was the single rudest staffer I have ever spoken to when called a rep. Immediately patronising, condescending, talked over me, zero validation of any of my concerns, and then hung up on me after I asked how they were going with increasing jobseeker.

So, @tanyaplibersekmp.bsky.social lost the public argument on this wretched amendment, allowing police to cancel Centrelink payments for ppl who have not been found guilty So she went on Sky News to defame legal, disability, & community advocates as well as Senator Thorpe revolting stuff

I'm boring & repetitive but The Emperor Has No Clothes: 'The CPSU has said Australia’s employment services system are “a complete failure”'; they're not. They generate incomes (profits) for private owners. That's a success. It's both the intent and effect of privatisation.

As well as the Law Council of Australia, more disability peak bodies have come out to oppose the sudden introduction of new powers for police & ministers to cancel social security for people accused of a serious offence.

“In the wake of robodebt @albomp.bsky.social promised accountability, compassion & reform... If Labor wants to restore trust, it must scrap this amendment. Welfare policy should be grounded in fairness... it should never, ever be used as a proxy for criminal justice.” @zoewundenberg.bsky.social

Spoke to @australia.theguardian.com about what DEWR's job numbers continue to quietly reveal: that the main purpose of employment services is to outsource billions of dollars to punish people, rather than help them into meaningful opportunities www.theguardian.com/business/202...

another utter failure of private delivery of public services “It’s hard to think of another government-funded industry allowed to operate in this way … to continue soaking up so much public money and to spit out so few results.” @jeremypoxon.bsky.social www.theguardian.com/business/202...

This Bill is down for debate in the Senate this week. Includes income apportionment measures which affect millions of people plus a new measure allowing a Minister to cancel payments to the subject of an outstanding arrest warrant for serious violent or sexual offences www.aph.gov.au/Parliamentar...

Good intentions won't save us on this slippery slope www.thenewdaily.com.au/news/politic...

"PM Albanese’s culture of secrecy, in three charts" Damning work by @skyelark.bsky.social on this govt's secrecy #OffTheCharts #ThePoint thepoint.com.au/off-the-char...

New analysis from @antipovertycentre.org shows that five payment suspensions are being inflicted every minute, by the Mutual Obligations system www.theguardian.com/australia-ne...

ATO is paying private debt collector $42m to pursue taxpayers, including welfare recipients www.theguardian.com/australia-ne... cc. @maximumwelfare.bsky.social @jeremypoxon.bsky.social

Parl Library has updated the Digest for the Social Security Technical Changes No. 2 Bill to include analysis of the new measure allowing Home Affairs Minister to stop payments to persons subject to an outstanding warrant for a serious violent or sexual offence: parlinfo.aph.gov.au/parlInfo/dow...

a crumb of media coverage, as a treat www.sbs.com.au/news/article...

DEWR's annual report was tabled yesterday. Let's have a read: $1.2b was spent on Workforce Australia (employment services) last year You'll be shocked to see its again failed it's basic performance measure to put people into jobs www.aph.gov.au/Parliamentar...

causing poverty - a primary outcome of criminal law - does not support victims of sexual violence. Expanding police powers has never in the history of patriarchy reduced, halted, nor prevented sexual violence. Increasing inequality in fact strongly correlates with higher rates of violence.

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This has been quickly rammed through by the government, and deserves media coverage The government is amending legislation to allow them to cancel welfare payments of people who are merely ACCUSED of a crime. Deeply authoritarian and absolutely insane to administer

Among the amendments, the government slipped in one which is, totally unrelated to this bill, which would give police the power to recommend the suspension or cancellation of a person’s Centrelink benefits, before they are convicted. live.thepoint.com.au/2025/10/the-...

I'm sorry to inform the Australian Government that neither of these are actually sufficient to cancel a Centrelink payment under social security law. This will not change regardless of how many shit grandstanding amendments you make to the social security law.

This has been quickly rammed through by the government, and deserves media coverage The government is amending legislation to allow them to cancel welfare payments of people who are merely ACCUSED of a crime. Deeply authoritarian and absolutely insane to administer

"I had actually been diagnosed with malnutrition and scurvy. I know the outcome of not buying the things I need for my health, but I also know that sometimes I don't have a choice" - @artistaffame.bsky.social Watch the full segment here: www.youtube.com/watch?v=i6Xc...

New literature review from the Department of the Prime Minister and Cabinet says the government is "manifesting" stigma via the mutual obligations system 🤷 www.pmc.gov.au/news/stigma-...

Inarguable and unfortunately, a rarely made point. The 'mutual' part of the the obligations doesn't seem to be stacking up much of late. Successive #Auspol govts consistently stealing entitlements from its own citizens