Fugitives wanted for some of the most serious crimes and sexual offences could soon be stripped of their welfare payments.<\/p>\n
Labor quietly tacked on an amendment to a separate social security bill last week, weeks after the proposed changes were examined by a Senate committee.<\/p>\n
The bill intends to deliver compensation to people slapped with unlawful welfare debts, but the new amendment would also grant the minister power to stop welfare payments for people “subject to outstanding arrest warrants for serious offences”.<\/p>\n
The changes would apply to social security payments and concession cards, family assistance payments and paid parental leave.<\/p>\n
The amendment does not apply to childcare subsidies. Family tax benefits can be transferred to another eligible guardian.<\/p>\n
It has been hailed by police as a “powerful tool”, but slammed by social services organisations and independent senators as a “breach of natural justice”.<\/p>\n
Currently, there is no mechanism for the government or law enforcement to block income support payments when there is a warrant for someone’s arrest, after an earlier push by the Coalition to enact similar laws did not get off the ground.<\/p>\n
Such powers could apply to fugitives like Dezi Freeman, who is yet to be apprehended after shooting two police officers in rural Victoria.<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
Fugitives like Dezi Freeman would have welfare payments cut off under new powers proposed for police. (Supplied)<\/p>\n
The amendment will allow police to request that the home affairs minister to issue a notice to the minister for social services, requiring welfare payments to be ceased.<\/p>\n
Fears innocent people will have ‘lifeline’ payments axed<\/p>\n
But the Australian Council of Social Services (ACOSS) fears the power could be misused and strip innocent people of “lifeline” welfare payments.<\/p>\n
“We really should not be involving police or the home affairs minister in determining someone’s entitlement to social security, particularly where there has been no conviction before they’ve gone before a court,” ACOSS program director of social security Charmaine Crowe said.<\/p>\n
“We have to avoid a situation where we could see innocent people lose their entitlement to social security.”<\/p>\n
Ms Crowe said it could also have flow-on effects for dependents, who rely on their relative or carers’ welfare payments to live.<\/p>\n
Independent senator Lidia Thorpe, who will attempt to remove the amendment when it is debated in the Senate this week, said people should be treated as innocent until proven guilty.<\/p>\n
“Labor is trying to push through dodgy additions to the social security legislation that will see children going hungry,” Senator Thorpe said.<\/p>\n
“This last-minute inclusion has not been scrutinised by the House of Reps, the Senate, or the human rights committee, which I sit on.”<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
Lidia Thorpe will attempt to remove the proposed powers from the government’s bill. (ABC News: Ian Cutmore)<\/p>\n
The Greens will also oppose the amendment.<\/p>\n
Crossbench MP Andrew Wilkie labelled the move “sneaky, sly” and “wrong”.<\/p>\n
“It’s a fundamental breach of natural justice. Until someone has been convicted in a court and found guilty, they are found innocent,” he said.<\/p>\n
“The whole notion of taking income support off anyone in the community simply because they are accused of something is a fundamental breach of natural justice \u2014 it is wrong.”<\/p>\n
Rare but powerful tool, police say<\/p>\n
But police have welcomed the amendments, and said it would be a rarely used but powerful tool.<\/p>\n
“We’re talking about the last line of defence,” said Scott Weber, the chief executive of the Police Federation of Australia.<\/p>\n
“This is in the absolute extreme of matters, and it’ll be utilised by the home affairs minister and police, and we definitely have a quite comprehensive brief of evidence before we utilise this, so I don’t think anyone who has been accused will be wrongly accused.<\/p>\n
“It will be case-by-case, I think it will be limited use, but when it is used, it will be an extremely powerful tool for police to try and stop these offenders.”<\/p><\/blockquote>\n
Mr Weber said restricting payments to those accused of serious offences could help to flush them out.<\/p>\n
“It’s very difficult to restrict people’s behaviour if we can’t find them or they’re actually in hiding,” he said.<\/p>\n
“This gives us another avenue for a rapid response if we can’t actually speak to or find that offender.”<\/p>\n
A spokesperson for the Minister for Social Services, Tanya Plibersek, said dependents would be considered when a decision was being made to cancel welfare payments.<\/p>\n
“If someone is charged with a serious offence like murder, terrorism, or child sexual abuse and is on the run, they should not continue receiving a payment from the government.”<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Fugitives wanted for some of the most serious crimes and sexual offences could soon be stripped of their…\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":355565,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[4740,173544,56183,50,7207,173543,4748],"class_list":{"0":"post-355564","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-news","8":"tag-australia","9":"tag-australian-council-of-social-services","10":"tag-fugitive","11":"tag-news","12":"tag-police","13":"tag-police-federation-of-australia","14":"tag-welfare"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@us\/115492793487096064","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/355564","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=355564"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/355564\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/355565"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=355564"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=355564"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=355564"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}