Labor is deeply disappointed with Minister Scullion’s response to the Senate Inquiry into the Community Development Program (CDP). Labor secured the Inquiry into the CDP in March after communities across the Northern Territory and Western Australia told us that they were trapped in a cycle of poverty, waiting on the end of a phone line for hours and then giving up, feeling hopeless and still struggling with an infuriating bureaucratic reporting process. 

The Senate inquiry report released today into the fraught Community Development Program (CDP) calls for a total overhaul of the unfair CDP system.The report confirms what Labor and First Nations people, organisations and communities have been saying since the CDP was implemented in July 2015 – that the current CDP is not working. 

ExxonMobil must answer to new allegations claiming it is engaging in tax avoidance and aggressive tax minimisation practices. Parliament, this week, granted the Senate Economics References Committee an extension on the Corporate Tax Avoidance Inquiry to 30 May 2018.

On 27th November 2017, I had the honour of speaking in favour of the Marriage Amendment (Definition and Religious Freedoms) Bill 2017 to make marriage equality a reality in Australia.

Today, Australia voted for equality with the marriage equality postal survey returning a overwhelming victory!

Minister for Indigenous Affairs, Nigel Scullion needs to face the reality that the CDP is harming, not helping communities. Minister Scullion used a report from the Australian National Audit Office (ANAO) into the Community Development Programme (CDP) to justify the Government’s failed CDP Program.

Good morning, I wanted to make few remarks about Senate Estimates yesterday, and just talk a little bit about what we learned. The government’s hostility to working people, to their representatives, to their workplace conditions was all on display yesterday with the appearance of the Australian Public Service Commissioner, Mr John Lloyd.

The Community Development Program (CDP) is failing vulnerable individuals and communities, a Senate committee has been told during a visit to Palm Island and Townsville. The Senate Finance and Public Administration Committee is conducting an inquiry into the operation of the CDP.

I conclude two things. The first is that the government really hasn’t thought this through and when we’re in the middle of a $122 million exercise, to be doing contingency planning that commenced just a week ago, around how you might find a $122 million extra in your budget, it’s kind of terrifying. That is not how government is supposed to be run and it suggests an extremely chaotic process.