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. 

The ABS today cast doubt on suggestions that the survey could proceed if the High Court decided against the Government.

The Senate inquiry into the Community Development Program (CDP) has heard from NGOs, community members, Indigenous leaders and employment providers that they were not consulted by the Minister for Indigenous Affair about the CDP.

All Australians are urged to check their enrolment before midnight tonight following concerning reports the AEC will not be able to complete automatic enrolments in time for the marriage equality postal survey.

Malcolm Turnbull: “I have great faith that the Australian people, in that plebiscite, as they have in one contentious issue after another for the whole time this Commonwealth has been one, will be able to debate this issue in a sensible, civil and intelligent manner.”

The Chair of the Senate inquiry into the postal survey, Senator McAllister, has called on Australians to report offensive campaign material. The Senate Finance and Public Administration Committee has been given wide ranging powers to inquire into the conduct of the postal survey.

The ABS confirmed today that it still hadn’t worked out how to survey remote and overseas voters, but that the methods it was contemplating included SMS. The ABS’s evidence before a hearing of the Senate Finance and Public Administration Committee demonstrated how the government’s rushed process was threatening the integrity of their marriage equality ‘postal survey’.

Labor welcomes the Senate’s support for an inquiry by the Finance and Public Administration Committee into the government’s digital transformation program. The government’s spending on digital transformation and ICT has doubled since it came to office. 

Today Labor is calling on the Senate to set up an inquiry into the Turnbull Government’s beleaguered digital transformation efforts. During its time in government, the Coalition has doubled its digital spend to $10 billion but witnessed digital project after digital project run into trouble.