Labor’s Lack of Due Diligence 

The June Senate Budget Estimates confirms the Albanese Labor Government promises lots – delivers little – and has scant regard for taxpayers’ money.

The first job of any government is to keep its people safe, to protect our borders – but Australians now know that is not the Government’s Way.

Labor doesn’t leverage the tools or legislation available to it; Labor doesn’t act with urgency when the evidence to do so is crystal clear; Labor does not deliver what it promises – even when safety, even when lives – depend on it. And Aussies know it.

The Commonwealth Child Safe Framework has been in place since 2019.

It is blatantly obvious what it is; The Child Safe Framework exists to diminish risk to children in related organisations.

Under this Labor Government’s watch some senior public servants could not even say if they use the framework.

They could not even say that all government statutory authorities are complying with it.

They could not even say that organisations funded by you and me taxpayer are using it – and yet this is a Commonwealth Government framework!

I am talking about organisations that deliver crisis response domestic violence services, that provide legal advice to support victim-survivors, and that work with the healing of young children.

Albanese Government Ministers are happy to get photos with these organisations and put out media releases to promote their most recent funding decisions when they could have, should have and must have known these same organisations are non-compliant on so many indicators of concern.

All organisations should be held to the same standard – without fear or favour.

No organisation that delivers to the most vulnerable people should be out of scope.

No individual running those organisations exempt from great scrutiny.

Amid many administrative and governance issues, the peak legal aid body for Aboriginal people in the Northern Territory, NAAJA, has also failed to conduct police and working with children checks on its staff and board.

In South Australia, KWY, according to its regulator ORIC – whose job it is to check organisations are run properly – says KWY hasn’t met governance reporting obligations.

And these are not the only ones.

As of today, ORIC says 1243 corporations are overdue in their reporting obligations and more than half are overdue over several financial years.

How is it feasible to not do an audit of all of these services. The answer is it is not.

An audit of organisations that exist to support vulnerable people is needed and it’s needed now. 3

That these organisations deliver to the most vulnerable is not a reason not to demand governance compliance …. in fact, it is the very reason to do so!

Everyone and every time when there is maladministration, or fraud and no more so than the vulnerable people who rely on those same services who depend on them.

This Government hands over taxpayers’ money to non-compliant organisations that deal daily with vulnerable women and children and with staff or directors who don’t have current police-checks or working with children checks.

The evidence of failure speaks volumes.

As Shadow Minister for Child Protection and the Prevention of Family Violence, I turn, too, to the spectacular failure of delivering 500 frontline workers to work in the family violence sector.

The two-year mark since that broken promise has passed and the Albanese Labor Government is scrambling – having delivered just 63 of the promised 500 frontline workers.

63 is a long way from the 352 workers expected by the end of the month under the federal funding agreement.

That’s what happens when your priorities are wrong. When you focus on a Voice to Parliament rather than responding to the cries of those who need help now.

In August last year, Minister for Social Services Amanda Rishworth said:

“Every new worker employed will be able to make a difference for women experiencing violence.”

And yet at the time she had delivered zero – not a single frontline worker in the sector.

This contribution is about a government that fuels a culture of low expectations.

The evidence is in.

It is simply no longer feasible or responsible for those in this place who say they want to improve the lives of the most vulnerable to not vote for the audit we’ve been asking for for so long.