'Punished before conviction': Is this new welfare law a national shame?

Anyhow, here we are now and the Federal Government will use social security as a policing tool. Yep. New legislation introduced at the last minute would allow the Home Affairs Minister Tony Burke to cancel someone's social security payment if there is a warrant out for an arrest for a serious crime.

Not actually convicted. Think about that for a minute. Punished for a crime you may not have committed.

Now, Tanya Plibersek, the minister for social services and ever the peacemaker, told morning television this week that there would need to be strong evidence and that cutting off benefits wouldn't be quite as cut and dried as all that.

"After considering any dependents, making sure that we look after the dependents, that person can have their social security benefit cancelled the same way they would if they were waiting on remand to be tried for a serious crime."

But guess who this amendment is going to impact the most? No guesses needed. Hannah McGlade, a member of the UN permanent forum on Indigenous issues and an Aboriginal human rights law expert, is blunt: "It's going to have a disproportionate impact on Aboriginal people who are already overpoliced and are disproportionately represented in the criminal justice system," she says.

There is systemic discrimination against Aboriginal people in Australia - and that's never really been addressed by this government. A bit of tinkering here and there. But we know dispossession leads to poverty and as McGlade puts it: "We mustn't underestimate the impact of poverty and its relationship to crime."

ACOSS CEO Cassandra Goldie says the bill includes some positive reforms for debt waivers - but this last-minute amendment was introduced just a week ago by the government. That was after all the inquiries into the legislation had concluded. So where was the proper scrutiny by parliament? Absolutely nowhere.

The Australian Bureau of Statistics revealed alarming figures in 2020. In some parts of Australia, the Aboriginal imprisonment rate is nearly 10 times the non-Aboriginal imprisonment rate. What are we doing here?

And it's not just that they are imprisoned - what happens on the way through? Are they also substantially over-represented at other stages of the criminal justice system?

Aboriginal Australians rarely get justice. We ignore them when they disappear.

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Why are we still doing this kind of policing? Why aren't we doing what the Australian Law Reform Commission recommended seven years ago: the establishment of a national independent justice reinvestment body, which would oversee resourcing for community-led, place-initiatives to address drivers of crime and incarceration? On top of that, we should have state and territory bodies - in each case run by boards with Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander leadership.

Thalia Anthony, professor of law at the University of Technology Sydney, says entire families will be penalised for the cuts to welfare and family assistance payments.

"That represents an unjustified punishment of vulnerable people dependent on social security," she says. "First Nations men, women and young people will be disproportionately affected by these laws because they are more likely to be over-policed and suspected of committing offences as well as reliant on welfare payments due to labour market discrimination."

It's already true that under current law, social security payments cease when a person enters custody pending trial or sentencing. That's apparently a long-standing and well-established policy. I mean, it is weird that someone who hasn't yet been convicted is punished - and I wonder if they get back-pay if they are found not guilty. My guess is no.

Anthony says accused people are often the most financially vulnerable."Removing their rights to social security payments would augment this vulnerability and increase their safety risks."

And then what happens? Entrenched impoverishment from the loss of social security means they are more likely to engage in risk taking behaviours to survive.

"This move by the Federal Government demonstrates its investment in punitive measures above the social determinants, including social security, for safety such as strong families and communities," says Anthony.

The federal government has made some small progress on justice reinvestment programs - but McGlade describes them as a drop in the bucket. This week, Cape York Institute for Policy and Leadership was awarded just under $334,000 to run a justice reinvestment program in Cairns. Sure, there are other more substantial amounts announced this year - but basically, it looks piecemeal. And some of those announcements were for projects started last year.

The government needs to put its money where its promises are. It needs a massive improvement in its approach to Aboriginal people - and to consider how all its actions impact them.

Just this week, the Right to Power report was tabled in parliament. It found nearly 9,000 households accessing electricity via prepayment arrangements were impacted by frequent disconnections, "undermining health, wellbeing and economic participation". These are homes where people with life-threatening conditions live, where vital medications are kept in the fridge.

The report's authors are calling on the federal government to establish a priority services register and greater protection from disconnections during extreme heat.

We can have a million tiny schemes trying to fix the challenges for Aboriginal people - but as an ordinary voter, I just don't see a clear overarching plan. I had hoped that the defeat of the Voice to Parliament would give the government a much needed kick up the proverbial.

Not so far.