Delahunty Catherine: Social Assistance (Living Alone Payments) Amendment Bill — Third Reading 
Text is incorporated into the Bound Volume 
Delahunty Catherine: Social Assistance (Living Alone Payments) Amendment Bill — Third Reading 
[Sitting date: 28 March 2013. Volume:688;Page:9105. Text is incorporated into the Bound Volume.] 
CATHERINE DELAHUNTY (Green) 
: 
 Likewise I wish everybody a really good break and a good holiday. It is an opportunity to reflect on our own privilege that we enjoy in this House because we are on really good wages paid for by the taxpayer and I think we are all aware of their expectations of us. It is also good to acknowledge what privilege gives you and recognise that sometimes privilege puts you in a bubble and it is easy not to understand in a bubble what it is like for other people. We meet a lot of people but we do not walk in their shoes—we do not have to. Some of us have walked in those shoes but that is why this bill the Social Assistance (Living Alone Payments) Amendment Bill is important because it does address some aspects of the shoes that people have to walk in. 
It does not go far enough in terms of amending what is a fairly chaotic now ancient piece of legislation. I enjoyed hearing from the earlier speaker Andrew Little about the history because I think it is good to remember that the Social Security Act was once a vibrant transformative and liberating piece of legislation heralded around the world and greeted by my own ancestors with great enthusiasm—Irish poor who never ever could afford to build a house until the 1950s even though we have been here since 1864. So the Social Security Act has always been a very important part of the definition of a civilised society but unfortunately it has become an uncivilised piece of legislation. 
This bill however will improve it. We are supporting it. We believe that the two changes are going to be good. We believe that it is important to try even though it is pretty chaotic in there to simplify the way in which Work and Income deals with vulnerable people. Let me tell you—sorry Mr Deputy Speaker I keep dragging you into this; let me not tell the Deputy Speaker I am sure he does not need to hear this—that being dragged into Work and Income makes you vulnerable. It is a very vulnerable place. 
I worked for a number of years on the East Coast as an advocate for people on benefits. This included veterans it included elderly people who were in the categories described by this bill some of whom were on the living alone benefit and it included also people with sicknesses people on the invalids benefit sole parents disabled people and people with disabled children all of whom were vulnerable when they walked in that door. Unfortunately unlike this bill the ethos at Work and Income is not: “What can we do for you and how can we facilitate your life to be easier?”. It is a punitive experience. Watching people crying getting angry shutting down and panicking is a normal experience for any beneficiary advocate. I really believe this bill will help one group of beneficiaries. We are all in some ways a beneficiary whether it is a beneficiary of clean water whether it is a beneficiary of high wages or whether it is a beneficiary of decent laws. We are all beneficiaries and we are all entitled to the rights of citizens. This will help a certain group of people. 
The second part of the bill relating to dependent children will not affect a huge number of people but every bit of law that works is good law and it is good that superannuitants with dependent children will get an easier ride. I do want to go back to the point about the importance of collapsing the living alone benefit and making it simpler for people who are vulnerable. Obviously when you have lost a lifelong partner or family member you are vulnerable and the bureaucracy is absolutely impregnable. It is absolutely unintelligible not only for the elderly but for virtually anybody who does not work with it. Going into Work and Income is interesting because the staff do not look at the people; they look at the screen. The people do not know what the screen means because it is all written in jargon. The whole thing is set up to make it very clear to people who walk into that place that they are no longer empowered citizens; they are actually second-class. 
I support the legislation because it allows some people to get a better opportunity to have an easier ride through the Work and Income labyrinth but that labyrinth is not just for the so-called deserving poor. It is for everybody because there but for the grace of God goes every single person in this House. One day we may need the support of the social security system and we would want to be treated with the same respect the same clarity and the same facilitation as this bill does for the elderly in our community. 
I also commend Kevin Hague’s speech because if we cannot look after our children then the care for our elderly becomes a little bit contradictory. I am sure as a grandmother like many people here we believe that our children need exactly the same care as our vulnerable elders. If we cannot commit to that through legislation and through social security we need to have a good look at ourselves. We do support the bill. Thank you very much.