2026-10-29
By Penny Allman-Payne
Senator for Queensland
It remains an immense privilege to represent Queenslanders through the Greens' progressive values and vision in the Senate.
I'm proud of the work my parliamentary colleagues and our teams are doing to deliver a truly progressive political alternative. The portfolios I look after directly affect some of the most vulnerable people in Australia. In a different timeline, they might even have been considered core Labor business. Instead, aged care, school education and social services in particular continue to be undermined, under-resourced and neglected by the Albanese Labor government.
Time and again, this timid but belligerent Labor government makes political choices it knows aren't in the interests of ordinary people – and makes them anyway. If it wasn't already clear to Australians a year ago, it certainly is now: Labor isn't going to change. That's why the Greens have to be ready to replace them.
With far-right parties like One Nation on the rise, it's more important than ever that the Greens remind people they can and should expect better from their government – by setting out a clear, compelling story about what our collective future would look and feel like under a government that works for people, not the profits of big corporations and billionaires.
But while the situation is grim, I'm buoyed by the influx of new supporters and members our grassroots campaigns are drawing in. They're helping us build a bigger movement to deliver the kind of transformational change that would make a real difference to people's lives.
Older People
When Labor and the Coalition teamed up in 2024 to pass aged care reforms, they set in train a model that was always going to leave a significant number of older Australians worse off. Labor could have introduced a rights-based system that put the needs of older people first. Instead, the reforms introduced copayments, abolished price caps and entrenched an individualised, marketised system.
Over the past year, I've hosted multiple online forums attended by hundreds of older Australians, who have shared their experiences. Their powerful and frequently heartbreaking stories drive this work.
Less than a year after they took effect, Labor's reforms are falling apart. Copayments are shutting out the people most in need of care and services in regional, rural and remote areas are under threat. The assessment algorithm consistently underassesses people, denying essential funding to people with conditions like motor neurone disease. And around 200,000 people are on the Support at Home waitlist, with some waiting over a year for their funding once approved.
But we've also helped the community score some big wins! We forced the government to release 20,000 additional home care packages and scrap copayments for in-home showering, dressing and continence care. My inquiry into the proposed closure of the Commonwealth Home Support Program led to a scathing report that forced the government to reverse its
policy and commit to keeping the CHSP as a standalone program. And the automated algorithm is on its last legs, with the Senate voting multiple times to amend or scrap the tool altogether.
This is what community power looks like. We'll keep pushing.
Social and Government Services
Calling Australia's welfare system a "social safety net" is a laughable misnomer. There is nothing “safe” about a system that provides people with poverty payments and then, through malice and incompetence, suspends, reduces or terminates those payments, often at the behest of profiteering job service providers.
Numerous unlawful actions continue in the social services system, and the government has failed to address many of them in ways that acknowledge the harm caused. I've been outspoken about these issues inside and outside parliament: the unlawful use of income apportionment methods, the cancellation of payments under the Targeted Compliance Framework (TCF), and the need to implement the Robodebt Royal Commission's recommendations. I've also used Senate Estimates to question the Department of Social Services, Services Australia and the Department of Employment and Workplace Relations on Youth Allowance, compulsory income management, private call centres, Centrelink call wait times and the harms of suspensions.
There's a lot of work still to do: abolishing the partner income test; lowering the age for the parental income test; tackling dodgy debt recovery practices and automation, the punitive TCF and mutual obligations regime; and increasing income support payments like JobSeeker, which rank near the bottom of advanced OECD economies. Fighting for a social security system that lifts us all up is core Greens business.
Primary and Secondary Education
While the media and others have fallen for Labor’s lie that they’ve delivered full funding to public schools, effectively neutering the funding debate, the privatisation of the school sector continues apace, with out-of-pocket costs rising and private school enrollments increasing. Inequality is a growing crisis in Australia, and nowhere is that more apparent than the school sector. That’s why I continue to challenge the funding model, and why I’ll always fight for a fair school system where teachers have the resources and support they need to give every young person the public education they deserve. We also need to have a public conversation about how we actually do school, with so many children and young people feeling disengaged and left behind by a system that was designed for the Industrial Age.
Looking Ahead
I’ve been incredibly heartened by the energy and campaigning power I’ve seen on display throughout Queensland as I’ve been travelling the state, particularly as I’ve joined Gas Tax forums from Townsville to the Gold Coast. The next federal election will be here before we know it, so it’s important that we’re all doing the work now to build our branches, sharpen our skills and connect with our communities.
Movements are about collective work. A shout-out to my staff team for always keeping me in the loop – and fired up – and to the public, Greens members and volunteers whose support and feedback I couldn't do without. Together, we'll keep fighting for the care, services and fairness all Australians deserve.
- Penny