Tanya Plibersek (Sydney, Australian Labor Party, Shadow Minister for Childcare) Share this | Hansard source

I also wanted to ask the minister for Indigenous affairs about something else, if he had bothered turning up. He has spoken in the past about using a card system to divert social security cash benefits from some recipients so that benefits could only be used to pay for food, rent and utilities. I would like to ask the minister to report on what progress has been made in developing that plan. I want to know specifically what provisions have been made in this year’s budget for implementing the plan or whether it was just another thing plucked out of the air and announced on the front page of the Australian with no back-up and no follow-through.

Apart from the provision of a sniffer dog team, what provisions are there in the budget to alleviate the shocking plight of outback communities ravaged by drink, petrol sniffing and drugs? Is it just about the headlines? What actual measures are there to improve the situation of families living in these communities? Is the minister aware of the call by his colleague the Parliamentary Secretary to the Minister for Health and Ageing for an integrated system to treat alcohol abuse in remote communities? What provisions are there in the budget for such an integrated system or is it once more put into the too-hard basket?

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