Tanya Plibersek (Sydney, Australian Labor Party, Shadow Minister for Human Services, Housing, Youth and Women) Share this | Hansard source

I want to ask the minister a little bit about the announcement last week at the 2007 smartcard forum made by the minister on whose behalf he is here today that the access card project that the government has proposed will in fact be substantially delayed. It was not really clear from the minister’s proposal what his intentions are in this area. I think he said something like it was possible that there would be no legislation introduced at all this year. I would like the acting minister to tell us what will happen to the $1.1 billion that has been allocated over the forward estimates for the access card. What is going to happen if there is no legislation introduced this year? Can you tell us what effect that has on the spending proposed for the access card?

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