Ben Morton (Tangney, Liberal Party) Share this | Hansard source

Mr Deputy Speaker Hastie, like you, I am in our parliament to do everything I can to make lives better. I am in this place to empower people to take control of their lives and for the government, if need be, to co-invest in people's futures, to help aspirational Australians reach their full potential. This is my absolute focus when we consider social policy and our welfare system, and it is my focus when we consider the Social Services Legislation Amendment (Cashless Debit Card) Bill 2017.

Sadly, the lazy application of cashless welfare in some cases is making lives worse, not better. Even in my own family, I have seen how drugs and welfare can mix and the detrimental impact that welfare as easy cash can have on families, particularly children. The cashless debit card is changing lives for the better. The strongly independent evaluation results of the trial tell us just how big the positive impact is. We know that the card is not a silver bullet, and we acknowledge that, but it is an important tool in the fight against alcohol and drug abuse and the violence and crime that comes with that.

This bill removes the current limitations on the cashless debit card to three discrete locations and no more than 10,000 people who are able to access the card, and it deletes the 30 June 2018 end date of the current program. Removing these limitations will support the extension of the cashless debit card in East Kimberley and Ceduna and enable the expansion of the card to further sites, including the Goldfields in Western Australia and Hinkler in Queensland. The trial of the cashless debit card in East Kimberley and Ceduna has been effective in reducing alcohol consumption, illegal drug use and gambling: 25 per cent of participants and 13 per cent of family members reported drinking alcohol less frequently; 32 per cent of participants and 15 per cent of family members reported gambling less; 24 per cent reported using illegal drugs less often; and 31 per cent reported being able to look after their children better and being able to save more money.

I don't just speak in this place as someone who has read reports. I think it is important as parliamentarians that we look firsthand at the issues that we are trying to solve. I visited Kununurra and Wyndham to see the trial of the cashless debit card. It was so important for my understanding to learn from community leaders and locals how the card was making their lives even better. I met with many people in Kununurra and Wyndham who supported the card, and I met with those who didn't. The number of pick-ups made by the Kununurra community patrol was almost 20 per cent lower last year compared to the year before. Admissions to the Wyndham sobering-up unit were 49 per cent lower than before the trial. Ambulance alcohol-related call-outs were down by 30 per cent, and sales at the Wyndham bottle shop had dropped by 40 per cent. It was really interesting that some sales were up. When I visited the supermarket, I asked what they were selling more of or less of. They reported that, as a result of the drop in the economy overall, sales were down, but there was one particular product that was still being sold in Wyndham at the same level, and that was baby products. The sales of baby products remained constant when other products in that same store were dropping as a result of the economic downturn.

I met with community leaders, who helped me get to the nuts and bolts of this policy. I sat with mums at the Wyndham Early Learning Activity Centre. I met with the chamber of commerce and a number of health and cultural organisations. When meeting with the police in Kununurra, I heard about the issues which they have to deal with day and night, but I was so pleased to hear that alcohol-fuelled call-outs were down. I spent a 12-hour overnight shift with the volunteers of the St John's Ambulance in Kununurra, who were out from 6 pm to 6 am. In Kununurra, the ambulance service is provided by volunteers, and in each and every one of the call-outs—which I can't go into detail about with you today—alcohol played a significant part. Alcohol played a part in the sickness and injuries of every visit we made. It played a part also in the haze of the information we received on some of the calls. Those volunteers don't have a full brief on the situation they're heading into because the information from the person dialling triple 0 is sketchy and inaccurate due to the influence of alcohol and drugs. Attendance with police protection is the norm, and ongoing conflict on— (Time expired)

Debate interrupted.

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