Jason Falinski (Mackellar, Liberal Party) Share this | Hansard source

As I was saying, the gradual transition is scheduled to occur over a nine-month period as of 1 April 2020. The rollout will proceed community by community so we can give our full attention to those areas where the program is being implemented. No two communities are the same. The government recognises this and will seek to work through the implications of these changes with all affected stakeholders. This will not simply be a consultative process, which is all talk and no action. As this government has committed $18 million to support the participants in this transition, we have no higher priority than looking after this country's most vulnerable and helping empower individual Australians chart their own future—

(Quorum formed) We also recognise that the member for Chifley, who called the quorum, is going to be painful the whole afternoon—and to think I let him use my pen when he sits in my chair! It's absolutely appalling.

This will affect a large number of the Indigenous Australians across the Northern Territory and the Cape York region. In addition to working closely with these Indigenous communities, we are providing resources in a range of local Indigenous languages, with access to interpreters as and when required.

This bill is a community driven, bottom-up initiative which helps to provide a strong welfare safety net whilst reducing social harm or welfare dependency. A fair go for all Australians is a pillar of this country's prosperity and, more importantly, since federation, has formed an important part of what makes this the greatest country on earth. This is a bill that goes to the heart of this Australian ideal by providing a hand up and creating better outcomes for communities and users of the cashless debit card. Australia has always been proud of our regional communities as important contributors to national life. Working together, we look forward to helping support the future of regional communities continuing to represent the best of Australian values and culture.

The baseline report into the Goldfields trial site found the program produced very positive results. In addition to the decline in drug and alcohol related issues, there was also a decrease in overall crime. It was also encouraging to see that there was there was improved—

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