Rick Wilson (O'Connor, Liberal Party) Share this | Hansard source

Is the view of your people that you can stand up here and give incorrect information to the House? The way it operates is like any other VISA card. There are over 1,000 merchant categories. If the merchant category that comes up when you scan the card is 'alcohol' it won't work. But the technology has improved to the stage where you can go into the Coolgardie store, the only shop in town, which sells both groceries and alcohol, and buy groceries. Pat Dellar, who has owned that shop for 40 years, tells me that families are coming in to buy a basket of groceries instead of alcohol for the first time ever. You would condemn those people, mums and dads, to going down to the general store and buying a block rather than food for the kids—because that's effectively what you're suggesting here.

The card trial in Kalgoorlie has been going for almost 18 months now. We are expecting the evaluation, which is being conducted by the University of Adelaide, to be handed down sometime around Christmas or post Christmas. That will have some statistics and some objective measurement. But let me tell you, I've been talking to people across my electorate over that 18-month period, and the anecdotal evidence is overwhelmingly positive. Kids who hadn't been going to school, because mum and dad had been on the grog, are going to school. Let me tell you, these communities were being torn apart and have been transformed by this card. We have police data. Every month the police publish their station statistics. In the town of Laverton in September 2018, three months after the trial had been introduced, domestic violence reports had reduced by 40 per cent. I wonder how many of those perpetrators would have gone on the card voluntarily? The women that get bashed don't get to choose. They don't get a choice. The police data across the Goldfields is extraordinary. The evaluation will take into account a whole range of things like rental payments, rental arrears, electricity disconnections and Department for Child Protection referrals. I absolutely look forward to seeing this anecdotal evidence quantified.

The cost was mentioned. ACOSS and others conveniently quote the $10,000 cost per trial participant, which refers to the initial trial, which had 1,800 participants; all of the overhead costs; and the setting up of the software. All of that was included in the $10,000 cost. As the trial spreads—and my colleague and friend the member for Hinkler has seen the trial extended to another 6,000 people in his electorate—that cost comes down.

As the technology improves and as the trial extends, we may well see some of the commercial banks come into this space and offer a commercial product that says, 'If you're on the cashless debit card and you're banking with us, we'll give you a new card that will look exactly the same and operate exactly the same, except, when you go to the pub, you can buy a meal but you can't buy a beer.' That's the only difference that it will make in those people's lives.

I implore the House to adopt the government's legislation. I have seen firsthand the benefits in my communities. It's been hard work getting there. There have been some incredibly courageous people, particularly our Indigenous elders who have stood up and said: 'We've had enough. We need to change something within our communities that's going to give our people, particularly our children, the chance of a better life.' I commend this legislation to the House.

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