Ged Kearney (Cooper, Australian Labor Party, Assistant Minister for Health and Aged Care) Share this | Hansard source

Deputy Speaker Buchholz, congratulations on your election to the Speaker's panel. It's very fine to see you there. It is a great pleasure to join with my colleague the member for Bruce in welcoming the end of the cashless debit card in what is my first speech in this new term of parliament. It's almost painful to sit here and listen to the hubris from the other side of the House about how this card has had amazing outcomes and how there has been a lack of consultation on our part with Aboriginal communities. Aboriginal communities who want to can have this card; it can be voluntary. Let's see how many of those communities actually do volunteer to take it up.

I'm glad I am here. I'm glad this is my first speech on this topic, because I remember the number of speeches that were made by members of the then opposition, including me, calling on the previous government to get rid of the cruel, punitive cashless debit card scheme. So, as we have profoundly done on so many issues—aged care, climate, family and domestic violence—we've got on with the job, moving legislation to deliver our commitment in the very first week of parliament for our government, making this a better country. Prior to the election, we spoke of all the reasons why this country would be better for having a Labor government, and, following the election, as I've chatted to my constituents back in Cooper and to people around the country, they speak of a sense of relief, of a weight that has been lifted from government since the end of the former government.

I know this will particularly be felt by those people who were previously forced onto income management under the cashless debit card. Life under the card was difficult. It robbed people who received social security payments of their independence. It was a punitive scheme which sent the message that people on social security could not be trusted with their own money. We heard stories of community members who wanted to pop $20 in a birthday card for the grandkids but couldn't. There were stories of people who had a corner store down the road that wouldn't accept the card, so, rather than walking down the street to grab a carton of milk and a paper on a Saturday morning, they had to get in a taxi and go to town to do so, costing them more of their precious dollars. The restrictions this scheme placed on peoples lives were absurd. They did not deliver the outcomes for communities, and they robbed recipients of their independence and their dignity. Shamefully, it was a scheme which targeted First Nations communities, robbing them of self-determination, forcing those communities onto the card without proper consultation. It was an awful, discriminatory policy of the former government, one which our government is proud to put an end to.

Let's not forget that the cashless debit card was a classic example of the utmost waste of the former government. When we talk about the waste of the former government, how's this: $170 million worth of contracts to roll out a privatised social security program that communities didn't want and wasn't effective. They could have spent this money on programs that communities actually wanted and would have worked. Instead, they gave it out—without evidence, without evaluation and without any key performance indicators—in yet another rorted government contract to a service which took agency out of the hands of communities, particularly First Nations communities, and put it in the hands of a private, for-profit company. The former government should apologise for going down this path. It is a dark period in the history of social security in this country.

Our government has committed, and we are happy to make this crystal clear every single day, as we did during the election, that social security must be managed by the government. It should never have left the government's hands in the first place. We've made that commitment clear to all recipients, including pensioners. We'll never privatise social security, we'll never privatise the pension and we will continue to ensure the independence of recipients in how they spend their money.

Income management is a matter for the individual to decide. If they want to take part, as I know one community has made clear in consultation with us, then, absolutely, the government can work with that community and those individuals on implementing the program. But what we will always commit to is the principle of self-determination, keeping decision-making with the communities themselves and working with them on solutions which have evidence and which communities tell us work.

I'd like to thank the many people who campaigned for so long against the cashless debit card, and in particular the First Nations peak bodies in my electorate who made submissions and met with me relentlessly on this issue. Your voices were strong, they were powerful and they have made this change. It's a credit to all of you, and I'm so proud our government has been able to work with you to put this legislation to parliament. I call on all members from across the parliament to support our bill and to put an end to the racist, discriminatory, ineffective cashless debit card once and for all.

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