Amanda Rishworth (Kingston, Australian Labor Party, Minister for Social Services) Share this | Hansard source

I'd like to thank the member for his question. I was very pleased to visit Ceduna last Friday, where I was able to engage with a range of different organisations and services to talk to them about what they needed going forward to make sure that they were supported and properly provided with services. One thing that was made very clear was that the council—I met with the mayor and other services—were very clear that they wanted a positive vision for Ceduna going forward. They wanted to make sure that I understood that there was a positive message in the town.

So, yes, I was able to also speak with the police, and they made it very, very clear that they could not attribute antisocial behaviour that happens from time to time to the abolition of the card. In fact, I did want to pick out a little bit of misinformation. There have been a number of anecdotal comments and reports made—I understand that this is a very emotional issue—but we've got to deal with the facts when it comes to this issue. On one site there were reports of antisocial behaviour two days after royal assent—of an increase in the number of people sleeping rough in a particular town. Of course, no income or other changes had actually happened two days after royal assent, so that was absolutely inconsistent with the actual evidence.

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