Kevin Hogan (Page, National Party, Shadow Minister for Trade and Tourism) Share this | Hansard source

I stand by the statement and I stand by the people I have spoken to. I stand by the statement that I have made, that the communities where the cashless welfare card has been demolished are now less safe. There are children who are not safe in their homes who were before, and there are things happening in those communities where the whole community doesn't feel safe. You might have an ideological obsession with abolishing the card, but to say that—

Well, Ceduna isn't. Ceduna isn't a dry town. This town is now more unsafe, and many people feel more unsafe in these communities because of what this government has done. This government has made a lot of mistakes in the first 10 months, but I put this up here as the worst decision—and there are a few vying for that position. You can disagree about economic things, you can disagree about union involvement, you can disagree about taxation, you can disagree about whatever, but to make a decision that has meant children and women are not as safe as they once were is a great shame on this government.

As I said, we will support this bill. Obviously the government has a complete ideological obsession about not having compulsory income type policies. They want everything about this to be voluntary. I say to those opposite: the children and women who are now in danger and weren't have you to thank for that, and your ideological obsession with the cashless welfare card.

See this speech in context