Linda Burney (Barton, Australian Labor Party, Minister for Indigenous Australians) Share this | Hansard source

I thank the member for her question. I remind her that the cashless debit card is not in Central Australia. It has never been in Central Australia. The money that was allocated for Central Australia was $250 million—there is $38 million unspent. I met with the leadership group in Central Australia just two weeks ago and spoke to them and what their priorities were in terms of the expenditure of that money. They are very keen to see resources go into young people, and they are also very keen to see resources go into some of the smaller communities around Central Australia.

The investment of that $250 million is running very smoothly and, as I reported to the House several weeks ago, it has been spent in terms of youth services. When we first came into government, all the youth services were about to fall off a cliff—

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