Michael Sukkar (Deakin, Liberal Party, Shadow Minister for Social Services) Share this | Hansard source

That's why the illustrious career of the member for Bruce has stagnated on the backbench—because he can't control himself when he's not in his seat.

Secondly, the member for Bruce, in another glaring error, said, well, of course we all agree that there are sustainability issues with the NDIS. Clearly he didn't get the talking points from the minister, because the minister was quoted before the election as saying:

You can't move around the corridors of parliament in Canberra without tripping over a coalition minister whispering the scheme is unsustainable. I'm here to tell you today that is a lie.

That was the now minister for the NDIS, as shadow minister. That's one of two things ultimately: either he was deceiving the Australia people before the election, or he was ignorant at that time, and once he became the minister he realised that the coalition was right in trying to get the NDIS back on a sustainable footing. But I digress. I just wanted to address two of the very spurious points made by the low-altitude-flying member for Bruce.

Moving on to another aspect of the social services portfolio, an issue we have spoken about consistently, probably since the first sitting of parliament, is the lamentable decision by this government to abolish the cashless debit card. At that time we in fact pleaded with the government: 'Do not do this. Do not abolish the cashless debit card.' You don't need to be a professor, you don't need to be a genius, you don't need to be a surgeon to realise that if you put more drugs and alcohol onto the streets of vulnerable communities there will be very bad outcomes.

The assistant minister, who's a very good assistant minister, talks about reducing domestic violence. How on earth is abolishing the cashless debit card—which we know has led to a spike in a range of violent behaviours, including domestic violence and antisocial behaviour—consistent with that very noble and, I'm sure, consistent view on that side of the House? They have taken away a card that was working for communities that asked for it, communities that did not have it introduced against their will but by and large supported its introduction. We've seen the sad consequences of this decision in Ceduna and in WA. We've seen violence and antisocial behaviour spike. We've seen public drunkenness go through the roof, we've seen a succession of media reports and we've seen a succession of community leaders in those communities say—again, I'm not claiming to be particularly intelligent—that if you put more drugs and alcohol on the street, there's going to be a bad outcome for those communities.

It's never too late to reverse course when you make a bad decision. In the end, in government, you sometimes have to swallow your pride. The truth is: there will be families, women and children increasingly suffering violence because there are more drugs and alcohol in those communities as a result of the decision taken by this government to abolish the cashless debit card.

If you're genuine about wanting to abolish domestic violence, and not just in our major capital cities, you have to want to abolish domestic violence in those communities that don't get the media and don't have lobbyists walking around the halls of parliament. They are the communities that are being ignored here. So I ask the minister: Is the government reconsidering abolishing the cashless debit card? Will it agree with the communities that are crying out for this card to be reintroduced? Will it accept the folly of that decision and reverse course to save women and children in those communities? (Time expired)

See this speech in context