Ben Morton (Tangney, Liberal Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

The lazy application of cashless welfare is, in some cases, making life worse not better. I want to recognise the work of Andrew Forrest. In his National Press Club address last week, Mr Forrest added great strength and experience to the discussion on welfare reform. Mr Forrest said: 'We want a nation where everyone can have a crack without fear of scorn for failure, a nation of integrity and generosity. We are not talking about cutting payments but instead seeing welfare as a guiding hand up and not just a mindless hand out.'

In his report The Forrest review: creating parity, the fifth recommendation was the implementation of a healthy welfare card. The government passed legislation to trial this card in Ceduna and the East Kimberley, and feedback shows this card is making a real difference. Mr Forrest pointed out that ambulance alcohol related call-outs are down some 30 per cent, deliveries of fresh fruit and vegetables have doubled, money going into poker machines has dropped by over 30 per cent, sales from the Wyndham bottle shop are down by 40 per cent and more school uniforms are being sold. Mr Forrest said: 'This card is empowering people to make worthy choices about their lives. Through these choices, children will go to school with food in their bellies. It will be the kids becoming healthy, not the crystal meth dealer growing fat.' I could not agree more.

The lazy application of cash can sometimes not only make the recipient's life worse, it severely impacts those around them. One grandmother shared her experience with me this week. Let me share with you her story—one that is all too familiar. She had taken over the care of her grandchildren because their mother was homeless—in her own words, 'wasting Centrelink payments on drugs and alcohol'. She was proud that while in her care those children thrived, both physically and mentally. The children were removed from their mother's screams while coming down from drug abuse, or from her sleeping for days after a drug binge. There were no longer strangers coming in and out of their home. Importantly, they attended school 100 per cent, and their grades picked up.

As it turns out, while the children were in the care of their grandmother, their mother was fraudulently claiming Centrelink payments for them. The mother was caught out and removed those children from the safety of their grandparents' care. Her one and only reason was to retain that direct cash welfare benefit. Those children are now missing school. Their utilities are disconnected because their mother has not paid any bills with the money she receives. The children no longer eat healthy food unless it is supplied by their grandparents. This grandmother concluded: 'I strongly agree with the implementation of a cashless healthy welfare card, otherwise more children will be undernourished, poorly educated and think that a payment from the government is the norm. They will be unemployable and liable to become entrenched in the welfare cycle.' If the job of the welfare system is to make lives better, then the lazy application of cash just is not working.