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

The Labor government's shameful decision to abolish the cashless debit card we know will lead to a tsunami of drugs and alcohol. Yesterday, finally, we saw the Labor government concede that the decision to abolish the cashless debit card will just see more alcohol and more drugs pour into vulnerable communities. We even saw from the Labor Party an attempt to try and repurpose $49 million committed by the former government as additional funding for drug and alcohol services. We know more drug and alcohol services will be required in these communities because Labor's shameful decision is going to unleash a torrent of violence in these communities. The people who will suffer most are the women and the children in these communities.

The leaders of these communities, including the Indigenous leaders, have been pleading with the Labor Party to walk away from this ill-conceived idea to abolish the cashless debit card, because they're the ones that will have to pick up the pieces of the mess that you will create for them. The Labor Party say they are opposed to income management, but, on the same day that they want to abolish the cashless debit card, they want to extend the inferior BasicsCard to even more people in the Northern Territory. So the Labor Party need to answer to the communities who have seen the benefits of the CDC and walk away from this shameful policy.