Doug Cameron (NSW, Australian Labor Party, Shadow Minister for Human Services) Share this | Hansard source

Labor is greatly concerned about the lack of robust evidence about the outcomes of the Cashless Debit Card trials in Ceduna and the East Kimberley. The definition of a 'trial' is to find out if something works. It's a terrible indictment of the policy process of this government that clear, empirical evidence about outcomes simply does not exist. Evaluations to date have been completely inadequate. The government must fix this.

In our consultations in the two original trial areas of Ceduna and East Kimberley, Labor heard mixed views about the success of the Cashless Debit Card. Some participants in the Ceduna and East Kimberley trials reported finding the Cashless Debit Card to be useful, whilst others thought it had not made any improvements to their lives. Labor supported the initiation of trials in Ceduna and the East Kimberley, and supports them continuing for a further year to allow more time to reliably determine whether they have been successful.

For this reason, we will not be supporting this disallowance motion today, but Labor will be moving an alternative disallowance motion to prevent the expansion of the Cashless Debit Card Trial to the Goldfields region. But the government is very much on notice. They must fix their evaluation process and heed the very significant warnings of the Auditor-General about the implementation and evaluation of the trials. Labor would require a much more rigorous evaluation of the Cashless Debit Card in the existing trial areas prior to supporting either the continuation of these trials past mid-2019 or any expansion to the trial areas.

I have to say, for a government to say that this is about improving people's lives when in 2014 they took half a billion dollars in the budget from Indigenous social support and they have removed $1.5 billion over four years from remote Indigenous housing—this has got implications for apprentices in these areas. It's got implications for Indigenous businesses because, if you can't get a roof over your head, then you're in some difficulty. If you're in massively overcrowded accommodation, you end up in severe difficulties. It's got implications for health. It's got implications for employment opportunities. Simply having the cashless debit card as some kind of analysis about how to try and make things better demonstrates this government's lack of vision.

We don't support the expansion of the cashless debit card in any location unless the government has an agreed and formal process of consultation and a clear framework for establishing whether the communities consent to the trial. Surely there has to be a process of consultation and consent from the communities. So, on this basis, we don't support this, but we will be moving an alternative proposition on the trial of the cashless welfare arrangements.