Murray Watt (Queensland, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Hansard source

I'm only going to make a short contribution to join with my Labor colleagues in opposing the Social Services Legislation Amendment (Cashless Debit Card Trial Expansion) Bill 2018. I participated in inquiries concerning the terms of this bill. From Labor's perspective, we continue to have concerns with the rollout of the cashless welfare card. We're aware that it is up and running in a couple of sites; I'm thinking in particular of Western Australia. There are ongoing concerns about the rollout of the cashless welfare card in those sites, but we accept that community support has been demonstrated in a couple of sites, and on that basis we have been prepared to support the trials going ahead in those locations. The same cannot be said of the proposed trial that is envisaged by this bill to roll out the cashless welfare card in the Hinkler region, around Bundaberg and Hervey Bay in Queensland.

As I said, I participated in the Senate inquiry into this bill. It is fair to say that the views of the community are mixed in relation to this proposal. From a Labor perspective, we don't think that it is wise to proceed with this trial in an area where community opinion is split and, in fact, where there is substantial opposition to it going ahead. I recognise that there are some people within the community in Bundaberg and Hervey Bay and the surrounding region who want this to go ahead—in particular, the federal member, Mr Pitt. But I don't think that he or the department have adequately consulted with the local community to a point that they can demonstrate there is community support for this going ahead. We think the only way in which such a radical measure can possibly work is if it is done with widespread community support. That has been demonstrated in a couple of sites where the trial is up and running, although there do remain problems, in our view, about the rollout. But it cannot be demonstrated to our satisfaction that there is the level of community support in the Hinkler region for this measure to justify it going ahead.

The other concern that Labor has with this trial in general is the very poor evaluations that have been conducted to date. The government have, in the past, pointed to evaluations that have been commissioned by the department which they say demonstrate that the trial is working and, again, that it has community support. I won't go into it in a whole lot of detail, but those who are interested can refer to the Senate inquiry and Labor members' reports on this cashless welfare card. But we have very significant concerns about the quality of those evaluations and their reliability. In short, we don't think that this measure is working anywhere nearly as successfully as what the government claims and, again, we think that for it to proceed it needs a lot more community support than has been demonstrated, particularly in the Hinkler region.

The other thing I might say is that, if you believe the government's arguments, the reason that this is needed is to, as they put it, break the cycle of welfare dependency. There is no doubt that the region of Hinkler, which covers Bundaberg, Hervey Bay and surrounding towns, has extremely high unemployment and extremely high youth unemployment, and that is not a new thing. That is something that the area has suffered through for decades—I might say, decades when it has been represented by members of the National Party. I think that it would be very wise for the government, before it imposes radical measures like this, to actually put a bit more effort into job-creation projects in the Hinkler region to try to overcome the level of unemployment that has been there for many decades now. We do not see the level of investment from this government in the type of infrastructure that creates jobs in the actual construction of that infrastructure and obviously improves economic efficiency in the region. They should be investing more in infrastructure, but they also should be doing more to work with the local community and local industry to identify genuine industry opportunities and employment opportunities that can be built in that region.

Too often from this government we see a very hands-off, laissez-faire attitude towards the running of the economy. They're happy to sit by while particular regions in our country languish with extremely high levels of unemployment. That is certainly the case in the Hinkler region, and I know it's a problem in many other parts of Australia as well. But I think that to only undertake quite punitive measures, similar to those that are proposed in this bill, without putting any genuine effort into creating jobs for people and helping them into work really isn't tackling the problem in the right way. For those reasons, I'll be joining with the opposition to oppose this bill.