Anne Ruston (SA, Liberal Party, Minister for Families and Social Services) Share this | Hansard source

I thank Senator Brockman for his question and his strong interest and belief in a sustainable and fair system for all Australians. We also believe on this side of the chamber that not only is a sustainable welfare system important but also one that helps the people who rely on it. That is why this government rolled out the cashless debit card trials across four across Australia. But we rolled them out into sites where the communities actually volunteered, put themselves forward and asked for these particular trials to occur, because they believed there was an opportunity to make real change in their communities.

These communities are reporting to us exceptionally positive results from these trials. Last month I had the pleasure of being able to attend the Goldfields in Senator Brockman's home state of Western Australia and I learnt firsthand from a number of people in the community—people in the business community, police, health workers, local business owners—about the impact that the card has had in their communities. And there was one clear, strong and uniform response. The people told me the card was making a difference: the streets in their towns were quieter and they felt safer. The police said to me that the number of call-outs had reduced significantly, from every night of the week to maybe only once a fortnight. There was a significant decrease in the number of incidents of domestic violence and mental health being reported. There were significantly fewer presentations that were presenting to our emergency services.

But the story that I'd like to quickly share with you is about a young girl by the name of Nicole. Nicole is on a disability services pension, and she was the strongest opponent of the rollout of the CDC. She was all over social media saying how terrible it was going to be. I'd like to tell you that Nicole told me she's just bought a car, and she credits the fact that she was able to buy a car to the cashless debit card. She said if she hadn't had the cashless debit card she never would have been able to do so.