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

Senator Lambie, as I explained earlier, the extension to the cashless debit card that we're seeking to make with the next amendment that will be put before the chamber is for a two-year extension on the cashless debit card. Income management, as it exists in the Northern Territory, has a number of measures that are contained within the instrument that currently oversees or encompasses income management. This instrument to which you refer applies to some of them. Some of the other measures are actually not encompassed by this particular measure. The ongoing measure of income management in the Northern Territory is subject to other legislation. What we are seeking to do today is to give the people in the Northern Territory the opportunity to be able to use a different technology. The income management that they are operating under remains the same. It's just that they will be able to use a different technology. It doesn't actually change the income management. Everything that applies to the existing BasicsCard income management legislation remains in place, as it was yesterday.