Linda Reynolds (WA, Liberal Party) Share this | Hansard source

It's with great sadness that I speak on the repeal of the cashless debit card, which currently is used by over 4,000 Western Australians in the Goldfields and East Kimberley regions. These are unquestionably some of our state's most vulnerable people. I've gone through a wide range of emotions since the introduction of this ill-conceived and botched piece of legislation, from disbelief to great anger, and now sadness for the inevitable impacts that this will have on the lives of so many Australians.

The cashless debit card was introduced by the previous coalition government as a means of ensuring that those receiving welfare payments were spending taxpayers money on necessities such as food, household bills and clothes, and not on habits that enabled destructive lifestyles. And this is one thing that I think those opposite seem to have forgotten: it is not just about the life of the person on the card; it is also about the lives that they impact. It is about the women, the children and the elderly in their lives that have more money and are subject to far less violence than they had been.

I still cannot get my head around the pious self-righteousness of colleagues on the other side who have callously put ideology above the needs of Australia's most vulnerable. It is my opinion, and the opinion of those on this side of the chamber, that the card should be extended, not repealed. It is truly mind blowing just how incompetently the new government has managed this issue. As we kept hearing from those opposite, 'This is a policy we took to the election.' Well, they may have taken the policy to the election, but they certainly didn't take an implementation plan to the election, they certainly didn't take any consultation to the election and they certainly had none of that after the election when they introduced this legislation. In fact, there is no evidence that they consulted—properly consulted—with any of the communities who chose to have the CDC in their electorates.

How could they think that those in this place and the other place would allow them to steamroll such appalling legislation through this place, having been forced to have the quickest of all possible inquiries? Since then, as we'll hear in the committee stage of this bill, the government has been forced into embarrassing backflips time and time again. But these are concessions that they're now making because they've botched it the whole way along—again, impacting on over 14,000 Australian lives. They've botched it, and they're now about to make it worse.

Clearly they have never been up to any of these communities. What they don't realise is that saying, 'Look, we'll make it optional,' makes it worse. If you're an abused woman who is on the card, what do you think your partner is going to do? Do you think he's going to say: 'Yes, no problem. You just keep that card. Don't worry about giving me the cash.' It makes women in particular more vulnerable than less vulnerable, and shame on you. You've forced yourself into making these ill-considered and certainly not consultative amendments. It is a disgrace.

Now we're seeing the Labor government making amendments on the run, amendments that we are about to debate shortly in the committee stage, to this legislation. Again, you are better off withdrawing this legislation rather than trying to steamroll these ill-conceived amendments that will make people's lives even worse than what you were proposing to do in the first place.

Despite these new amendments, the intention of the bill still is to repeal the cashless debit card, which was put into communities as an important financial management tool. Again, it is all about helping our most vulnerable. And then those opposite were trying to say, 'Well, the Australian National Audit Office recommended that it be repealed.' Well, please bring in that report and show us exactly where the ANAO said this card be repealed, because, on our side, we can find no ANAO report that says that it needs to be repealed. That is simply a lie. That is simply a great big fib told by multiple members opposite. The reduction of taxpayer funded access to drugs, alcohol and gambling products has significantly reduced alcohol and drug abuse, assaults, rapes and murder—the evidence is there. Those opposite, during the debate, have been saying, 'Well, we haven't been able to find anyone to really tell us about this.' Well, if you don't go out and talk to the communities, of course you are not going to find anyone to comment on this. Again, with ungodly haste, the government shunted the committee inquiry through this place and did not visit one of the trial sites or talk to one member in my own home state of Western Australia, so of course they didn't find anyone in Western Australia because they didn't go and talk to them.

After all this backlash, the Albanese government has finally conceded that abolishing the cashless debit card—oh gee, golly gosh—will lead to more violence, more alcohol and drug abuse, childhood neglect and violence in vulnerable communities, including in my home state of Western Australia. The announcement of nearly $50 million for alcohol and drug treatment services is a complete admission that this will cause more harm and that more support will be required as a direct result of what the government are proposing. Shame on the Labor government for doing what they have done, leaving great uncertainty in these communities amongst Australia's most vulnerable. Now, surprise surprise, at the 11th hour, very shortly in this place they will be coming in with amendments which admit they were wrong. But these are amendments that haven't been consulted on across any of these communities, so the government have introduced this atrocious legislation without regard or consultation with those it will impact the most. So much for an Indigenous voice.

We had two amazing Indigenous senators, Senator Nampijinpa Price and Senator Liddle, speak with firsthand knowledge. If anybody who listened to Senator Nampijinpa Price tell us about her own personal experience with still thinks that this bill is good, then you have no heart and you have no shame.

This ideological opposition to the CDC will leave thousands of Australians vulnerable. Let me make it very clear: this government and this parliament have not consulted with Western Australians who have chosen to have this card in their communities. Given that the cashless debit card is only being used in six places and two of them are in Western Australia, in the East Kimberley and Goldfields regions, this Senate's inquiry conducted not a single, not one, hearing in either East Kimberley or the Goldfields. Not only that, when they were finally forced to actually consult, shamed into consulting with some of these regions, guess how many days the local councils got to deal with and provide some input? They had three days, three working days, to comment on four documents. That is not genuine consultation and that is a disgrace.

The East Kimberley as a whole was a site where the most problems were reported and recorded before the introduction of the CDC and it was also the site that reported the strongest positive change, particularly in relation to alcohol. East Kimberley was the site affected by the most severe alcohol problems but was also the site that has demonstrably recorded the greatest reduction since the introduction of the card. The CDC was very positive in preventing humbugging. The lives of those vulnerable people who are subject to humbugging by their family and friends have been improved by the cashless debit card, because no longer can their relatives put their hand out and ask for cash. They can no longer stand at the ATM waiting for that money to come out and take it away from mothers and children. That is one of the benefits of this card.

I would like to conclude with a couple of comments from leaders in my own home state of Western Australia, both from East Kimberley and the Goldfields, people who those opposite and this Senate committee obviously made no effort to talk to. The first one is from the mayor of Kalgoorlie-Boulder, John Bowler:

It almost seems that they are putting the cart before the horse.

The Shire of Laverton said:

The lack of consultation is profound on the government's part and the words and rhetoric do not go well for the future of Laverton, and as local governments do, we will pick up the pieces with other state government agencies who work under trying conditions and see the community continue.

…   …   …

The CDC has brought some sanity to the people's lives as most of the spending allocation is to purchase food—

food for women, children and the elderly—

and the other essentials of life.

…   …   …

Is this submission emotive, yes, it is because we believe and have seen firsthand the benefits of the CDC and the impact upon Laverton for which I have called home for over 65 years and the generation before me as the Shire President.

Ian Trust, the director of the fabulous Wunan Foundation, in Kununurra, who knows firsthand—the foundation deals with the health and the lives of so many in the East Kimberley. Ian has said:

It reduced the alcohol violence and the harassment of the elderly and vulnerable for cash when they used to go to the ATM.

The cashless card is not a silver bullet but it is something, and we can build on it.

But there is no plan as to what happens after the CDC is abolished, we are left in a vacuum. The government says if we want to go down that path of keeping income management that it has to be a community decision, but there's no information about how they want us to arrive at that decision or what the replacement could be.

Classic Labor policy on the run on the back of a coaster—a great idea, but with nothing behind it.

It is inconceivable to me, and to all of us on this side of the chamber, that any government or any senator would knowingly inflict more pain and suffering on vulnerable women, children and elders. But that is exactly what this piece of botched legislation that Labor are now about to seek to amend—that will make it even worse than it currently is. All I can say is: shame on every one of you. We know what will happen out in the communities if this bill passes here today: more grog, more violence, more rape, more abuse, more child neglect and more murder and death. You cannot say you were not warned. You cannot say you did not know. Yet you continue to push this based on blind ideology. Shame on you all.