Matthew Canavan (Queensland, Liberal National Party) Share this | Hansard source

That's what we need to do. These government amendments are apparently going to do that, because they're going to allow communities to request these changes. They're going to allow them to do that. Hopefully the government will listen and not be so prideful as to obsessively insist on getting rid of something that some communities want and that works for them. I hope they do listen to them.

Senator Henderson mentioned earlier that Senator Chisholm had completely misrepresented the member for Hinkler yesterday and had accused him of not consulting with his community. Senator Henderson very succinctly rebutted the number of emails sent by the member for Hinkler's office. The member for Hinkler had sent tens of thousands of emails and done hundreds of calls to local constituents about this issue. Overwhelmingly, the feedback from the people of Hinkler was that they support the cashless debit card. In the member for Hinkler's case, 75 per cent of those surveyed said they support it. And it wasn't just the member for Hinkler. The local newspapers around Bundaberg—the NewsMail and the Fraser Coast Chronicledid their own independent survey that found that less than 30 per cent of people were opposed to the cashless debit card in the area in and around Bundaberg.

So the communities want it; they support it. The people who are going to be the real victims, if we persist with this obsessive attempt to go back to the era of free money and free welfare, will be those people who themselves are often not receiving the money but are on the receiving end of the destroyed lives that come from receiving free money. It's about the mums who might be subject to domestic violence and the children who might go uncared for in people's homes if we turn a blind eye to the corrosive effects of unrestricted welfare payments.

Free welfare might make people feel good in this place but it certainly doesn't build homes. It doesn't build communities. It doesn't help people's lives. We need to make sure that, if we're going to hand out support to people, we also help them with their lives and the responsibilities that are required to get them back on their feet, in work and rebuilding their communities.