Janet Rice (Victoria, Australian Greens) Share this | Hansard source

Minister, when we were talking about the numbers of people who were transitioning off the card, you talked about giving people their rights back, which is certainly the case in the four trial sites. But, of course, in the Northern Territory we've got 4,266 people who aren't getting their rights back. They are being transitioned either back to the BasicsCard or onto the new enhanced technology.

However, you do acknowledge, in the media release, that there's going to be an 18-month consultation on making income management voluntary. Is that specifically for the Northern Territory that we're going to have this 18-month process for making all income management voluntary, so covering people on the BasicsCard as well as those people who have been transitioned off the cashless debit card on to BasicsCard now? Can you tell us some more about that process please?