Malarndirri McCarthy (NT, Australian Labor Party, Assistant Minister for Indigenous Australians) Share this | Hansard source

I can certainly tell you the way I see it, Senator Lambie. It's this. If the previous government for nine years did no reviews whatsoever on the BasicsCard, yet this Senate did six inquiries on the cashless debit card, it shows where the priority was for this parliament. There was no priority on the people of the Northern Territory. So why would we make a decision to do something with the BasicsCard when no work whatsoever has been done by the previous government? So we have to do it carefully and cautiously and, yes, that will take time.

But in the meantime the previous government had a flawed card, and you know how flawed it was because the Yolngu people told you when you came up to the Northern Territory. That's why, when this parliament does not follow its own due process—yet it does six inquiries into the cashless debit card—that is the only information we had to go on as to what was not working with this flawed card. These senators on the other side had the chance to fix that up, and you know it. You stood in this Senate and you called them out for it, so don't backtrack now.