Slade Brockman (WA, Liberal Party) Share this | Hansard source

I too rise to take note of these two very important issues: the cost of living and the impact of the repeal of the cashless debit card on my home state of WA. Sadly, what we see—and we've just seen it again—is that this is a government that, at every opportunity, puts symbolism over substance. We saw it last year when parliament was recalled in an emergency session to pass emergency legislation on gas prices and flow-on impacts to state regimes regarding coal. We've seen a complete failure of that policy because the government only cares about symbolism.

That's also what we saw with the cashless debit card. We saw an unseemly hasty repeal of the cashless debit card with nothing to put in its place. What has been the impact on the communities in my home state of WA? We saw, as was shown by the question from Senator Cash to Minister Farrell, the huge negative impact of this decision of the government to scrap the cashless debit card on communities like Laverton.

Laverton is a community that's probably not at the forefront of most people's minds. It's a long way off the beaten track, as it were. I know Patrick Hill well, and he has spoken. I know how much he loves his community. I know how much he has put into his community. He has advocated on behalf of the Outback Way. He's advocated for his community, so it can get ahead and thrive, and to get people who are at risk of social harm back into that community. Now we are seeing all that hard work over the last few years thrown away with nothing to replace it.

The Desert Inn Hotel was forced to close the doors on its liquor store on Thursday because of the public unrest, and it introduced a one-item-per-customer rule on Friday. This is subsequent to the repeal of the cashless debit card, which was making a very real difference in that local community. Patrick Hill, the president of the shire, said: 'They're drinking bottles of spirits. That brings violence.' He said: 'The kids are not getting fed. The women get bashed up. It's just going back to the way it was.'

The cashless debit card made a real impact on that community. It wasn't a silver bullet. I got up and said this when in government, and I say it again in opposition. Nobody on this side pretended it was a silver bullet, but it enabled some people to take greater control of their lives. It enabled some people to break the cycle of dependency and violence that had been present in those communities. This government, when it came into power, scrapped it with nothing to put in its place.

We've seen the problems in Alice Springs as well. We're also seeing problems in places like Carnarvon in my home state of WA. After the Prime Minister visited Alice Springs and then came to Western Australia, the people of Carnarvon were desperate to have him come to Carnarvon to see the problems they face in their local community. Of course, their pleas were ignored. We have a situation where local communities just aren't being listened to. They're not being listened to because this government is just obsessed by the symbolism of the changes it makes and not the practical outcomes on the ground, not the substance of what the changes it makes mean to people's lives. Sadly, for a small community like Laverton, which is off the beaten track and which is not in the forefront of most people's minds—except occasionally by those around a boardroom table when talking about a new mineral deposit that's been discovered out that way—in the paper we see reported some of the social dysfunction that is currently running rife in that community. It's a very sad day for that community.