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

I too rise to speak on the Social Security (Administration) Amendment (Income Management Reform) Bill 2023. The hypocrisy and the mistruths of the Labor government in this space have been very clearly articulated by previous speakers, so I won't go through the long list again—the broken promises in terms of supposedly eliminating the cashless debit card but then actually keeping it, calling it the enhanced card and replacing the BasicsCard with it.

I want to speak very briefly to an amendment that's been circulated in my name and will be moved by Senator Ruston. It would require the minister to regularly table information on those previous cashless debit card sites. Why do we want to do this? We want to do this because we want to understand what's happening in those sites, and we also want to hold this government to account. I particularly call on the crossbenchers to think about this. This government has promised those local communities services. They have promised them wraparound services. They have promised them on-the-ground support. They have promised them money to fund those services.

Let's find out if this government is actually delivering those things. Let's find out if this government is actually helping those communities on the ground to actually improve their circumstances. As my good friend Senator O'Sullivan has quite clearly demonstrated in this place: anecdotally, we all know that those communities have gone backwards. We have seen it on the ground and heard it from the people living on the ground. Just putting in this small reporting obligation on the minister will keep this government honest. I know that's a long bow to draw, but, at the very least, we should try and do that.

(Quorum formed)