Kerrynne Liddle (SA, Liberal Party, Shadow Minister for Child Protection and the Prevention of Family Violence) Share this | Hansard source

The first job of any government is to keep its citizens safe. The Prime Minister promised to continue the coalition's important work to stop the boats, protecting Australia's shores and its people, yet we've just seen a boat funded by people smugglers and packed with asylum seekers land undetected on the remote north-west coast of Western Australia. Not detecting who's coming, which is a risk to biosecurity, is a big fail.

Then there is the Albanese government's bungle of the NZYQ case, where it released 149 detainees into our communities. They released seven murderers or attempted murderers, 37 sexual offenders and 72 detainees who'd been convicted of assault, kidnapping and armed robbery. Yet months later, despite having the tools to do so, this government has not yet sought orders to lock any of them back up. Not a single detainee has been redetained. How is doing nothing keeping Australians safe?

Another epic fail from this government was uncovered in recent Senate estimates. During the election, the Prime Minister announced that his Labor government would fund and deliver 500 new frontline family and domestic violence sector workers. Since then, there has been no urgency, action or progress. Almost two years since that election promise, this Labor government has delivered two workers of the 500 promised for work in community service areas, including in the key area of domestic and family violence. Again, how is doing nothing keeping Australians safe?

There's a domestic and family violence epidemic in this country. It's an issue that affects lives every single day. While the Albanese government, the public servants that serve it, and the state and territory governments procrastinated, women, children and vulnerable people have had to wait and wait and wait. The Albanese government, with its claim of transparency and integrity, espouses traits that its actions do not resemble. This self-proclaimed Labor government, elected on a promise of greater transparency and integrity, has offered no real insight into the progress of this election commitment, months and months and months after I sought information. There's a sector in need, there are people in need, and this government has failed to deliver. In the Northern Territory, police statistics show a 20 per cent increase in the incidence of family and domestic violence in a 12-month period. In all states and territories, the incidence of violence has gone up. After the NT, the states with the greatest increase are Tasmania and Western Australia. The evidence is indeed indisputable.

When this government, ably assisted by the Greens, ended the cashless debit card, driven by ideology, it allocated $217 million to change the card and many more millions to implement programs to deal with the fallout from its end. This Albanese government knew the removal of the card would wreak havoc on communities, and it has. This government put the safety of women, children and the most vulnerable behind its election commitment. Broken promises about lower mortgages, broken promises of a $275 reduction in electricity bills, broken promises on supporting the stage 3 tax cuts—those on the other side have unambiguous form on breaking promises. However, this is the one you should have broken—getting rid of the cashless debit card.

The cashless debit card, which limited spending on alcohol, gambling and drugs, was important in those communities that it existed in. Instead, what's left now is broken lives and broken spirits. In the towns that were trial sites, there is evidence of increased social unrest and violence. Businesses are hurting. Residents are hurting. The most vulnerable are hurting. Tell me where life is better for residents in those communities—not in Melbourne's Fitzroy, Queensland's West End or Sydney's Newtown but in the communities directly affected by the fallout.

You knew devastation would follow, because you invested in programs in the trial sites, and with that came more public servants and more Indigenous industry program providers. What about more politicians? When are you going to go and show your face in Ceduna, in the Goldfields or in the Kimberley to take a look at how your handiwork has improved the lives of those that live there? Save the jet fuel—it hasn't. Your actions did nothing to move the dial and improve lives for the people that live there. You did nothing that made lives safer or better. This is an overpromising, underdelivering government that Australians cannot trust to keep Australians safe. It's that simple, and the evidence proves it.