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

I rise to speak on the Auditor-General's report No. 48 of 2023-24 and I move:

That the Senate take note of the document.

As a senator for South Australia, I'm interested in this document and in what it says about transitional arrangements for the cashless debit card, not just in the transition for government departments, related entities and the organisations that received significant resources to deal with the fallout but in what has happened to the people—real people; the women, children and elders—who were protected from humbugging. That's harassment of the worst kind. It's menacing and co-opting family members to pile on when a person couldn't use the card, as they had done, as the excuse for having no money to give away. This Albanese government and its Australian Greens coalition partners have left people hurt, harmed and hungry.

But, if you listen to senior bureaucrats, it's all going swimmingly. There's nothing to see here. Apparently they have done consultations and locals are pretty pleased. Well, locals in Ceduna in South Australia are not saying that. When I travelled to Kalgoorlie, locals didn't say that either at a community meeting. They were just two communities that asked for the card to be trialled in their communities. Nearly every Ceduna business wrote to federal MPs earlier this year. All wanted the return of the cashless debit card. The chaos is something they live with every day. That's the evidence, they said. Maybe Minister Rishworth could visit unannounced. Ceduna residents say this costs them and it costs lives and livelihoods. There is no real evidence here to argue otherwise—none. Increasing alcohol and substance addiction, abuse, social unrest, family and domestic violence and crime in Ceduna and other former CDC sites have been the experience.

Do you know who's really benefited from the card's abolition? The Aboriginal service industry. It has grown since the card was abolished, and in fact locals also say those same services are now feeding a thriving dependence on those same programs. Couple that with the appallingly slow rollout of the so-called Real Jobs Program, which was promised in an election commitment but is yet to materialise. Indigenous affairs under this government is a fantastic ideological mess. There's no matching that rhetoric with the reality, and you won't hear that at the PM's favourite pilgrimage place at Garma.

This document, the Auditor-General's report, states on page 9:

Robust program monitoring and performance measurement to inform future policy design has not been implemented and no evaluation plan has been developed for the Enhanced Income Management program.

The lack of evaluation of their experiment is extraordinary. On page 10, it states:

No additional key performance indicators or performance measures have been established.

There are several mentions of no reporting, no documenting and no appropriate record-keeping practices. Success simply wasn't measured, and progress was ignored.

So where is the evidence from this so-called transparent, accountable, 'leave no-one behind' Albanese government? It doesn't exist, because they are not collecting it or they won't give it up. We know there are reports that do exist. We look forward to seeing them tabled in this place. Not only that, when the department did receive advice, it was ignored, according to the report, which states:

There is no evidence that the design of the Enhanced Income Management program was informed by ANAO audit recommendations, evaluations or lessons learned from the CDC program or other relevant programs.

So what on earth has informed this? Ideology has informed this. Failing to recognise the truth has informed this, and it continues to validate the mess that's been created by this. The locals tell the truth, though. This report backs up their concerns, and the people who live with the fallout every single day know just that. They don't sit here in Canberra. They don't sit in the big cities. They live it every single day.

I seek leave to continue my remarks later.

Leave granted.