Jacqui Lambie (Tasmania, Jacqui Lambie Network) Share this | Hansard source

I move:

That the Senate take note of the explanation.

It was only three days ago that I was on my feet, asking for the Minister for Defence to release the report that was given to him in March. On the theme of 'same rubbish, different day', another minister is sitting on a report that was handed to her in March. This time it's Minister Rishworth. Seriously—this government was all about calling out the blue team for their lack of transparency in opposition, and they promised during the election that they would be transparent, but, as soon as they got into government, what's happened? The transparency has gone out the window.

Just last Monday, the Senate voted on my order for the production of documents that required the Minister for Social Services to provide the latest evaluation report from the University of Adelaide, commissioned by the Department of Social Services, in relation to the cashless debit card. The next day, 2 July, my office got a letter from Minister Rishworth stating: 'It will not be possible to produce the document requested in the time provided for the order to be tabled, and I will seek to comply as soon as practical.' I tried again on the Wednesday and put forward a motion requiring the attendance of the minister to comply with the order for the production of documents by 5 pm. The minister has failed to comply, just like the Minister for Defence. Minister Rishworth, you've had that report since March.

But you know what, Australia? I'm not going to take a wild guess as to why Minister Rishworth doesn't want to share this report with the people of Australia—who, by the way, paid for it like they paid for the other government reports. Here is my guess—and it's not a guess, because I've been around these communities. I've done more than anybody else in this chamber, by the way; I've been on it for nine years. You tell me somebody else that's been through this and spent three days at a time on the ground there over this period. I reckon, that said, that by removing the cashless debit card it caused massive harm in those communities. I've been contacted by communities in those trial areas and I continue to be on a weekly basis. They have told me that, without that cashless debit card, kids are going without food again, alcohol is rife again and domestic violence rates have gone through the bloody roof. The minister doesn't want to hand over that rort report, because it was one of the election promises that they withdrew with some dirty, filthy deal they did with the Greens at the expense of our Indigenous communities.

When the card was withdrawn in September 2022, Minister Rishworth was proud that she'd delivered on a pre-election promise to abolish the failed—'failed', she called it—cashless debit card program. Except it's not a failed program, is it, Minister? That's why you're hanging onto it. That's why you're hanging onto that report. I bet you're scrambling around trying to work out what to do, how you're going to spin this one. You ain't spinning it. You ain't spinning it through me, nor will you be spinning it through Senator Ruston. She's been on this for a while too; she's start to finish.

I would like to remind both ministers that the Australian taxpayer paid for those reports. Minister Linda Burney said at the time that withdrawal of the card was the result of listening to the community voices. Let me tell you what Minister Burney does. She really does her homework, because I can tell you they haven't told me that, since that cashless debit card was put in. The communities that I visited several times and stayed in touch with have said they begged the Labor Party not to remove the card. I remember being in Ceduna when the shadow minister for human services, Linda Burney, flew into Ceduna, apparently to talk to the community about the cashless debit card. I was flying out of Ceduna on my way to visit the other trial sites in Western Australia. I'd spent three days on that trip, like every other trip, in Ceduna, and I travelled to three communities outside Ceduna to hear what the people had to say about that card. So I was flying out and the shadow minister, Linda Burney, was flying in, but guess what? As I found out later, she was there for a few hours.

You know what the Greens did with the cashless debit card? You only saw them when it was election time. Do you know why? They went in and met the people against the card, which was probably about half a dozen in the community. They came in the morning, had their nice little cups of tea and walked out that afternoon. There was no time on the ground. They didn't take their swags out there. They didn't hire a car and go around the communities for seven or 10 days straight. They didn't go back and visit them; they just went and heard what they wanted to hear.

What you Greens have done in these Indigenous communities by having that card withdrawn is disgusting. You have done more harm than ever before. Get off your butts, get out there and go see those communities. Go and do your job properly. You should be absolutely ashamed of yourselves. What have you done to these communities? You've widened the gap, and you are shameful.