Anne Ruston (SA, Liberal Party, Shadow Minister for Health and Aged Care) Share this | Hansard source

I thank Senator Lambie for moving the motion requesting the minister to provide this particular report to the Senate. Like her, I have been horrified by what we have seen since the removal of the cashless debit card from these communities around Australia. Most particularly, I have intimate knowledge of what has gone on in my home state of South Australia, especially in Ceduna and surrounding communities.

As Senator Lambie pointed out, I was there quite near to the beginning of this card's implementation. One of the things that seems to have been forgotten by those opposite and those at the other end of the chamber is that this card was brought in at the request of community leaders who were trying to tackle the social harm that had occurred because of issues of drug and alcohol addiction in their communities. In desperation, they came to the government looking for a solution to save their community members. That's how the cashless debit card came about.

We did see some quite significant changes during the time the cashless debit card was in place. For example, the independent findings of the University of Adelaide report that was released in 2021 included that 25 per cent of people reported they were drinking less since the introduction of the card, 21 per cent of people reported gambling less—evidence found that cash previously used for gambling had been redirected to essential items such as food—and 45 per cent of cashless debit card participants reported the card had improved things for themselves and their families. It was clearly working, and the communities were appreciative of the impact that the card had had on their communities.

But probably the most disgusting thing, in terms of the removal of this card from the communities, is that it was done as an election commitment that was made in inner-city Sydney and Melbourne. Nobody bothered to go out into the communities and consult with them about whether they wanted the card removed. It was a blatant election commitment with no regard whatsoever for communities. We said at the time this was going to be an abject failure. We said at the time the communities—some of the most vulnerable people in Australia—were going to be the victims of this government pursuing an election commitment just to appease their inner-city, ideological, left-wing mates, with no regard whatsoever for the real consequences out on the ground. To go and remove something that was a tool within a community without even bothering to speak to the communities!

At the time, the City of Kalgoorlie-Boulder stated that the decision to abolish the cashless debit card had been made without consultation with the regional community. Likewise, Mayor Perry Will from the District Council of Ceduna said:

We've had no consultation about it at all. The first we heard of it was in the PM's election promises, that he was going to do it. Prior to that, we had had no representation from any Labor politicians.

Former mayor of Ceduna, Allan Suter, stated a similar lack of on-the-ground consultations. He stated:

… despite heavy prompting from our local member, no effort was made—

by Minister Rishworth—

to contact me. I made sure I was available if the phone rang, and it didn't.

Labor went to the election with a whole heap of fearmongering and lies about income management and scared older Australians, often with false information. We saw that on many of the Facebook pages of members of the Labor Party in the lead-up to the last election. They didn't care that the information contained on their webpages and in their social media posts was factually incorrect. They were quite happy to perpetuate these lies and scare older Australians—particularly vulnerable older Australians—into believing that the government was intending to do something that they themselves knew was a lie.

As a result, we then saw the government remove the cashless debit card from these communities. We also saw their sham behaviour in the Northern Territory on the BasicsCard. What they told the people of the Northern Territory was a complete and utter lie. They did nothing more than change the name of the card. Nothing changed. People even had the same card; they didn't even have to go into the bank and get a number changed or be issued with a new card. They simply changed the name of the card. So Australian taxpayers paid a huge amount of money for a rebranding exercise that changed nothing whatsoever in the Northern Territory.

But the real travesty here is the damage that it has done in communities like Ceduna, the Kimberlys and Kalgoorlie-Boulder, where we are now seeing the social harms return to the communities. We told them this was going to happen. Please do something to fix it.