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

Of course the Albanese government has failed to provide a response, because it knows what's in the document. It's disgraceful the way the voting by the Greens, the Labor Party and Senator David Pocock has enabled communities that asked for this as a trial program to disintegrate. You don't need this report, this evaluation, to know what's happened. You don't need to go for a cup of tea, to sit in a room and hear from people in that echo chamber who are just going to tell you exactly what you want to hear so that you can come out and pretend that you've been consulting people and that you've got the answers. When you actually talk to people on the ground and walk the streets at night, you'll find the answers.

I've been to Ceduna, but I didn't make a big fanfare. I didn't take security, I didn't fly in with my plane so that everybody knew and I didn't organise the echo chamber response that I wanted to hear. It was wonderful, having been born and raised in Alice Springs, to see the Prime Minister go into Alice Springs with all his fanfare; he didn't see much. You know what? You won't see much when you've got security detail. The locals aren't that stupid. You don't fly in on a Monday and think you're getting the truth, because the bottle shops don't do takeaway on a Monday. They know that.

I can't hear you. I don't want to hear you, because you don't listen to those poor people that live with this every day. People in here go home tonight, comfortable in their beds. They get to eat, to sleep and to live without fear—but not those people. Do you know what the card actually did? Old people, women and old men could say: 'I haven't got any money. I've only got this card.' It took away significant pressure. It took away incredible humbugging.

We're not talking about this cultural babble that we hear about. We're talking about debilitating, aggressive harassment of people who are not powerful in those communities. For people who have addictions to gambling, alcohol or drugs, you're trying to tell me, through your positioning on this matter, that they make sensible, responsible decisions. That's not their first priority. Their first priority is: Where does my fix come from? Where does my alcohol come from? Where do my drugs come from? It's not, 'Where does my food come from?' That's not front of mind for them. They're arguing on the main streets—I saw it for myself—in front yards. I saw a car driving down the street and somebody getting thrown out of that car as it was moving.

People who are experiencing this are filling the emergency departments. They're filling these organisations funded by you, because you knew this would be a mess. In fact, when I was in Ceduna, the minister actually told everyone she was giving more money to these services that actually enable them. That's what the locals said. The businesses said that they wrote to the minister. They couldn't stand it anymore. I think it was a great big pile that was sent to just anybody who was prepared to listen to the businesses about what was happening to them. Some of them were saying, 'We're getting out of here.'

When you took away this card, it was a trial. It was wanted in those communities. You broke their hearts. You broke the hearts of those people that had a card that they could use to defend themselves against debilitating, coercive control. You broke communities, you broke lives, but you and I will sleep well tonight and we—I'm sure—have eaten today. You took away their human rights to also do that.

It is a disgrace. The report should be provided, but none of us really need to have that report to know what you did when you listened to the inner-city electorates who don't live with the consequences.

Question agreed to.