Rick Wilson (O'Connor, Liberal Party) Share this | Hansard source

If only the member for Bruce had been in Leonora the day that that teenager took her life—the day when respected Aboriginal elder Gay Harris urged me to find a way to help solve some of the endemic issues of child-sex abuse, teen despair, family domestic violence and the breakdown of the fabric in her community.

In the following months then Minister for Human Services, Alan Tudge, came to these communities not once but many times. The Department of Social Services also came and consulted widely with the communities of all five Goldfields local government authorities. From memory, there were over 250 consultations hosted by the DSS, and I also conducted my own surveys and consultations. These shires represented their community needs and aspirations and they lobbied tirelessly the many ministers, and even the Prime Minister, when they visited the Goldfields to consult on and to announce the Goldfields cashless debit card trial. For the five shires of the Goldfields and for my colleagues who have CDC trial sites in their electorates of Grey, Durack and Hinkler, this Labor proposal to bring forward the sunset date of the existing cashless debit card legislation will undo the great work well underway. I wonder if the member for Bruce has even asked any of these communities what they want and how it can be best achieved.

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