Anthony Albanese (Grayndler, Australian Labor Party, Prime Minister) Share this | Hansard source

I thank the Leader of the Opposition for his question, and I will also ask the minister to supplement my answer. We went into the election with the very clear position of abolishing the cashless debit card, and we did so because of the impact that it had in privatising part of the welfare system, whereby for the first time we had a welfare system that was paying a private company to engage in activity with profit motive, which was resulting as well in issues being imposed on communities and on individuals without their having any say in that. One of the things that we have done is make sure that we're about empowering communities, not taking power away from them. That is an important distinction between our attitude and the attitude of those opposite—not a patronising position that says, 'We know best,' not one that extended the cashless debit card into communities. It wasn't just in Indigenous communities; it was imposed on other communities as well, and that is why we went to the election with a very clear position. We stand by that, and that's why we'll be legislating to achieve our objective. I'd ask the minister to also comment.

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