Michael McCormack (Riverina, National Party, Shadow Minister for International Development and the Pacific) Share this | Hansard source

'Suffer the little children,' somebody far wiser and greater than me said. Certainly in the Northern Territory at the moment we have a crisis. Some of the most vulnerable members of that community are suffering: children.

I know that a cashless debit card wasn't the panacea or the cure-all for all the ills in the Northern Territory or elsewhere in this great nation, but it was certainly having a positive effect. It was certainly helping some of those children who were going hungry, who were going to school without a proper uniform, without breakfast, without the proper resourcing for a good education—we know that education is the great enabler. Those children were being helped by the cashless debit card to the point where their families were finally getting the money to spend on who they should be spending it on: the kids.

I'm pleased that Senator Dodson is in the chamber. I know he is here for another reason, the anniversary of the National Apology to the Stolen Generations. I appreciate that the two Northern Territory lower house members are here. I acknowledge their work to help their communities—I truly do—but we have to do much more. It can't be just partisan politics. It can't be just politicking as usual.

I had great dismay about the Minister for Social Services almost gloating, crowing, about the fact that the cashless debit card would be no more. I am not sure how many of those communities she personally visited. I am not saying she didn't make those trips to those communities, but I know I did. I have been to Katherine. I have been to Tennant Creek. I have been to Alice Springs. I have been to other communities in the Northern Territory and elsewhere and I saw that it was working. I heard that it was operating successfully.

I'm glad that the shadow minister for home affairs, child protection and prevention of family violence has introduced this bill into this House, following on from Senator Price's private members' bill in the other place, an important bill. It is an important discussion to have because we need to have it. We need to address community concerns. We need to recognise the need for immediate action to address underlying issues across parts of the Northern Territory following months of escalating crime incidents. How terrible is it to turn on our television sets to watch the six o'clock news and see scenes that would otherwise belong to probably a war zone elsewhere in the world, maybe Ukraine, maybe elsewhere, but happening in the centre of Australia, happening in Alice? It's not good enough. It's not good enough for those hardworking families in those Aboriginal communities and others besides who are doing their level best to help the most vulnerable members of their community, and those are the kids. Those are the children.

I went to Kenya late last year to look at the impending famine situation there, and you might ask: What has that got to do with this bill? I will tell you what it has to do with it. They were introducing, and it was working successfully in the early period, a cashless debit card for the 300,000 or so refugees who had gone across the border from war-torn Somalia and elsewhere into Kenya and were living in a huge camp. They found that the only way to help those people was through a system not unlike the cashless debit card. In fact, when I asked them what it was, they said that is exactly what it was; it was a cashless debit card. Go figure. We've got a cashless debit card that's working, that's operating successfully, and what do we do? Because of partisan politics, because of supposed discrimination or whatever else, we withdraw it. But we don't listen to the people on the ground. We don't listen to the mums, who are tired of the domestic violence situation in their homes and in their communities. And we don't look at those kids who were being helped, who were being helped when they went to school, who were being helped when they were playing in their communities, who were just being helped by the provisions of that cashless debit card. So I commend Senator Price and I commend shadow minister Andrews for this bill. I think it is important and I hope it succeeds.

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