Jacqui Lambie (Tasmania, Jacqui Lambie Network) Share this | Hansard source

Thank you. I actually don't agree with you over the BasicsCard, and the reason I don't is that I've spent quite a bit of time in Arnhem Land. I was quite disappointed. I would have thought that, after nearly 10 years of being on that card, they would accept it. They were quite resistant to it and they were not interested in going to a new card. I guess these people have another five years ahead of them at the main trial site, in Ceduna. If things are working in the community, it's not because of the damn card; it's because the community is making it work. It was hit-and-miss up there as well. Through the chair, I have a feeling that you may want to get up and say a few things. There are things that haven't been delivered and that card could have done so much better and delivered so much more, but you put them on that BasicsCard and you forgot about them. This is the same pattern of behaviour that I am seeing with the CDC, the cashless debit card. If that's anything to go on and that's the most success we can admit to in 10 years, it really hasn't had much of a bite. Some of the guys are in dry camps, and that's great. The community has done that, not the card.

You can keep on the road you are travelling with that cashless debit card all you like, but, unless you put in effort, it's going to end up like that and you won't get the results. There are no more jobs than there were eight or nine years ago. They're still struggling to understand even the basics of the card. If someone else wants to get up and say something more about that, that's fine. What I would like to know, though, is this. We have the Northern Territory Credit Union. When does that start getting involved? It's obviously going to have to pick up the cashless debit card. Has that deal been done? Is that ready to go?