Matt O'Sullivan (WA, Liberal Party) Share this | Hansard source

I realise I'll be coming up against a hard marker on the conclusion of this debate in about 90 seconds, so I'll save the bulk of my message on the budget reply until I get the opportunity to return to this debate. I want to make this one point. There's an old proverb that says, 'Hope deferred makes the heart sick.' This government, over here, when they were in opposition, took to the Australian people a whole bunch of things and promised a lot, and what we're seeing is that they are not delivering—firstly, on energy prices. They said, over 90 times—the Prime Minister himself said it—that Australians will see a reduction of their electricity bills by $275. Yet we've seen them abandon that. They're not pursuing it, whatsoever.

Secondly, where 'hope deferred' is certainly making the heart sick is in some of our regional communities, particularly in my home state of Western Australia. There are towns like Laverton, Leonora, the Goldfields, Kalgoorlie and the East Kimberley, where you have the cashless debit card. They took to the Australian people the abolition of the cashless debit card, promising that doing so would resolve problems, but all we've seen is that it has exacerbated the domestic violence and abuse that's going on in these towns. This has happened on their watch because of their pursuit of inner-city ideology that is getting in the way of practical solutions for communities, which is what the cashless debit card was.

Debate interrupted.