West Coast Aboriginal Communities

The Hon. T.A. FRANKS (14:46): Supplementary question, Mr President: while the minister was in Ceduna, did he meet with the groups opposed to the cashless welfare card?

The Hon. K.J. MAHER (Minister for Employment, Minister for Aboriginal Affairs and Reconciliation, Minister for Manufacturing and Innovation, Minister for Automotive Transformation, Minister for Science and Information Economy) (14:46): I thank the honourable member for her question. Certainly, the community heads group, whom I met with, were largely positive about the card. I heard opposing views. With any reform, I think it is fair to say there are views on all sides, and certainly there were views put to me that did not support the cashless debit card.

As I said, I will reserve judgement until it has had some time in operation and it has had a proper evaluation. Even people who have overall support for the card talked about some of the implementation problems, but were pleased with how they are being worked through. There were alternative views put. We will obviously reserve judgement until it has had a chance to operate over a period of time and be reviewed.