TOPICS: Two seats guaranteed for the NT; Cashless Debit Card
KATIE WOOLF, HOST: Joining us on the line right now live from Canberra, Senator for the Northern Territory, Malarndirri McCarthy. Good morning to you, Malarndirri.
SENATOR MALARNDIRRI MCCARTHY: Good morning Katie and good morning to your listeners.
WOOLF: Now, Senator, you and I have spoken about this on so many occasions – these two seats in Federal parliament. Of course, Michael McCormack was on the show about a week and a half ago and confirmed that we would keep this representation, but Senator, I understand, that these formal moves are now finally being made.
MCCARTHY: Yes, thanks Katie and huge thanks to you and your listeners there for your advocacy and support for something that is just about doing the right thing here and it has been tremendous that we’ve seen a breakthrough here, a real breakthrough. The Joint Parliamentary Committee, you might recall, Katie, back in, when was it, just in June/July I think it was, when they held the hearings into whether we should have two seats or not; they actually came down with their final report on Friday and as a result the Federal Government has taken the recommendation of their report which-- the first recommendation in it. There’s three recommendations in it, and the first one is really the one that matters and that recommended that there should be two seats in the Northern Territory, but they also added two seats as a minimum in the ACT, so the ACT has won out of our lobbying and advocacy as well so there you go.
WOOLF: Well, I tell you what, hats off to you, hats off to everybody involved. I know that you and Senator Sam McMahon really put politics aside on this one, which I think is fantastic to see. How soon, how soon do you think that this is formally sort of going to come into play? I just think it’s wonderful that this has worked out for the Territory.
MCCARTHY: Yeah, look, good question. We’ve got, this week we’ve got two weeks of sittings now. Senate is in Senate Estimates Committee so we’re not sitting in the Senate, we’ve got our Budget Estimates hearings. But, it’s the Lower House that are sitting for the next fortnight, so they’ll either introduce this legislation in the next fortnight, or possibly in the November sittings, but they must do it before the end of the year. And the Government, in its press release on Friday, has committed to doing that. I can certainly say to your listeners that this will definitely happen. The Government has certainly formally accepted the recommendations and is proceeding to put together a Bill for the two seats for the Northern Territory and the ACT.
WOOLF: Wonderful stuff! Senator, you must be feeling quite chuffed at the moment.
MCCARTHY: Just relieved and very, very thankful for the support across the Territory and Australia, Katie. When you think about it, I also lament the fact that we had to fight it, if you know what I mean. It’s something that we should not have had to do but hey we did it. And we were told we would never win, and hey we won, so yes it’s a fantastic feeling, but we’ve got to now get on with the business of other matters that are affecting Territorians. And the next one, as you know, is the Cashless Debit Card. So that’s another battle that I’m going to start dealing with now. The Federal Government is very determined to see the Cashless Debit Card roll out across the Northern Territory and I’m particularly concerned; we’ve got Territorians across the board, who are going to be impacted by this so I just have to start preparing for that now and getting feedback from the community across the Territory.
WOOLF: Senator, we don’t have a huge amount of time, but just briefly if you can tell us what your concerns are with the Cashless Debit Card.
MCCARTHY: Sure, the Cashless Debit Card is basically going to put most recipients who are on Centrelink, to have their income quarantined to 50– to 80% I beg your pardon. So at the moment, the Basics Card – and there are over 22,000 people in the Territory, who are going to be moved onto this; people who are on the Basics Card currently have their income quarantined at 50% but there will be other people, who are not on the Basics Card which will be captured in the Cashless Debit Card. And that means, so if you get say for example if you get $500 from, you know whether it’s through any of the care that you provide, anything you do in relation to receiving support from Centrelink – 80% of that $500 is going to be quarantined, where you can only spend it in specific places.
WOOLF: So, does that mean, if you’re a carer, if you’re a pensioner, that you could get caught up in this as well?
MCCARTHY: Absolutely. And this is what we need to see the details of the legislation that’s going to go through the House of Reps in the next fortnight, so once I have a good look at what the changes are, or amendments in that legislation, I’ll certainly be putting information out on my social media to Territorians asking them to let me know their views.
WOOLF: Well Senator, I reckon we’ll be speaking to you again in the very near future about this.
MCCARTHY: Absolutely.
WOOLF: Really appreciate your time this morning. Thank you so very much for having a chat do us. And well done on what you, and all our other representatives from the Northern Territory in Canberra have done to ensure that we do keep our two seats in parliament.
MCCARTHY: Thanks Katie, and it’s a huge thanks to everyone in the Territory and all political parties there, certainly the Labor and CLP did commit to it as well through the JSCEM – that was the parliamentary inquiry – so it goes to show when we need to pull together we can, so a very big thank you to everyone
WOOLF: Absolutely. Good on you, Malarndirri, we’ll talk to you again soon.
MCCARTHY: No worries, cheers.
