Liberal candidate for Burt Matthew O’Sullivan has refuted claims he wants to see the cashless welfare card rolled out in the electorate saying he was more concerned with delivering job security.
Mr O’Sullivan advised the Federal Government on the trials of the welfare card in Ceduna, South Australia and Kununurra.
Late last month he was quoted in The Australian as saying the card should be rolled out to urban areas with high unemployment.
The claim has since been repeated in other publications and Greens Senator Rachel Siewert released a statement describing the program as ‘paternalistic’ and arguing the Burt community would be nervous about its introduction.
This week Mr O’Sullivan said he had never called for the scheme to be expanded into more areas.
“The card is a community initiative of Ceduna and Kununurra – it’s something they have requested and the Coalition government has responded to that request by implementing a trial,” he said.
“When I was asked if I could see it being rolled out in other parts of Australia, particularly in urban areas and by extension Burt, I said that we need to wait for the outcome of that trial to see the success of it.
“Then other communities may look at that and say ‘hey it worked there, why don’t we have something similar in our own communities,’ but that’s the extent of what I said.”
He said any attempt to introduce a cashless welfare scheme should be community-driven rather than a Canberra-driven initiative but so far no one in Burt had brought it up with him.
“I don’t see it as an issue here, it hasn’t come up,” he said.
“I’ve been hitting the streets and talking to people and the key issues that come up are community safety, crime and jobs.”
Mr O’Sullivan said there needed to be a strong economy to ensure job security but there also needed to be a focus on ensuring employment for people who have been locked out of the job market.
“Employers want people to work for them but they want people who are skilled, they want people who have the confidence to do the job they’ve been provided so we have to make sure we’re equipping and empowering people to take on those jobs,” he said.
