Yahoo Finance ‘Harmful’: Govt pushes ahead with ‘risky’ cashless welfare card
The cashless debit card is on its way to the Senate, after narrowly passing Parliament on Monday afternoon 62 votes to 61.
Now, the fate of the cashless debit card rests in the hands of two independents: Tasmania’s Jacqui Lambie, and South Australia’s Rex Patrick.
The independents are being asked to form a decision without seeing the University of Adelaide’s recent evaluation of the scheme, which was commissioned by the Government for $2 million but is yet to be unveiled.
In lieu of further evidence, Lambie and Patrick have said they want to base their decision on feedback from those affected, after being urged by other members of Parliament to not cut deals with the Coalition.
What is the cashless debit card?
The cashless debit card is a debit card that has been given to welfare recipients in some regional areas in Australia, including Ceduna in SA, Goldfield in WA and Hervey Bay in Queensland.
The scheme was introduced back in 2016, and is currently running on a trial in these areas until 31 December, with recipients receiving 20 per cent of their welfare payment in their regular account, and 80 per cent onto the card.
The card only allows welfare recipients on the card to spend money on things the Government deems essential. They can’t use the card to purchase alcohol, gambling products or some gift cards, and they can’t take cash out from the card.
The cashless debit card bill
The Government introduced a bill to make the cashless debit card permanent after the 2020-21 Budget was handed down.
If the bill passes, around 25,000 people in the Northern Territory and Cape York who are currently on the Basics Card, a form of cash management, will be transferred onto the cashless debit card.
The Government claims the card is used “like an everyday bank card”, and has seen a reduction in drug and alcohol use and gambling.
“The cashless debit card program is delivering significant benefits for the communities where it currently operates,” assistant minister for waste reduction and environmental management, Trevor Evans, said, introducing the bill.
“The program has the objective of reducing immediate hardship and deprivation, helping welfare recipients with their budgeting strategies and reducing the likelihood that they will remain on welfare and out of the workforce for extended periods.”
Parliament wraps up for the year at the end of this week, meaning the Government needs this bill to pass by Friday or the trials will end on 31 December.
Will the cashless debit card become permanent?
Patrick and Lambie have both remained tight-lipped on their decision with regards to the cashless debit card, but Patrick has ventured to communities where the cards are in place to get feedback from users.
"It is still a very complicated matter and involves issues about whether or not it's popular control, the way people spend money, or whether there's a racist element to this and whether the card achieves what it's actually intended to do," Patrick told the ABC.
Patrick said he had not seen the University of Adelaide’s $2 million report on the scheme, and the Government hadn’t provided enough data on whether it actually works.
"One of the difficulties, I understand, is that in some senses it's anecdotal and that it takes the opinions of those in and around the card, rather than examining police data on crime statistics, looking at health admissions and looking at how many people have been turning up to the sobering up centre in Ceduna.”
Greens senator Rachel Siewert is urging Patrick and Lambie to vote against the bill, saying it’s not a bill to make deals with the Coalition over.
"Supporting this bill essentially entrenches one of the most paternalistic measures of the Northern Territory intervention," she said.
"This is not a bill for the crossbench to make deals over. This is about vulnerable people's lives."
Does the cashless debit card work?
Industry experts have opposed the bill and the card, saying there’s not enough evidence to suggest the scheme is working.
The Law Council of Australia urged parliament to abandon the bill, saying they had “grave concerns” about the methodology of early trial evaluations, and until further evaluation was done, nothing should be made permanent.
“While a further evaluation is underway, its findings have not yet been released, making it premature to establish the CDC as a permanent measure or to expand it,” Law Council president, Pauline Wright said.
Wright said the bill also proposed to remove the need for independent evaluation, which would “further undermine” the community’s ability to know whether the card is effective in addressing harm to individuals or communities.
It also could be found to be inconsistent with the Racial Discrimination Act, Wright said.
“The Law Council is not averse to some form of income management, but participation in the CDC and/or income management needs to be voluntary, based on full, free and informed individual consent (opt-in), assessment of an individual’s suitability to participate, and meaningful community consultation,” she said.
“The CDC itself should also not be seen as the solution to all problems. What is needed is a full suite of support programs, which are sadly lacking in many rural, regional and remote communities.”
The Human Rights Legal Centre has said the cashless debit card is inconsistent with human rights, and has “limited effectiveness” for those compelled to be on it.
“The Parliamentary Joint Committee on Human Rights (the Committee) has repeatedly raised concerns that both compulsory CDC and income management unjustifiably limit rights to social security, private and family life, equality and nondiscrimination,” their 2019 submission said.
While the University of Adelaide research hasn’t been unveiled, Guardian Australia revealed researchers found “only a minority” of those interviewed in WA who support the card want it to continue in its current form, with most preferring a “targeted approach”.
Researchers also said there was “little consensus” the cashless debit card was reducing drug and alcohol abuse in Goldfields, WA.
Senators Patrick and Lambie have until Friday to make their call.
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