Coalition push to expand cashless welfare card faces Senate roadblock

Extract from The Guardian

Welfare

Labor to oppose expansion unless the card is voluntary, as crossbenchers plan a fact-finding mission over summer

Sarah Martin

Wed 27 Nov 2019 04.00 AEDT Last modified on Wed 27 Nov 2019 04.02 AEDT

Labor senator Malarndirri McCarthy says many in the Northern Territory are concerned about a cashless welfare card being imposed on them. Photograph: Mike Bowers/The Guardian

A government push to expand the cashless welfare card faces a Senate roadblock, with key crossbenchers saying they will not consider supporting the legislation until they have completed a “fact finding mission” over summer.
The legislation, which is expected to pass the House of Representatives this week, expands the card to Cape York and the Northern Territory and extends existing sites in Ceduna in South Australia, the East Kimberley and Goldfields in Western Australia, and Bundaberg and Hervey Bay in Queensland.
Labor has said it will oppose the card without amendments to make the scheme voluntary, meaning the government will be forced to rely on crossbench support for the expansion to come into effect.

A delegation from the Northern Territory met with the Tasmanian senator Jacqui Lambie and the Centre Alliance MP Rebekha Sharkie this week, calling for them to block the rollout of the card to the territory.
The legislation is due to be introduced into the Senate on Thursday, and the government had been hoping to pass the bill by the end of the parliamentary year.
Sharkie, speaking on behalf of Centre Alliance’s two senators, said she and Lambie had agreed this week not to support the government legislation until they had done “more homework”.
“At this point in time, we can’t support the bill and we would urge the government to allow us to get up to these remote communities over the summer break,” Sharkie told Guardian Australia.
“We don’t take this decision lightly, we are really taking every care to make sure that we are making an informed decision.”
Lambie has previously been supportive of the cashless welfare card, but a spokeswoman for the senator said she had “not finished talking to people”, and planned to travel to the NT and the Goldfields before considering the legislation next year.
“She has told the government that she is on a fact finding mission and that is not yet complete,” a spokeswoman for Lambie said.
A spokeswoman for the social services minister, Anne Ruston, said “it remains the government’s intention to pass the Bill before the end of the year”.
The Labor senator for the NT, Malarndirri McCarthy, said the visiting NT delegation was “very concerned” about the prospect of the cashless debit card being imposed on 23,000 people in the territory, most of whom were Indigenous.
McCarthy said the cohort of people had been on the Basics Card since income management was introduced to the territory through the Howard government intervention in 2007.

“All of these people have pretty much been on that card at some stage over the past 12 years and there has been no proof, no evidence-based reporting to show that even that card works.
“When the Senate inquiry sat in the Northern Territory and listened to residents, families, organisations in Darwin, in Alice Springs, who represented the regions, there was no evidence of support from those people who live in the NT.”
The delegation – which included representatives from the Central Land Council, the NPY Women’s Council and the Arnhem Land Progress Association – also met with the minister for Indigenous Australians, Ken Wyatt, and advisers for the social services minister.
Josie Douglas from the Central Land Council said there had been no consultation with Indigenous groups in the NT on the cashless welfare card.
“Aboriginal people in the Northern Territory are sick to death of policies being imposed on us from the top down,” she said.
“People across remote Northern Territory have no idea that this cashless debit card is coming their way.”
Douglas said she had been “strongly encouraging” the crossbench to vote against the bill and had been given a positive reception, particularly from Lambie.
“We are thankful that the senator has listened to us and understands and appreciates that there has been a lack of consultation,” Douglas said.
Under the cashless debit card scheme that has been in place since 2016, up to 80% of a person’s welfare is quarantined to a bank card that cannot be spent on alcohol or gambling. The new legislation allows the minister to restrict 100% of payments in some circumstances.

Without an extension being granted by parliament, the existing trial sites are due to expire in June next year.
Debating the legislation in the House of Representatives on Tuesday, Labor’s shadow minister for families and social services, Linda Burney, said the proposed expansion was a “stalking horse” for a national rollout, and confirmed Labor’s opposition.
“It won’t create a single job, it is extraordinarily expensive and there are serious doubts as to whether it actually works,” Burney said.
The Nationals MP for the seat of Hinkler, Keith Pitt, said that the card was “a tough but necessary policy” and had been welcomed in his electorate.
“My community wants change [and] doing nothing is not an option,” Pitt said.

“The cashless debit card is by no means a silver bullet, it does not hold all of the answers for all communities [and] it is a complex situation, but we are actually taking action, as doing nothing will never be an option.”