Critics of the cashless debit card have condemned the decision to temporarily extend the scheme as a backwards step for Indigenous Australians and welfare recipients.
Trials of the federal government’s scheme are set to go ahead for another two years after the government failed to convince the Senate to roll it out permanently in some areas.
The federal government said the policy would help communities by preventing people on welfare from spending money on alcohol and drugs.
But Indigenous community leaders as well as legal and advocacy groups have warned that continuing the “punitive, discriminatory and harmful scheme” will cause further harm to welfare recipients.
NATSILS co-chair Priscilla Atkins said continuing the cashless welfare card without “conclusive evidence” of its effectiveness was “deeply concerning”.
“This bill will have harmful and damaging consequences for people [and] is in direct conflict with the Closing the Gap agreement,” she said.
Under the cashless debit card program, 80 per cent of an individual’s welfare payments are quarantined on a card that cannot be used to purchase alcohol or gambling products.
Labor, the Greens, academics and various human rights and legal groups have condemned it as an unproven and “racist” policy that disproportionately impacts Indigenous Australians.
The card has been extended through trials in Ceduna in South Australia, the Goldfields and East Kimberley regions of Western Australia, and Queensland’s Bundaberg and Hervey Bay.
Indigenous Australians make up 76 per cent of card users in Ceduna, 18 per cent in Bundaberg and Harvey Bay, 48 per cent in Goldfields and 82 per cent in East Kimberley.
Change the Record co-chair Cherly Axelby said the card represented a “devastating” continuation of discriminatory policy-making towards Indigenous Australians.
Multiple inquiries into the scheme have heard issues with the system’s ability to process rent and other debit payments.
Human Rights Law Centre lawyer Josephine Langbien said the federal government has “failed Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people” by pursuing the policy.
Cashless debit bill passes Senate with amendments
The cashless debit bill passed the Senate late on Wednesday night after Centre Alliance Senator Stirling Griff abstained from voting on the amended legislation, which gave the government the votes it needed.
The amendments will also permit welfare recipients in the Northern Territory to opt into the scheme.
The government was previously seeking to force more than 20,000 people in the NT onto the cards from another income management scheme.
Critics have raised concerns about a failure of the government to put forward proven evidence of its success with reports into the program highlighting deficiencies in its effectiveness.
Australian Council of Social Services chief executive Cassandra Goldie said the cashless welfare card was an “unpractical”, “demeaning”, “unproven” and “expensive” program.
Social Services Minister Anne Ruston Senator Ruston said the government still believes the card should be permanent.
“The continuation of the cashless debit card program is in direct response to calls from community leaders who tell us that it is ensuring more money is being spent on essentials and supporting positive changes,” she said in a statement on Wednesday night.
“Our commitment to this program is on a permanent basis. But we recognise we have more work to do in the future to convince the parliament they should support this program on a permanent basis too.”
