Carol Brown (Tasmania, Australian Labor Party, Shadow Assistant Minister for Infrastructure and Regional Tourism) Share this | Hansard source

I rise to speak on the Social Security (Administration) Amendment (Cashless Welfare) Bill 2019. Labor has serious concerns about the cashless welfare card, and we have always opposed its rollout nationally. Labor supported the initial trial of the Cashless Debit Card in Ceduna and East Kimberley because the community leaders indicated their support at the time. Of course, the initial support offered by communities came against a backdrop of inadequate local services and inadequate local job creation and economic development programs—the investments that government should have been making in local social and economic wellbeing.

Labor did not support the further expansion of the trial to Bundaberg-Hervey Bay or the Goldfields, because of the lack of evidence and a lack of any clear community support. Let me be clear: Labor will not support the expansion of the cashless debit card to new communities unless the community wants the card and there is informed community consent. At the election, the rollout of the cashless debit card in Bundaberg-Hervey Bay was only partially complete. Labor committed to stopping the rollout of the cashless debit card in Bundaberg-Hervey Bay and to taking a case management approach to putting in place alternative support for people already on the card, as well as investing in support services and programs that work. Labor has not been able to satisfy ourselves through our own consultations that the community desire present in the other trial sites was present in Goldfields and Bundaberg-Hervey Bay.

Labor successfully amended a bill in the Senate in April this year to allow people participating in the cashless debit card trial sites to get off the cashless debit card if they are effectively managing their affairs. Labor's amendment required community panels, which are established in some cashless debit card trial sites, to be the decision-maker. This was consistent with existing arrangements for reducing the portion of a person's income quarantined on the cashless debit card. The government's subsequent consultation with the community panels found that they did not want to be this decision-maker, out of concern for the pressure that could be placed on panel members by members of the community who apply to get off the cashless debit card. On this basis, Labor will not oppose this bill—it is consistent with the amendment we successfully made earlier in the year and it will give people a pathway off the card.

This bill will amend the exit criteria under current legislation to allow for a broader consideration of opt-out criteria for persons participating in the cashless welfare card. The bill will create a single administrative process for the Department of Social Services, DSS, to make decisions about people getting off the cashless debit card. The bill also combines the pre-existing welfare exemption which allows DSS to exempt a person from the cashless debit card if it is a threat to their physical, mental or emotional health, with the exit pathway established by Labor's amendment.

Further, the bill clarifies that exit applications need to be made in a form that is approved by the secretary of DSS and expands the wellbeing exemption provisions so they apply more broadly across all regions. This bill will ultimately assist participants who are managing their affairs well and who want to get off the card. We understand hundreds of people are seeking an exemption from the trial and have already approached DSS about the opt-out process. This shows there is strong community support for people being able to get off the cashless debit card.

Labor has some concerns about the operation of certain provisions in this bill, and we will move amendments to address some of these. The cashless debit card has been running too long. It is no longer a trial, and it is time the government produced some real evidence about the effectiveness of the card and reassessed community support in each trial area. That is why Labor moved a second reading amendment in the House calling on the government to: firstly, table a report in parliament by the end of the year, making clear whether or not there is continuing community support in any of the trial sites for the cashless debit card; secondly, table a wraparound service plan in the parliament by the end of the year, explaining how the government has boosted community services in the trial sites and what increased investment will be made in the future; and, thirdly, make the cashless debit card voluntary from 30 January 2020, unless there is clear local community support and consent for the card. This is an incredibly important point—the government simply cannot continue to impose this card on communities where there is not clear support and they cannot continue to impose it in the absence of evidence about the card's effectiveness.

In this context, Labor's future position on the cashless debit card is clear. We will not support the extension of the cashless debit card trial sites or the further rollout of the cashless debit card, unless the government can demonstrate there is clear and genuine local community support. The cashless debit card is over-simplified. Labor will move similar amendments in the committee stages in the debate in this bill, setting out a process for people to come off the card.

Since the introduction of the cashless debit card trials, the government has continually failed to be up-front about the full cost of implementing the cashless debit card. Hopefully, this is something the minister can shed some light on in the course of this debate. The government have already spent $34 million on the cashless debit card, and the budget papers show they're planning to spend $128.8 million over the forward estimates, including on new sites and the rollout of the cashless debit card across the Northern Territory. That's over $160 million that instead could have been allocated to employment and economic development, early intervention services, and to drug and alcohol treatment.

It was reported in mid-2017 that the cost per participant of the cashless debit card exceeded $10,000 per participant. The same year the Auditor-General found that the annual running costs of the cashless debit card would be over $3,700 per participant. The problem is that we have never had a proper evaluation into what better outcomes would be possible if this money was invested differently. This is incredibly concerning, particularly when you consider that the Auditor-General found there was no evidence that the cashless debit card was effective. In addition, Labor has become increasingly concerned about the government's reliance on the deeply flawed ORIMA evaluation to justify the cashless debit card. The Auditor-General's examination of the cashless debit card found that there was no evidence that the card was effective and found deep inconsistencies in the ORIMA evaluation.

At a Senate inquiry into the cashless debit card earlier this year, the Senate Standing Committees on Community Affairs heard evidence that in some trial sites the cashless debit card has now been in operation for so long that the opportunity for a proper piece of evaluation to be conducted has passed. There is clear evidence the card is not maintaining community support, even in areas where some people might have initially been in favour of the card. Indigenous leader and foundation chair in Australian Indigenous Studies at the University of Melbourne, Professor Marcia Langton, has said the cashless debit card is a failure. Professor Langton said, 'Because the local community is not involved in implementing the policy, the policy failed.' One of the community leaders who initially supported the introduction of the trial, Mr Desmond Hill, has since withdrawn his support. Mr Hill told the recent inquiry one of the conditions community leaders had when agreeing to the East Kimberley becoming a trial site was that people would be able to apply to leave the trial. Another Indigenous elder in the East Kimberley, Ian Trust, who remains a supporter, told the committee he was not opposed to people being able to come off the card in some circumstances. That is why it is important that people can get off the cashless debit card, even in areas where the trial may be supported by the community. This bill will allow people to come off the cashless debit card, and the fact is many of those people should not have been on the card in the first place.

In conclusion, why Labor will not oppose this bill because it implements an amendment we made some months ago and provides a pathway off the card. We will not support the extension of the cashless debit card trial sites or the further rollout of the cashless debit card, unless the government can demonstrate there is clear and genuine local community support. Labor will take an evidence based approach to this policy and to income management. We will not go down the US path of supporting essentially a food stamp system, where people are identified and shamed in public by the card as being on social security, where children are teased and ostracised at school, where people can't buy a second hand fridge on Gumtree, shop at a roadside farm stall or buy food at a market, all because this conservative government would rather hand out tens of millions of dollars to a private company to run the cashless debit card and to set up a privatised, parallel welfare system to be imposed by this government on people regardless of their circumstances or how they are managing their affairs. Australians have a right to adequate social security. It should be considered by all sides a basic characteristic of a fair and civil society. We will not demonise social security recipients, like this government does.