Wendy Askew (Tasmania, Liberal Party) Share this | Hansard source

The amendments proposed by the government to the Social Security (Administration) Amendment (Repeal of Cashless Debit Card and Other Measures) Bill 2022 will quite simply extend the cashless debit card. This goes against everything they said during the election campaign and shows this ill-conceived promise was made on the fly without proper consideration. This is yet another embarrassing backflip by the Albanese Labor government that ultimately means people in Cape York, the Northern Territory, and within the CDC trial sites who voluntarily transitioned from the BasicsCard to the cashless debit card can now stay on the card. These amendments are an admission by Labor they got it wrong and that abolishing the cashless debit card will have dire consequences for those vulnerable communities.

I'm pleased Labor have recognised their mistake in time and provisioned $50 million for additional drug and alcohol support services to reduce the serious social harm that is likely to result from the removal of this critical welfare program. Despite the amendments allowing people to voluntarily remain on the CASHLESS DEBIT CARD program and the additional funding for drug and alcohol support services, the intention of the bill is still to repeal the cashless debit card.

As the Chair of the Community Affairs Legislation Committee during the 46th Parliament, I led the inquiry relating to the transition of income management participants in the Northern Territory and Cape York onto the cashless debit card from the BasicsCard during 2020. The understanding I have of this program means I know the difference the cashless debit card made in the trial communities. I heard women speaking about how they felt safer, better able to feed their families and more capable of helping their children participate in school since being part of this program. Labor's decision to abolish the cashless debit card would open up these vulnerable communities to more alcohol abuse, more drug abuse and more violence. I simply cannot endorse a bill that will impact the 17,000 participants in this way.

I also cannot support a bill that is being rushed. So little time has been spent considering what comes after the cashless debit card is repealed should this bill be successful, and that is distressing. During the federal election campaign Labor said it would abolish the card and leave no-one behind. However, forcing people who are used to using the system off the program with hardly any notice is not only poor planning but goes against the very reasoning it was set up in the first place. The act of abolishing the cashless debit card leaves behind thousands of people around the country. The government's amendments were induced today because, at the eleventh hour, Labor realised there was nothing was suitable to replace the program.

Income management has been used in Australia since 2007, and the technology that enabled an income management program to operate with EFTPOS transactions was introduced as the BasicsCard in 2008. While the BasicsCard technology made important inroads at the time of its introduction, its use is restricted. The BasicsCard can only be used in around 15,500 designated outlets, which must be all individually approved by government. But there is a better system, the cashless debit card. The CDC program was introduced in Ceduna, South Australia, in March 2016 and then progressively rolled out to the other trials between April 2016 and January 2019. There were 17,754 participants using the cashless debit card around Australia as of 5 August this year.

The CDC program was developed following the sleeping rough inquest in 2011, where the state coroner inquired into the deaths of six people on South Australia's far west coast. The coronial report found efforts to curb alcohol abuse in the region had been unsuccessful, and that had produced devastating impacts across those communities. The cashless debit card was designed to help these communities by addressing social harm issues like domestic violence, child neglect and antisocial behaviours that arose from alcohol and drug abuse and long-term welfare dependency. It must be said that Indigenous community leaders approached the government for support and worked with government to establish the CDC program. The further rollout of the program was established on the same basis of community support.

The Social Security (Administration) Amendment (Continuation of Cashless Welfare) Bill 2020 enabled income management recipients in the Northern Territory to voluntarily transition from the BasicsCard to the cashless debit card. As of 5 August this year, 4,398 participants in the Northern Territory had voluntarily transitioned from the BasicsCard to the CDC. The cashless debit card can deliver income management technology and operates using existing banking infrastructure. Those who have a cashless debit card can use their card at around one million outlets that have EFTPOS facilities within Australia, making it far more accessible than the BasicsCard. It can also be used online and internationally.

Additionally, the Cashless Debit Card program is part of a series of measures introduced by the coalition to help people improve their circumstances as well as to keep their community safe. Besides the card itself, these measures include the $30 million jobs fund and job ready initiative to strengthen local support services and help participants to upskill. There was also $50 million for residential drug and alcohol rehabilitation facilities, as well as mental health services, extra family support services, targeted youth activities and financial counselling. Not only will such measures and support systems be under threat once the cashless debit card is repealed; it will leave more than 17,000 program participants in a worse position than when they started.

The cashless debit card operates as a Visa debit card, just like the debit cards you and I use at shops accepting Visa and EFTPOS. The only difference is that this card cannot be used to purchase alcohol or gambling products, and only a portion of payments can be withdrawn as cash. In most cases, 80 per cent of the recipient's support payment was quarantined on the cashless debit card with the remaining 20 per cent transferred to their personal bank account. In the Northern Territory the quarantined amount was just 50 per cent for most participants. For those in Cape York the quarantined percentage remained as it was under their previous income management arrangements. This strategy to reduce cash withdrawals also lessened the person's ability to spend their income support payments on illegal drugs. Orima Research published a report evaluating the CDC trial in 2017 showing a reduction in alcohol consumption, illegal drug use, and gambling. Other evaluations, including the University of Adelaide's 2021 report, have consistently shown this policy decreased drug and alcohol issues within the trial communities. It also decreased crime, violence and antisocial behaviour; improved child health and wellbeing; improved financial management; and strengthened the communities.

Only weeks ago the Senate Community Affairs Legislation Committee heard from Noel Pearson, who founded the Cape York Institute. As we've heard previously, Mr Pearson spoke passionately about how the cashless debit card had positively influenced people in his community. It provided educational opportunities for families, like purchasing books, sporting equipment and school excursions. But he says this bill will wipe out 20 years of his work in the Cape York community. There has been discussion around quarantining income support payments and whether the government of the day should be able to stipulate how recipients spend such payments. Mr Pearson explained that quarantining money for essential purchases like rent and groceries gave those receiving income support payments the ability to save face when money was demanded of them. Instead of being forced to hand money over, recipients said, 'It's locked away; I can't give you the money.' Instead, the money fed, clothed and homed their families. The Cape York Institute worked with banks over many years to create a workable alternative, where money could be paid into a lockable or a pre-commitment account. But Mr Pearson told the committee no other option had been found. He said:

… in the absence of a solution that had the same functionality as the cashless debit card, our Family Responsibilities Commission and the welfare reform work that we've done via that over the last 20 years will collapse, and that would be a very bad thing.

In her submission to the committee's hearing in Bundaberg, Commissioner Tammy Williams from Queensland's Family Responsibilities Commission asked for the card to stay. She requested that the Australian government retain the cashless debit card for FRC jurisdiction or, if replaced, that the alternative have at least the same functionality, as the FRC does not support the return of the BasicsCard because it does not meet the standard.

Witnesses in Alice Springs spoke out about how the cashless debit card made a real difference in their communities. A financial counsellor with Central Australian Womens Legal Service told the committee that most of the women she worked with actually liked being on income management because they feel 'their children are being looked after because they're able to provide food and clothing', and 'they're not being harassed as much for money'.

If this bill is passed, will the Albanese Labor government take responsibility for the inevitable increase of violent crimes, alcohol and drug abuse, humbugging and child neglect that will follow? No, they will say they're leaving no-one behind, while walking away from the communities in Ceduna, East Kimberley, the Goldfields, Bundaberg and Hervey Bay. But it's not just me saying this. Noel Pearson knows the impacts that tearing supports away from a community like Cape York will have. He said:

You will repeal the card and then you will walk away and leave us to the violence, leave us to the hunger, leave us to the neglected children.

This bill was pulled together in a rush, without actually speaking with those who will be impacted. During the inquiry, the City of Kalgoorlie-Boulder submitted:

… the City of Kalgoorlie-Boulder remains unconsulted on how the transition will impact CDC participants, social services providers, government agencies, and the community.

Ceduna mayor Perry Will said: 'We've had no consultation about it at all. The first we heard of it was in the PM's election promises'. But at the end of August Labor's hastily arranged CDC engagement team sent a raft of draft engagement documents to the Goldfields, with stakeholders given less than four days to provide feedback. They should have been consulted as soon as this election commitment was voiced or, ideally, as part of the policy development prior to announcing it. I wouldn't call this 'engagement'; I'd call it ticking a box so Labor can say that consultation occurred. Even the head of the Department of Social Services, the department which oversees this income management program, admitted the decision to abolish the card was an election commitment of the government. So the department would not have been involved in any consultation prior to the election.

In the other place, my coalition colleagues have already argued against the lack of planning that has gone into this bill and the repercussions that are sure to follow. The member for Grey, Rowan Ramsey, whose electorate covers Ceduna, mentioned the positive differences the cashless debit card made in his community. He said that the people he'd spoken with were all horrified that the current government was going to stop the card. He shared the story of an elderly woman who was initially against the card's introduction but soon realised its value, as it was a buffer against the violence in her family and gave her the ability to stand up. Michael McCormack MP, the member for Riverina, pointed out that the biggest difference the cashless debit card had made was for children. If we, as the parliament of Australia, are to look after one thing—one sector of society—it should be our children. 'Children are our future,' he said. He is right. We must look after our children—our most vulnerable children—and this program did just that.

The previous Minister for Social Services, the member for Bradfield, Paul Fletcher, said the program 'has made a significant difference in the lives of thousands of people, Indigenous and non-Indigenous, in many communities around Australia'. He told members about how he was struck by senior Aboriginal women supporting the cashless debit card:

… because it meant that women could use social services payments for food, clothing and rent for themselves and their children, rather than being pressured by family members, typically male, to hand over cash to spend on nonessentials like alcohol.

Police told Mr Fletcher the number of callouts relating to domestic violence had dramatically reduced, while medical clinic staff told him significantly fewer people were presenting as a result of domestic violence. A chemist said that parents were buying medicines for their children because they could now afford to. A social worker in that community told him that people were able to save money for the first time. Residents said they felt safer. Despite all this evidence, this government is insisting on forcing the bill through, and the work done to improve the situations in these regional and remote communities will be undone. Repealing the cashless debit card does not fix the problem this program sought to address; it merely adds to the issues that need fixing.

I do not support this bill, and I ask senators to listen to the words of those living in these communities before putting your support behind it. Think about what will happen once the program is repealed. Think about the antisocial behaviour that will return once money can be freely accessed. And then think about all those children whose futures will change as a result of that support system being removed from their families. It's not a nice thought, is it?