Rachel Siewert (WA, Australian Greens) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

Tonight I rise to speak about the wellbeing exemption the Department of Social Services can apply to exempt participants of the cashless debit card trial where it feels the mental, emotional or physical wellbeing of a child participant is at risk. I've been contacted by a number of community members asking how this process works.

It's no secret that the Greens vehemently oppose the cashless debit card. We know it is a punitive and patronising social experiment that this government keeps clinging to, despite a lack of rigorous research justifying its continuation. In fact, the ANAO has said that there is no evidence that the card has reduced social harm. This experiment is an ideological pet project of this government that targets some of the most vulnerable members of our community. Let's hope that when the government attempts to rush the next bill through this parliament to extend this trial the ALP has the guts to stand up and say, 'No more.'

Once a person is in a trial site and placed on the cashless debit card trial, they will remain there as long as they meet the age and payment criteria. The only way a participant can be made exempt from the trial is based on the department's own interpretation of their wellbeing using an opaque process known only to those in the department responsible for executing it. This is known as the wellbeing exemption. The department needs to be 'satisfied' that being a trial participant would seriously risk that person's mental, physical or emotional wellbeing, but it is very unclear exactly how the department assesses a participant's wellbeing and the process for this.

I've been contacted, as I've said, by a number of constituents seeking clarification about what the wellbeing exemption means. When I asked for some advice from the Parliamentary Library to provide us with a brief on the procedure, all they could find was a document obtained from the department under freedom of information that provides a blanked-out, step-by-step procedure for accessing wellbeing exemptions. The online Social Security Guide provides a grand total of four lines on the procedure. There is no public knowledge about this process and how the department makes its decisions. I must ask why there is this lack of transparency? Why does the government hide behind this? Why is the government not open about this process?

We know that, at some point, the process involves the participant being assessed by a social worker, but we have no knowledge as to what that assessment looks like or what specific qualities or characteristics of trial participants the social workers are assessing. We have no knowledge as to how pre-existing mental illness or individual circumstances of the participants are taken into consideration. We have no knowledge as to how much weight the social workers' report is given by the department and what other means they are using to assess a participant's wellbeing.

Here's what we do know. A participant contacted my office recently, having completed the process. They were advised by the department that they would not be exempt until they activated and lived on the card. This decision was despite the social worker agreeing with the participant that being placed on the card would exacerbate their pre-existing mental health conditions and result in a deterioration of their wellbeing. The department, rather than being proactive and seeking to prevent a further deterioration in this person's mental health and their family's wellbeing, is asking her to put her own health at risk in order to prove that she's worthy of an exemption. This is absolutely ridiculous. What they're saying is, 'Try it out for a while and, if it worsens your mental health, then we'll have a look.' That's rather than being proactive and supporting people.

The government claims this is about helping people when, in fact, what they're saying is, 'No, get worse and then we might take you off it.' This government is playing games with the lives of Australians with regard to their life circumstances. The only avenue they provide to exempt participants—the so-called wellbeing exemption—is tightly guarded by a few people in the department who reserve the power to determine exemptions on a mystery set of guidelines and circumstances that the government won't share with the public. Out of 5,397 people on the card, only 134 have been granted an exemption. This is an unfair, draconian process. The government is determined to keep as many Australians on this card as they can possibly fit on. It's appalling.