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

I rise this evening to talk about the debacle that is the cashless debit card exemption process. Income management has been a racist, discriminatory tool that the government and the opposition have used when in government and have imposed on First Nations peoples for over a decade since the Northern Territory intervention. The first so-called trials of the cashless debit card started in areas with a high percentage of First Nations peoples—Ceduna, the East Kimberley and Goldfields—with the purported goal of tackling drug, alcohol and gambling addiction.

Funnily enough, when a trial was later announced for the Hinkler region, the card was meant to target intergenerational unemployment. It is amazing that one card could be such a silver bullet for addressing so many complex issues. Labor have, unfortunately, backed the cashless debit card most of the way. I was really pleased when they opposed the Hinkler trial when that was put in place by the government. 'Great,' I thought. 'They have finally listened to the overwhelming evidence that income management does not work.' Yet again I was disappointed.

In April 2019, when given the choice to vote against the extension of the Ceduna, East Kimberley and Goldfields so-called trial sites, they in fact opted to keep them going. The government gagged the debate on the legislation that extended the trials by another year. In doing that, the government and the ALP told the community that it was going to be okay because they had organised an amendment with opt-out provisions, where people could apply for an exemption from the card if they could demonstrate reasonable and responsible management of financial affairs. This amendment was so flawed that the government had to introduce a further amendment to fix the problem. Then it took months to put in place criteria and a form for an exemption process, and there's been no transparency on how this works since then. The exemption process is a complex process with complex forms, and many people don't even know it's an option. There's been no additional support to help people access the form and fill it in, despite the fact that most of the trial sites are in remote and regional communities where populations do not necessarily have English as their first language.

In order to get off the card, you have to prove that you can manage your money, but the card itself makes it harder for people to manage their money. That's the first problem right there. People on the cashless debit card can't save money by buying second-hand goods on Gumtree, for example, or shop on eBay or Facebook Marketplace or go to the local markets. Their rent is often paid late by Indue, and they cop late fees. The problems, in fact, are endless. In many cases people are being rejected from getting off the card because they've had transactions declined, but, if they request to see these declined transactions, the department will not show them, and the statements from Indue don't show the declined transactions either. There is no transparency or procedural fairness in this process, and it's just another way that the government has made life harder for people on income support. Since 1 July 2019, when this process was supposed to start, 1,234 have people applied to get off the card, just 291 have been approved, 584 have been rejected and the rest are waiting.

You are much less likely to be approved to get off the card if you are a First Nations person, despite the majority of those on the card being First Nations peoples. People from around the country have been hoping since 1 July 2019 to get off this punitive card. This card is causing so much hardship for those on low income. This process is a farce. The government should be ashamed of themselves for raising the expectation of people on the card that they may be able to get off it. It is simply not fair that people do not know the process properly, that it's not transparent and that people are being denied opting out of the card and not being given the evidence as to why they are being denied. This is an unfair process. Income management is unfair, and the exemption process is totally unfair.