On 17 December 2020 provisions of the Social Security (Administration) Amendment (Continuation of Cashless Welfare) Bill 2020 received assent and were incorporated into Social Security (Administration) Act 1999.
The principal purpose of that bill was to widen the scope of the Cashless Debit Card Trial, rename the trial as a “program” and establish it as an national ongoing social security program.
Those pentecostal buddies, Australian Prime Minister & Liberal MP for Cook Scott Morrison and then Minister for the National Disability Insurance Scheme, Minister for Minister for Government Services & still LNP MP for Fadden Stuart Robert, along with another member of the ‘Morrison Group’, Minister for Families and Social Services & Liberal Senator for South Australia Anne Rushton, were able to widen the scope of the trial & rename the Cashless Debit Card trial a “program”.
However, although the entire Northern Territory is now a Cashless Debit Card Program Area participation in the scheme is voluntary and despite sustained effort on the part of federal government the Cashless Debit Card Trial remains a trial with a sunset date of 31 December 2022 in all other remaining trial sites.
The Abbott-Turnbull-Morrison Government has been attempting to create a coercive, punitive, cashless payment system for government pensions, benefits, allowances and one-off payments since 2014 and, they have become quite skilled at political & legislative incremental creep.
Make no mistake, Morrison, the man who since at least 2006 has been voicing his belief that this is what the Lord wants … He wants me to become prime minister and who as prime minister seeks signs from God on how to proceed during an election campaign as well as secretly ‘laying hands on’ and praying for people he personally comes into contact with, will continue with his relentless - in his eyes seemingly 'righteous' - push to control the incomes and minutiae of daily living of as many ordinary Australians as he can convince Parliament to punitively define as ignorant, poor, deviant or Aboriginal at risk.
BACKGROUND
# 7 News, 16 March 2021:
A $2.5 million government report into the cashless debit card is inconclusive on whether it reduces harm from alcohol, drugs and gambling, but has found people on the welfare cards are ashamed and embarrassed.
“It’s ostrich policy - put your head in the sand,” Labor MP Linda Burney told reporters in Canberra on Thursday.
“We do not believe there should be mandatory, universal application of a cashless debit card because people are on Centrelink benefits.”
Social Services Minister Anne Ruston made the decision to extend the trial sites without any evidence and without waiting for the report, Ms Burney said.
Commissioned in 2018, the University of Adelaide’s report on the cashless debit card looked at whether alcohol and drug use, violence and gambling reduced during trials of the card in Ceduna, East Kimberley and the Goldfields but found no conclusive evidence.
“In many cases we found the reality to be more complex and nuanced than can be expressed as clear cut answers,” research head Kostas Mavromaras said in the report.
Ms Burney said the research “tells us nothing and is a complete waste of time”.
Greens Senator Rachel Siewert said the card is “racist and discriminatory” and should be abandoned.
“These trials were always about targeting First Nations peoples, stigmatising people on income support and those with addiction issues rather than addressing the underlying causes of disadvantage,” Senator Siewert said.
“The evaluation itself notes the difficulty in evaluating the so-called trials because they were never set up to be properly evaluated.”….
# Cashless Debit Card (CDC) Extended Rollout 2021: Briefing Paper March 2021
# Senate Standing Committee on Community Affairs Legislation Committee (Nov 2019) Inquiry into the Social Security (Administration) Amendment (Income Management to Cashless Debit Card Transition) Bill 2019 [Provisions], Submission 1, Professor Matthew Gray & Dr. Rob Bray, ATTACHMENT A: Bray, J Rob (October 2019), ANU Centre for Social Research and Methods, “Measuring the social impact of Income Management in the Northern Territory – an updated analysis”:
Executive Summary
A stated objective of income management in the Northern Territory, both under the Northern Territory Emergency Response, and through ‘New Income Management’ (NIM) has been to improve outcomes for individuals, their families and the communities they live in. The 2014 evaluation of NIM reported that it could not identify any impacts in its analysis of social outcomes that could be attributed to the policy.
This paper seeks to re‐examine this question using data, where possible from before the initial introduction of income management under the NTERIM, to the most recently available.
The magnitude of the program in the Northern Territory, with one third of Indigenous people aged 15 years and over directly being subject to the policy is such that to the extent the program makes an impact this should be apparent at the community level, in particular in contrast to the experience of non‐Indigenous people in the Northern Territory, and the Indigenous population nationally both of which were only lightly touched by these programs.
Analysis of key social outcomes indicates:
Over the period of income management the rate of infant mortality amongst Indigenous people in the Northern Territory has increased, this contrasts with falls for Indigenous people nationally and for non‐Indigenous people in the Northern Territory. This group has also seen a rise in low birth weight births, and an increase in child deaths from injury. Child abuse and neglect substantiations have also increased, although it is noted this may be influenced by a willingness to report. Indigenous children in the Northern Territory have not seen the same declines in developmental vulnerability as have Indigenous children elsewhere.
The period since the introduction of income management has seen falling rates of school attendance by Indigenous children in the Northern Territory, and while some NAPLAN results have improved for these children, others have not. Again where there have been gains these are smaller than those for Indigenous children nationally.
There is strong evidence of a decline in alcohol consumption in the Northern Territory. This is a trend that pre‐dates the introduction of income management with research identifying a range of policies, including pricing and supply limitations which appear to be driving it. Notwithstanding this Indigenous people do not report a lower rate of risky drinking in 2014‐15 than they did in 2002, and alcohol related emergency department presentations have increased.
Rates of assaults appear to be largely flat, although there is a decline in assaults associated with alcohol. No consistent pattern of declining crime is identifiable in data from 2007 onwards, although there is evidence of particular alcohol restriction enforcement activities directly impacting on crime. The rate of imprisonment of Indigenous people in the Northern Territory has continued to rise strongly across the period of income management. These findings not only reflect upon a failure of income management policies to achieve their goals, but also have implications for a wider range of interventions under the Northern Territory Emergency Response and Stronger Futures….. [my yellow highlighting]
The completer 59 page submission can be read and/or downloaded at:
https://drive.google.com/file/d/1I9w2Tdurcb1XaiAlyrqA53yZPlKiVrkf/view
OR
# The Cashless Debit Card scheme covering people who receive working age welfare payments is currently applied to residents in six areas.
These are:
Ceduna, South Australia
Kununurra and Wyndham in the East Kimberly region, Western Australia
Goldfields region, Western Australia
Bundaberg, Hervey Bay region, Queensland
Cape York, Queensland, and
the Northern Territory.
According to the Dept. of Social Services on 31 January 2022:
In the Ceduna region, the Goldfields region and the East Kimberley region the program applies to all people who receive a working age welfare payment. People receiving the Age Pension may volunteer to participate.
In the Bundaberg and Hervey Bay region, the program applies to people aged 35 and under who receive JobSeeker Payment, Youth Allowance (Job seeker), Parenting Payment (Partnered) and Parenting Payment (Single). People over 35 years of age or receiving the Age Pension may volunteer to participate.
In the Cape York region in Queensland, the program applies to those who the Family Responsibilities Commission have referred. People on Age Pension may choose to volunteer to participate.
In the Northern Territory, the program applies to Income Management participants who have chosen to transition to Cashless Debit Card as well as eligible income support recipients who have volunteered for the program. If you live in the Northern Territory, you can now transition to the Cashless Debit Card on the same day.
According to Services Australia on 22 January 2022:
You will have access to 20 per cent (50 per cent for most participants in the Northern Territory and Cape York) of your welfare payment that you can withdraw as cash to use in circumstances where only cash is accepted, for example at school canteens, fetes and farmers markets.
If you were placed on the Cashless Debit Card in one of the first four sites, you can also transfer up to $200 per 28 days to your regular bank account.
The Cashless Debit Card works at businesses that accept eftpos or Visa. The only time the card cannot be used is for the purchase of alcohol, gambling products, cash-like gift cards or to withdraw cash. Or for any other goods or services determined by the Commonwealth of Australia to be banned goods/services in accordance with the Social Security (Administration) Act 1999 (Cth).
Indue Limited and the Traditional Credit Union are the designated debit card suppliers/restricted bank account managers.
The list of blocked merchants/sites at which the Cashless Debit Card cannot be used currently contains 889 businesses.
There appears to be no formal mechanism in place to appeal to Dept. of Social Security, Centrelink or Services Australia concerning any decisions or action taken by Indue Limited with regard to any particular restricted bank account.
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