‘Risky drinkers’: Shock results of QLD cashless debit card region report
A Queensland MP has seized on a damning new report showing shocking levels of risky drinking and domestic violence to savage the Albanese government. VOTE IN OUR POLL
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More than a third of adults in Bundaberg and Hervey Bay were “risky drinkers”, while demand for domestic violence services have been increasing, according to a quietly released plan for the former cashless debit card trial site.
Hinkler MP Keith Pitt seized on the data to say it showed why the CDC program should not have been shutdown and replaced with the voluntary SmartCard.
He also accused the Bundaberg and Hervey Bay local service plan, quietly tabled in parliament, of being a “plan for a plan”.
But Social Services Minister Amanda Rishworth said crime had decreased since the CDC ceased, while up to $20 million would be provided for support services in the region.
The document specifies, which highlights the issues in the area, that it includes “no funding commitments or specific service delivery proposals”.
It follows the release of data that showed just 22 people in Bundaberg and Hervey Bay had chosen to switch to the new SmartCard, despite there more than 7000 CDC participants at its peak.
According to the local service plan, data provide by the Wide Bay Hospital and Health Service, which includes Bundaberg and Hervey Bay, that 37.6 per cent of adults in that region were classified as “risky drinkers” in 2020, classified as more than 10 standard drinks in a week.
It has founded that local service providers reported an increase in domestic violence incidents as well as demand for those services going up.
Mr Pitt said the CDC was introduced to address these problems.
“The community needs identified in this plan affect thousands of people and they’re issues that we knew about five years ago – before the cashless debit card trial started in Hinkler,” he said.
“Now, according to Labor’s report, these systemic issues will be improved under a voluntary SmartCard that only 22 people are on.”
But Ms Rishworth said police and support services had not reported an increase in anti-social behaviours for Bundaberg and Hervey Bay.
“Multiple evaluations could not provide evidence the Cashless Debit Card program worked to address the intergenerational issues of entrenched disadvantage faced by the communities it operated in – including in Mr Pitt’s region,” she said.
“The Local Services Plans represent a whole of community approach to address the issues identified by communities.”
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