Government promises cash boost to help drug addicted jobless
Each welfare recipient who tests positive to drugs in the federal government’s proposed trial will have as much as $65,000 worth of rehabilitation, The Daily Telegraph can reveal.
NSW
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Each welfare recipient who tests positive to drugs in the federal government’s proposed trial will have as much as $65,000 worth of rehabilitation, The Daily Telegraph can reveal.
The government hopes the sheer scale of that spend — and evidence from drug abusers showing they know addiction is stopping them from getting a job — will help it win support for the trial from balance-of-power Senator Jacqui Lambie.
The Tasmanian independent bamboozled the Coalition yesterday by withdrawing her backing less than 24 hours after providing it in no uncertain terms.
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On Sunday she said, “I’m happy to support the drug testing of welfare recipients.”
But yesterday she said, “No, I won’t be supporting it, unless I can see the rehabilitation services and the services that these people need to kick their habit are actually set up. Which I am yet to see,” she told the Nine Network.
The Daily Telegraph understands the government expects each person in the trial who is found to have heroin, cocaine, ice, ecstasy or marijuana in their system will get rehabilitation services worth between $50,000 and $65,000, depending on need.
The money will come from a dedicated $10 million treatment fund attached to the trial among 5000 Newstart and Youth Allowance recipients at three locations — Canterbury-Bankstown in Sydney, Logan in Queensland and Mandurah in Western Australia.
About $6 million would be spent on individuals’ rehabilitation, while $3 million would go on drug treatment capacity in trial locations and $1 million on “case management services”.
While One Nation and conservative independent Cory Bernardi back the proposal, without Ms Lambie’s support it is unlikely to go ahead because Centre Alliance, Labor and the Greens have all previously said that they are opposed to the proposal.
The government is yet to meet with the plain-speaking Ms Lambie on the matter.
When it does, it will further fortify the argument by pointing to statistics showing many unemployed addicts know they cannot hunt for work.
About 4600 welfare recipients were granted a 13-week temporary exemption from their jobseeker requirements in 2017-18 because of drug or alcohol misuse, up 60 per cent from the 2012 levels.
The government has since stopped accepting this excuse, leading to a near-doubling in the number of people entering a drug treatment plan — to 6000 last financial year.
“This data shows that thousands of welfare recipients believe that their drug use means they can’t show up for job interviews or work appointments,” Social Services Minister Anne Ruston said.
“Drug addiction is a serious scourge on our society and the government will use all means at our disposal to help people get over their substance abuse issues so they can get back into the workforce.”
The Daily Telegraph last night told Ms Lambie’s office about the spending the government planned on individual addicts, but the senator was unmoved.
Within the Coalition there are concerns she could hold it to ransom on the signature reform — as she did recently on the income tax cuts package.
In July Ms Lambie secured a $157 million debt waiver for her state of Tasmania in return for backing the cuts.