Crossbench Senator Rex Patrick heads to the NT ahead of crucial cashless debit card decision
A CROSSBENCH senator who holds a crucial vote in the federal government’s bid to transition the NT from the BasicsCard to the cashless debit card will undertake a fact-finding mission in the Territory to inform his decision.
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A CROSSBENCH senator who holds a crucial vote in the federal government’s bid to transition the NT from the BasicsCard to the cashless debit card is on a fact-finding mission in the Territory.
Independent South Australian Senator Rex Patrick’s trip to Arnhem Land, due to begin today, comes as the federal government is poised to pass, by the end of the year, laws that would move as many as 23,000 Territorians onto the cashless debit card. The Bill would also make the program permanent in existing sites in South Australia, Western Australia and Queensland.
The government will need the support of three out of five Senate crossbenchers in order to pass the laws, with One Nation’s two votes expected to go the way of the government.
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Tasmanian Senator Jacqui Lambie has previously indicated she is unlikely to support the laws.
Senator Patrick, who was invited to the NT by Senator Malarndirri McCarthy, said the intent of the trip was to understand the impacts, good and bad, of the card, and to identify the differences between the BasicsCard and the cashless debit card.
He doesn’t expect to have a firm decision on his vote until he makes a trip to the other trial sites in Queensland, should he be allowed to enter under the state’s border restrictions.
Parliament is sitting for two weeks from next Monday and, if the laws don’t pass, the cashless debit card program will expire at the four trial sites on December 31.
The move to shift the Territory from the BasicsCard to the cashless debit card is opposed by peak Aboriginal health and justice bodies, alongside the NT government and federal Labor, due to its impact on the rights of First Nations peoples.
“We’ve had compulsory income management for 13 years already in the NT, after it was introduced with the NT intervention,” Senator McCarthy said.
“We’ve also had a number of senate inquiries, and the overwhelming evidence is that people don’t want this card and it doesn’t work.”
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According to the federal government, moving from the BasicsCard to the cashless debit card means access to “improved technology”, greater access to shops and fewer restrictions.
The amount of money quarantined won’t increase for Territorians transitioning from the BasicsCard to the cashless debit card.
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