‘Tsunami of trauma’ if cashless debit card axed

The Coalition has warned the government’s moves to scrap the cashless welfare card would unleash an alcohol and drug-fuelled ‘tsunami of trauma’ on remote Indigenous communities.

Opposition social services spokesman Michael Sukkar.

The Coalition has warned the government’s moves to scrap the cashless welfare card would unleash an alcohol and drug-fuelled “tsunami of trauma” on remote Indigenous communities where it has been trialled, with Labor’s repeal Bill to be voted on Wednesday morning in the lower house.

Opposition social services spokesman Michael Sukkar has accused the government of inflicting “misery” back into the communities that the Coalition claims have recorded positive benefits and reduced family violence under the use of the card.

He said the Liberal Party would make the reinstatement of the card an election policy for the Coalition. “By abolishing the cashless debit card, we know that the flood of alcohol and drugs into the communities of Ceduna, East Kimberley and the Goldfields in Western Australia, and Bundaberg and Hervey Bay in Queensland will increase,” Mr Sukkar said.

“The flood of alcohol and drugs into those communities will be unleashed. There are very few times when we can say with so much certainty what the consequences of a government decision will be, but here the evidence is clear: more alcohol and more drugs in these communities will lead to misery – and misery for the most vulnerable people, misery for the children who will be neglected by those who will now have more ready access to alcohol and drugs.”

Social Services Minister Amanda Rishworth on Tuesday defended the abolition of the card.

Labor pledged during the election campaign to repeal the legislation that had allowed for trials of the card in several remote and regional communities, and which the Morrison government claimed had succeeded in reducing drug and alcohol-fuelled domestic violence and crime.

The card restricts purchases for welfare recipients, banning the buying of alcohol and cash withdrawals, with 80 per cent of a recipients’ welfare payment being quarantined to the card.

Labor argued there was no evidence the card worked, despite several reports pointing to its effectiveness.

Ms Rishworth said there had been no evidence of a reduction of harm and violence in the communities where it was trialled.

“If we go to the evidence and ignore the ideological rhetoric from those over the back, we see that this program did not make a difference when it came to safety and harm,” she said.

“Indeed, what it did for participants was make discrimination normalised in communities, stigma normalised in communities, and of course it had practical problems that meant that people would not buy a secondhand fridge because they did not have enough cash.

“It meant families could not take their children to the football because they did not have enough cash. This has had real problems in communities and we are acting to fix it.”

But WA Liberal MP Rick Wilson told The Australian the Labor government was about to “unleash a tsunami of alcohol and drug-fuelled trauma on my Goldfields community”. “They need to be upfront about what services and support they are putting in place to protect the most vulnerable – the women, children and seniors – in these communities,” he said.

South Australian Liberal MP Rowan Ramsey defended the card, claiming the people of Ceduna – one community where he claimed trials had shown a reduction in violence – remained strongly supportive.

“The card helps protect families from humbugging and violence,” he said. “Every day it helps feed and clothe children and every day it advances social cohesion and supports the advancement of the entire community.”