Cashless debit card bill would ‘wipe 20 years of work’

A Senate committee investigating legislation to abolish the Cashless Debit Card has suggested amendments to the bill to ensure the Family Responsibilities Commission in Cape York can continue to operate effectively.

Noel Pearson. Picture: Lyndon Mechielsen

A Senate committee investigating legislation to abolish the Cashless Debit Card has suggested amendments to the bill to ensure the Family Responsibilities Commission in Cape York can continue to operate effectively.

The Family Responsibilities Commission (FRC) has the power to refer people to income management and recommended to the committee that the Cashless Debit Card (CDC) be retained.

Cape York Institute founder Noel Pearson warned the committee the abolition of the CDC without a replacement system would result in two decades of welfare reform collapsing, declaring: “We’d just have to give up.”

“I think this legislation will wipe out 20 years of my work.”

He said the government was “aiming your guns at the wrong target” because the CDC itself was not problematic — it was the “decision-making about who goes on the card.”

Mr Pearson defended the existing arrangements, arguing that the FRC referred individuals on to the CDC so there was no blanket imposition of the card.

The FRC also warned the committee it was concerned the government’s legislation would “adversely impact the commission’s operations and the wellbeing of its most vulnerable clients.”

Since the introduction of the CDC in Cape York in March 2021, 352 cards have been cumulatively processed by the FRC.

Of the 352 cards, approximately 65 per cent were entered into on a voluntary basis. The remaining 35 per cent were entered under a conditional income management order.

The FRC informed the committee that, of those 65 per cent of individuals who volunteered to participate, approximately half stated that they were doing it because they liked the CDC.

The CDC cannot be used for the purchase of alcohol, gambling services, openloop gift cards, or to withdraw cash.

The CDC system is in operation across parts of SA, WA, Qld and the NT including Ceduna, SA, since 15 March 2016; the Goldfields region, WA, since 26 March 2018; Kununurra and Wyndham in the East Kimberly, WA, since 26 April 2016; the Bundaberg and Hervey Bay region, QLD, since 29 January 2019; Cape York, QLD, since 16 March 2021; and the whole of the NT since 16 March 2021.

Labor’s legislation to repeal the CDC was introduced to the parliament in July and the Community Affairs Legislation Committee reviewing the bill released a report on Wednesday recommending “possible amendments” to ensure the FRC could “continue to operate effectively in accordance with its statutory responsibilities.”

Subject to the first recommendation, it proposed the passage of the bill through the parliament.

But Coalition senators offered a dissenting report, arguing the government had failed to conduct adequate consultation with the affected communities and Indigenous leaders about the abolition of the CDC.

“The government has … instead listened to the voices of their inner-city voters in

developing their policy,” the Coalition senators warned. “Coalition senators have real concerns that if this bill is passed, especially in the absence of any substantive alternative measures of support, it will lead to adverse outcomes for those communities that are most vulnerable.”

The Greens’ spokeswoman for social services and Senate Committee Deputy Chair, Senator Janet Rice, said the government needed to go further.

“It’s not enough to remove the Cashless Debit Card – all compulsory income management must end,” she said. “Abolishing the CDC is an important step toward social equity and racial justice. But we’re going to see thousands of people in the NT, most of whom are First Nations people, moved on to the BasicsCard once CDC ends.”