Liberal MPs reject bid to make cashless debit card trial sites permanent

A bill to make trial cashless debit card sites permanent has been rejected by several Liberal MPs over fears it’ll make Australians feel ‘less than’.

Scott Morrison has declared that the Coalition is the most united in a long time because his colleagues “have room to breathe”, after several Liberal MPs rejected a government bill that will make cashless debit card trial sites permanent.

Tasmanian Liberal MP Bridget Archer warned the bill invited people to look at their fellow Australians as “other” or “less than” as the government attempts to push it through federal parliament next week.

Victorian Liberal MP Russell Broadbent said he had an underlying problem with the cashless debit card but it was up to the executive arm of government to decide what was the best policy.

“I have general concerns about the efficacy of singling out communities for a cashless debit card,” he said.

The government’s bill also transitions 26,000 people in the Northern Territory and Cape York onto the card.

Designed to reduce welfare-fuelled alcohol, drug and gambling abuse, the debit card, established under the Abbott government, allows people to buy groceries and pay rent but does not work at bottle shops or gambling venues, and it cannot withdraw cash.

A large majority of a person’s welfare payment — 80 per cent — goes on the card and 20 per cent goes into their bank account.

Liberal MP Russell Broadbent has questioned why communities should be singled out on the cashless debit card. Picture: AAP

Addressing the House of Representatives on Wednesday night, Ms Archer said many cashless debit card recipients had reported separate lines in supermarkets or an inability to shop at some stores at all.

“If that doesn’t make you uncomfortable, it should,” she said.

“I have been a recipient of government assistance at different times in my life and I can understand the distress that so many forced on to this card would feel. This system of income management strips away autonomy and a sense of pride, no matter how well intentioned.

“Government imposing control in this way is not a fix to the myriad of issues driving disadvantage and at best it is a Band-Aid. Whenever you approach a human problem by inciting shame and guilt, you have already lost those that you are seeking to help.

“The rhetoric that surrounds social security and systems like income management plays in to the very worst of human nature; we’re essentially inviting people to look at their fellow Australians as something ‘other’ or ‘less than’.”

The Prime Minister said he had spoken to Ms Archer about her concerns over making the cashless debit card trial sites permanent and insisted any of his members and senators could walk into his office to raise issues with him.

“Giving each other the space in our partyroom and the respect that comes with that is the reason why the Australian public is seeing the government the most united we have seen of any government for a very long time,” he said.

“There is a great sense of unity and connection between all our members, from our class of 2019 going back to the class of 1996 and indeed possibly beyond with Kevin Andrews. And one of the reasons we have achieved that stability and unity in our parliamentary party, which

Social Services Minister Anne Ruston said the government is looking at making Apple Pay an option for recipients of the cashless debit card. Picture: NCA NewsWire / Gary Ramage

I pledged to regain when I became Prime Minister, is we have room to breathe.

“We are a confident party that is confident about allowing our members to breathe and express their views, as they do, but equally that comes with the responsibility of being a member of the team, which ensures that the government is able to continue to progress its agenda, as we indeed will in this area.”

Ms Archer referenced a final evaluation report into the cashless debit card trial sites, which she said indicated the benefits of the scheme were “limited in nature and scope and do not demonstrate an overall improvement in the conditions where the program is intending to address”.

Social Services Minister Anne Ruston said communities had requested the government make the trial sites – in Ceduna (South Australia), the East Kimberley (Western Australia), Goldfields (WA) and the Bundaberg and Hervey Bay region (Queensland) – permanent.

“(This) will provide certainty to participants and the wider communities and allow for further investment to enhance the technology which sits around the cashless debit card to improve user experience,” she said.

“Through the CDC we are responding to concerns around stigma as the new card looks the same as any other bank card, can be used at about 900,000 stores across Australia and online, it can be used for contactless payment and we are working on introducing ApplePay so people can make purchases by tapping their phone.

“The government is confident that welfare quarantining measures, which have been in place in various forms since 2007, have a positive impact on participants and the broader community.”

Senator Ruston said taxpayers were happy to support Australians who had fallen on tough times but wanted to know their money was spent on essential items.

One Nation, which holds two Senate votes, supports the bill but Scott Morrison is one vote short of passing it through the parliament. Independent South Australian senator Rex Patrick, who is weighing his position over the weekend as he visits Ceduna, will likely be the one to decide the success of the legislation.

Mr Broadbent clarified that in an earlier report in The Australian, which said he thought the government would drop the legislation, he was mistakenly referring to a bill that bans cash payments of more than $10,000.