Senator Rex Patrick makes play for cashless card changes

Rex Patrick will ­attempt to negotiate several amendments to the cashless debit card legislation as he reveals concerns with the $80m scheme.

South Australian senator Rex Patrick visited Ceduna, which is home to a cashless debit card trial, on the weekend as he weighs up whether to support government legislation to make four trial sites permanent. Picture: Andrew Brooks

Rex Patrick — the Senate crossbencher who could decide ­whether the government can make its four cashless debit card trial sites permanent — will ­attempt to negotiate several amendments as he reveals concerns with the $80m scheme.

The bill, which also transitions 26,000 people in the Northern Territory and Cape York onto the card, passed the House of Representatives on Monday by just one vote after Tasmanian Liberal MP Bridget Archer abstained. Ms Archer attacked the cashless debit card last week.

The government has just three days remaining to push the bill through the Senate.

Labor, the Greens and crossbenchers Jacqui Lambie, Stirling Griff and Senator Patrick are ­opposed to the legislation in its current form, leaving the government one vote short.

“I have concerns about the time frames taken to respond to an application (by a participant) to be removed from the card,” Senator Patrick said.

“I’m struggling to understand why people with disabilities are on the card. I have a concern that the (Social Services) Minister (Anne Ruston) can change the quarantine percentages (of the amount of income they get on the card versus the amount they ­receive in their bank account) without parliamentary oversight.

“I have concerns about back-up arrangements for the cards in remote areas in circumstances where there are power, internet and telephone outages.”

Senator Ruston on Monday answered 53 questions about the cashless debit card asked by Senator Patrick, explaining spending by participants at supermarkets, grocery stores and other food stores had increased by 68 per cent — from $11.9m to $20m — within a year. There was also $2.8m worth of items at shops that primarily sold alcohol that had been blocked on the card.

But just 23.4 per cent of ­requests by participants to be removed from the card had been approved compared to 48.2 per cent that were rejected and 20.1 per cent that had been withdrawn.

Senator Ruston confirmed the card could not be used on eBay or Gumtree, but it worked to shop online at Coles and Woolworths.

“A number of answers debunk claims that have been raised by members of the public, which had given me cause for concern,” Senator Patrick said.

“The fact I’m talking to the government about amendments should by no means be taken as a signal I will be support the bill or not.”

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.

The trial sites are in Ceduna (South Australia), the East Kimberley (Western Australia), Goldfields (WA) and the Bundaberg and Hervey Bay region (Queensland).