Welfare drug tests bill back in parliament

A trial to test 5000 new welfare recipients for drug abuse will be introduced into parliament today.

Social Services Minister Dan Tehan. Picture: AAP

A trial to test 5000 new welfare recipients for drug abuse will be introduced into parliament today in stand-alone legislation after the government was forced to separate it from its broader package of welfare reforms last year.

The Coalition partyroom yesterday approved the resurrection of the drug trials into a stand-alone bill to be introduced into the House of Representatives today.

Social Services Minister Dan Tehan said the government was determined to push ahead with the trial, claiming it was a significant pathway to getting people who may be suffering narcotic addiction back into work.

Despite Labor, the Greens and the Nick Xenophon Team having vowed to block the measures last time, Mr Tehan said he would be prepared to negotiate around the edges to get the measure passed.

“The composition of the Senate has changed; we want to have fresh discussions with the new crossbench senators,” he said.

“We are also prepared to talk to them about any issue they might want to bring forward. The important message is that the status quo is not good enough. It is not getting outcomes for people with drug addictions, and not getting outcomes for communities or the nation.”

Under the proposed trial, 5000 new recipients of Newstart Allowance and Youth Allowance would be tested over a two-year trial period for cannabis, ice and ecstasy.

The areas targeted in the trial include Canterbury-Bankstown in Sydney, Logan in Queensland and Mandurah in Western Australia. These areas are linked to increasing rates of drug abuse.

Mr Tehan said people who failed a drug test would not lose any of their welfare payments. Instead, after several failed tests, they would be put into an income-management program with 80 per cent of their payments quarantined for household and living expenses.

They would also be referred to drug treatment and rehabilitation programs to return them to a pathway back to work.

Opponents of the scheme say it demonises welfare recipients.

A Newspoll late last year revealed widespread community support for the trials, with 75 per cent of voters claiming to support drug testing welfare recipients.

The government cited statistics released in 2016 by the Australian Institute of Health and Welfare, whose national drug strategy household survey found unemployed people were three times more likely to use methamphetamine than those who worked.