The government will push ahead with a third trial site for its cashless welfare card, despite opposition, after a final evaluation of the policy found it had “considerable positive impact” in its original trials.
The trials, which quarantine 80 per cent of welfare payments for essential services, has received a mixed response, with critics arguing it is dehumanising and forces problems underground.
Up Next
Multicar pile-up on M5 at Revesby
More NSW News Videos
Welfare recipients to be drug tested
Welfare recipients to be drug tested
Young people and job seekers in western Sydney will be drug-tested and face strict welfare quarantining measures as early as next year in a new trial.
Up Next
Multicar pile-up on M5 at Revesby
Multicar pile-up on M5 at Revesby
Multicar pile-up on M5 at Revesby
West-bound Sydney traffic is queued around two kilometres back causing major delays early on Friday morning. Vision courtesy Channel 7.
Up Next
A family’s experience with childhood cancer
A family’s experience with childhood …
A family’s experience with childhood cancer
Evie Weir has been battling advanced neuroblastoma, a form of cancer, since she was two years old. Her mother Sarah reflects on what Evie’s cancer journey has meant for the family.
Up Next
Beauty clinic patient suffers cardiac arrest
Beauty clinic patient suffers cardiac …
Beauty clinic patient suffers cardiac arrest
A 33-year-old woman is charged with reckless grievous bodily harm and using poison so as to endanger life after a patient at a Sydney beauty clinic suffered from a cardiac arrest.
Up Next
47-year-old shot dead near Bathurst
47-year-old shot dead near Bathurst
47-year-old shot dead near Bathurst
Ian Fackender was shot dead after a confrontation with police at his home in Kelso in central western NSW.
Up Next
Police make arrest after Chifley death
Police make arrest after Chifley death
Police make arrest after Chifley death
A man has been arrested following the suspicious death of a man in Chifley, in Sydney’s eastern suburbs, on Wednesday evening.
Up Next
HMAS Platypus site to be redeveloped
HMAS Platypus site to be redeveloped
HMAS Platypus site to be redeveloped
Harbour Trust chair Kevin McCann, chief executive Mary Darwell and federal MP Trent Zimmerman have called for expressions of interest at the former HMAS Platypus site in Sydney.
Up Next
NSW MP caught up in massage scam
NSW MP caught up in massage scam
NSW MP caught up in massage scam
Kiama MP Gareth Ward has confirmed he was targeted in a blackmail attempt in New York after ordering a massage at his hotel.
Welfare recipients to be drug tested
Young people and job seekers in western Sydney will be drug-tested and face strict welfare quarantining measures as early as next year in a new trial.
But in releasing the final evaluation of the first two trials, held in Ceduna in South Australia and East Kimberly in Western Australia, Human Resources Minister Alan Tudge said the research showed a reduction in drinking and gambling among those involved in the trial, with “some evidence that there has been a consequential reduction in violence and harm”.
“As many local leaders noted, these communities were in crisis largely due to massive alcohol consumption paid for by the welfare dollar,” Mr Tudge said in a statement.
Human Services Minister Alan Tudge. Photo: Andrew Meares
“I hope that we can look back in a decade’s time and say that this initiative was the beginning of the turnaround.”
ORIMA Research’s final evaluation found alcohol consumption and gambling had reduced in both trial sites, with 41 per cent of respondents reporting they drank less frequently and 48 per cent said they gambled less.
Alcohol-related hospital visits also dropped, as did pokies revenue. Of those who admitted using illicit drugs, 48 per cent said they were using less drugs.
Breaking News Alert
Get the latest news and updates emailed straight to your inbox.
Mr Tudge said the final report also showed recipients had become “more accepting of the card over time” and showed “spill-over benefits” with reports of people taking better care of their children and a reduction in crime and violence.
The government is set to extend the trial to a third site, predicted to be the Western Australian Goldfields region.
But it may struggle to move the trial beyond the third site, with the government needing to win the support of with Labor or the Greens to alter its legislation.
Labor has remained uncommitted, saying it would not support any extension that did not have the backing of the local communities targetted by the changes.
Greens community services spokeswoman Rachel Siewert has remained one of the biggest critics of the policy, which she said took agency and control from welfare recipients.
“In Kununurra some key crime stats have gone up since the trial was introduced,” she said. “This may be an indication that people are finding other avenues to access cash. Before anybody can do any analysis of the final evaluation report, the third site has been announced. The previous report was flawed; I lack confidence in the government’s analysis.
“This government continues to take a punitive, demonising, top-down approach to our social security scheme; it is demonising and undermining peoples’ ability to find work and does not address the underlying causes of disadvantage”.
No comments:
Post a Comment