For all the well meaning idealistic angst and bleeding hearts of the uninformed or deluded, please read this factual sad reality.
Email addresses of politicians might also be useful.!!
Sent:Sunday, July 28, 2024 11:07 AM
To: Dutton, Peter (MP) <[email protected]>;Rennick, Gerard (Senator) <[email protected]>;[email protected]; AngusTaylor ([email protected])<[email protected]>
Cc: Brockman, Slade (Senator) <[email protected]>;Senator the Hon Michaelia Cash <[email protected]>;'Sen. Matt O'Sullivan <[email protected]>;Senator Dean SMITH ([email protected])<[email protected]>;Price, Melissa (MP) <[email protected]>;Wilson, Rick (MP) <[email protected]>;Hastie, Andrew (MP) <[email protected]>
Subject: Cashless card’s axing unleashes carnage - RGDS STEVE BLIZARDCashless card’saxing unleashes carnage
Alan Tudge
12:00AMJuly 27,2024 THE AUSTRALIAN
The Cashless Debit Card was aconcept with a simple objective: to limit the amount of welfare payments spenton alcohol, drugs and gambling and, in doing so, create safer communities, particularlyfor women. Picture: AAP Image/Marianna Massey
At 10pm on a Friday night earlier this month, the government quietly releasedthe independent report on the impacts of scrapping the Cashless Debit Card.That it released it in the dead hours, and only when forced under FOI, is nosurprise: the report is a devastating assessment of the carnage created,including for children.
I was the minister responsible for designing and implementing the CDC back in2015-17, so I am naturally disappointed it was stopped. But more importantly, Iam stunned a government would, for seemingly purely ideological reasons, take adecision that would inevitably lead to more violence and more childrenneglected.
It is worth recapping on the card’s origins before getting into what theUniversity of Adelaide concluded in its evaluation of its withdrawal. The CDCwas a concept with a simple objective: to limit the amount of welfare paymentsspent on alcohol, drugs and gambling and, in doing so, create safercommunities, particularly for women who suffer inordinate violence and childrenwho are abused and neglected at rates not seen anywhere else.
We worked with community leaders in southwest South Australia and in the EastKimberley to design a visa debit card that would operate like any other debitcard with the exception of two things: it would not work at bottle shops orgambling houses, and you could not take cash out. Eighty per cent of aworking-age person’s welfare payments were put on the card.
The welfare lobby, and the left more broadly, resisted itfrom the start, not for practical reasons, but for ideological ones. Their view is that welfare cash should never be conditional, never be restricted, and never be delivered in any other way than cash to maximise the choice for the recipient. Labor promised in opposition to scrap it, and did so early in its government.
So what happened when hundreds of thousands of dollars previously restrictedfrom being spent on booze suddenly became available in cash again?
The University of Adelaide was conclusive in its findings, having conducted 290in-depth interviews with stakeholders and past CDC participants, and examinedthe available data. Its language is flat given its seriousness, butcrystal clear nonetheless.
Most disturbingly, itfound: “Declining levels of child wellbeing and welfare since the CDC programhad ended. These concerns primarily centred on some children notbeing fed or clothed properly as a result of household finances now being spenton alcohol and gambling products. Respondents also commonly noted that more children were out on the streets unsupervised at night. Further issues were raised (and especially in Ceduna) of decreased school attendance.”
It found that retail shopowners, cafes and takeaway stores were adversely affected by “increasedcriminal activity” and as a result “staff felt more unsafe at work”.
theaustralian.com.au05:58
‘Alcohol-related violence’: Report details surge in crime after cashless debit removal
Sky News host James Macpherson saysa new report details how the cashless debit card removal from Indigenouscommunities led to increased alcohol consumption and misuse.
The university’s report had a special section identifying the groupsparticularly impacted by the CDC’s removal: children and young people, thosevulnerable to financial coercion (ie, women), those who did not possess theskills to manage their finances independently, and those with a history ofalcohol dependence.
One stakeholder summarisedthe problem neatly: “And then you’ve got (name), just using him as an example,where he only ever got $220 a fortnight in cash, well now you’re giving him$900 so he’s drinking $900 a fortnight ... so you’re killing him. His eyes areyellow. He’s not taking his medication, he’s walking around, he’s just drinkinguntil he passes out.”
The only positive thing UA could say about scrapping the card is that someformer recipients didn’t like being on it for a variety of reasons, and valuedhaving more control over their welfare cash again. But UA explicitly statedthere was not a single community-wide benefit from scrapping the card. It is anextraordinary evaluation, and the findings would be a national scandal if itconcerned any other part of the nation.
When we introduced the card, the Indigenous leaders and the government(including myself) took a lot of heat. We knew that the introduction of thecard would be controversial and an inconvenience to some, but we pressed ahead knowingthat women and children would be safer as a result.
In scrapping the card, thegovernment has unleashed the rivers of welfare-funded grog again, with all thedevastation it causes. The harm was predicted, and tragically, it is nowconfirmed that the predictions were right.Alan Tudge was a federal ministerfrom 2013 to 2022.
