In short
Former Cashless Debit Card holders are anxious over calls to rebirth the scheme, as they claim the card “held families back.”
Some First Nations leaders believe if the card were to be reintroduced, people would leave towns to avoid the mandatory income management.
There are concerns cost-of-living pressures could instead be to blame for an uptick in crime, alcohol and gambling.
On the edge of tears, Kerryn Griffis feels a “mild PTSD attack” creeping in as she digests an unwelcome item in this week’s news cycle.
“My heart rate is incredibly elevated, my hand is shaking,” says the mum-of-five from her home in the Queensland coastal town of Bundaberg.
“I’ve barely started getting over the effects of last time.
“If they were to do something like this again, I don’t think we’d survive it.”
Ms Griffis was on the Cashless Debit Card (CDC) for three years until the scheme was abolished in 2022.
Now there is talk about it coming back.
Under the scheme – in several locations including Queensland’s Bundaberg and Hervey Bay regions — 80 per cent of income support payments were quarantined on a special card that restricted spending on PayPal, alcohol, eBay, gambling, some gift vouchers and cash withdrawals.
If the card wasn’t abolished ‘I’d be living in a tent’
Ms Griffis says the card not only made her life difficult, it also took away simple pleasures.
There was no cash for kids’ pocket money for chores, to pay for rides at local fairs, or buy hot chips at community sports events.
“It not only made things difficult for us, we also weren’t able to support our local club, so it was removing money from the community.”
Since the scheme ended, Ms Griffis has secured a TAFE Certificate Three in Conservation and Ecosystems Management, a job and a private rental home.
She believes the Cashless Debit Card had been “blocking” her from getting ahead, and feels “instant anxiety” at the thought of the program returning.
“If I was still on the card, I’d be living in a tent right now,” she says.
No ‘causal link’ to anti-social behaviour, government says
A review by the University of Adelaide found, since the abolition of the card, there was some evidence of increased alcohol-related violence in the South Australian town of Ceduna, Bundaberg, and the WA regions of East Kimberley and the Goldfields, where the card was also used.
However, the review noted “no causal statements could be issued” about whether quashing the card was to blame.
The report named the cost-of-living crisis as a potential driver of current social issues.
Shadow minister for Indigenous Australians Jacinta Nampijinpa Price says “destruction” has returned to former CDC communities, and has called for the reintroduction of the card.
Minister for Social Services Amanda Rishworth says the University of Adelaide report contained “anecdotal comments”, and was more than 12 months old.
She agreed “that no causal link could be made” between the withdrawal of the card and anti-social behaviour.
“(The compulsory card) affected disability support pensioners and affected carers, and didn’t help people actually manage their money,” she said.
She says the Commonwealth has invested $174 million worth of support and programs for former Cashless Debit Card communities.
“So what we moved to was a voluntary income management program,” she adds.
Cost-of-living crisis to blame for uptick in crime, anger and alcohol-use
Aunty June Riemer is a Gumbaynggirr woman who has wide knowledge of income support systems from more than 40 years in the disability community sector.
She says the current debate to bring back the CDC is “confusing” because multiple reports suggested the card wasn’t fit for purpose.
She says there were other reasons why anger, alcohol-use, gambling and violence were on the rise.
“It’s a symptom of poverty rather than the card; everyone’s so stressed with the cost of living,” she says.
“Everything’s going up, that causes more stress and heartache.”
Mandatory income management ‘wouldn’t be welcomed’ by most mob
Some First Nations leaders say the card had a disproportionate impact on Indigenous people, especially in towns like Ceduna with a high Aboriginal population.
Kokatha Elder Aunty Sue Haseldine says many Ceduna business owners and some at the local council were “quite serious” about bringing it back, but those who opposed the card would find loopholes.
“If the card was to come back in, people would leave — go to Port Augusta, Port Lincoln or wherever,” she says.
“So their area code was not 5690.”
Alcohol problems do exist in Ceduna, Aunty Sue Haseldine says, but bringing back mandatory income management would only cause more tension.
“It was problematic because it was just indiscriminate,” she says.
“But even if it’s targeted, I don’t know if it’ll stop (the problems).”
Adnyamathanha and Yankunytjatjara man Ralph Coulthard is a member of South Australia’s inaugural First Nations Voice to State Parliament and a financial counsellor at the Aboriginal Legal Rights Movement in Port Augusta.
He helped some card users from Ceduna connect with Indue – the company responsible for organising payments to the card — to request access to more of the quarantined 80 per cent of their income.
He believes the Cashless Debit Card could be beneficial for people who may be drug dependent or have mental health issues, but the former mandatory scheme “wouldn’t be welcomed” by most people on income support in South Australia.