Conflict between physicians and Christian Porter escalates after social services minister compares drug-testing debate to no jab no pay

This article is more than 3 years old

This article is more than 3 years old

Physicians have criticised the social services minister, Christian Porter, for linking the debate on drug testing welfare recipients to child immunisation policies.

The conflict between the medical community and the government over the proposal escalated on Tuesday, a day before a Senate inquiry is due to deliver its report on the controversial measure.

The inquiry’s draft report has been circulated, but its recommendations were kept tightly under wraps on Tuesday.

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The report is expected to recommend against proceeding with the drug testing trial, given Labor and the Greens remain strongly opposed.

The legislation’s passage through the Senate remains uncertain. The Nick Xenophon Team was yet to determine its position on the drug testing on Tuesday.

His party’s votes will be crucial in implementing the drug-testing trial but Xenophon said he was still in negotiations with the government.

The inquiry into the legislation heard almost universal condemnation of the plan, which mandates 5,000 welfare recipients be drug tested at three locations across the country.

The Royal Australasian College of Physicians and the Australian Medical Association have been among the most vocal critics.



Porter criticised the position of the “establishment” medical groups on Monday.

He told Fairfax Media that the medical community had previously been critical of the government’s no jab no pay policy, which has since demonstrated significant success in improving child immunisation.

“Of course, trying new approaches is not always met positively by the establishment used to the established approach,” Porter told Fairfax Media. “The Royal College of Physicians, for example, said that using the welfare system to compel people to vaccinate their kids would not work.”

The college rebuked the minister on Tuesday. Adrian Reynolds, an addiction specialist with the college, released a statement condemning the linking of the two policies.

“Conflating issues as different as childhood vaccination and addiction confuses two very distinct and very important public health issues,” he said.

“Addressing a problem such as addiction which is complex and deeply connected to many other issues including mental health, trauma and poverty, is very different to mechanisms to encourage people to undertake a single intervention such as an immunisation.”

He said the college had not opposed no jab no pay, but had expressed concern that “there needed to be more support for people who face practical, economic, social and geographic hurdles to getting their children vaccinated”.



The Senate inquiry’s report will also make recommendations about the new demerit-points compliance regime the government has proposed for jobseekers on Newstart and other activity-tested payments.

Key stakeholders, including the Australian Council of Social Service, have expressed concern about the new compliance regime.

Guardian Australia has learned that, despite legislation being introduced two months ago, the government has recently commissioned research on the potential impact of changing the compliance regime on welfare recipients.

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The Department of Employment has paid $164,010 to a consultant, Whereto Research, to conduct a seven-week study of the overhaul of its jobseeker compliance regime.



Whereto Research has begun contacting key stakeholders to gauge their views. It is also conducting “fieldwork, analysis, and reporting” looking at welfare recipients, employment service providers, employment services peak bodies, and community support organisations in regional and metropolitan areas.



The Department of Employment says the research is not designed to inform the policy, but rather to inform its implementation. It said the research was designed to better understand the awareness of welfare recipients of their mutual obligation requirements.



“The Whereto Research is aimed at gaining a better understanding of this group’s current level of awareness of their mutual obligation requirements and potential consequences of not meeting them,” a spokeswoman said.

“The research also explores the potential barriers and vulnerabilities that may be impacting on job seekers’ ability to comply with their mutual obligation requirements. These insights will allow the department to be more effective in its communication with job seekers, to make them aware of and help them meet their requirements under the current as well as a future framework.”