The Western Australian state government has attacked plans to trial drug testing of welfare recipients in Mandurah, describing the proposal as “incredibly naive”.

Western Australia is now the second state Labor government to voice its opposition to the drug-testing trial, after Victoria refused in June to play any role in what it described as cheap populism.

Speaking at the WA Labor state conference, the state’s community services minister, Simone McGurk, said punishing drug users through the welfare system would not address addiction.



“I think what a lot of families who are experiencing the effects of drug and alcohol abuse, particularly methamphetamine, understand is that it’s quite a complex issue,” she said.

“To think you can do one policy change and it will solve the problem is incredibly naive,” she said.

She warned the measure could increase homelessness and crime by threatening the income of already vulnerable Australians, a similar opinion to that expressed by welfare groups and frontline workers.

“What we need is a comprehensive range of approaches to effectively approach drug and alcohol abuse, particularly effective rehabilitation, early access to those rehabilitations services,” McGurk said.

“I do have concerns that cutting off people from income support could have just a detrimental effect on those people, and not lead them to seek help and rehabilitation,” she said.

The government has already announced Logan in Queensland and Bankstown-Canterbury in Sydney as trial sites, despite not having secured the bill’s passage through the Senate.

The trial would see welfare recipients who test positive to an initial test placed on income management, in the form of a cashless welfare card. The card would restrict the way they can spend 80% of their income support.

A second failed test would see the welfare recipient referred to treatment and forced to cover the cost of drug tests.

If they fail to engage in treatment, their welfare payments could be stopped.

The proposal has been condemned by drug policy researchers, physicians, psychiatrists, the Australian Medical Association and frontline drug treatment services.

On Sunday, the human services minister, Alan Tudge, hit back at the proposal’s critics.



“My main response to those medical professionals and to the Labor party who are criticising this, is that this is a trial in the very sense of the word, where we want to try something new, evaluate it, and if it works then we might roll it out further,” Tudge told Sky News.

“If it does not work then we adjust. That is how you do a trial. By the way, all medical advances are done on this basis, of trial and error. And if it is good for health policy, why isn’t it good for social policy to do it this way?”



South Australia and Queensland declined to comment on the plan when contacted by Guardian Australia last week.

