Coalition ministers praise trials after report says there has been a reduction in drinking and gambling

Malcolm Turnbull has described the Coalition’s cashless welfare debit card as “an exercise in practical love” while announcing Kalgoorlie as the third trial site for the card.

The Coalition says its two existing trial sites – in Ceduna, South Australia, and in the East Kimberley region of Western Australia – have had significant reductions in alcohol consumption and gambling since trials began in March and April last year, and despite some controversy it was keen to expand the program.

“This is an exercise in practical love, in compassion,” Malcolm Turnbull told the assembled media in Kalgoorlie, in the Goldfields-Esperance region of WA, on Friday.

“If you looked into the eyes of the children who are suffering from foetal alcohol syndrome, who are suffering from neglect, who are suffering from violence at home because their parents are on the grog all the time, you wouldn’t hesitate to say that this card is an act of love.

“It is also important to remember that in this community, in the Goldfields, most of the people who will be on the cashless card are non-Indigenous.

“In Coolgardie-Boulder itself ... about two-thirds of the people using the card will be non-Indigenous and we believe across the whole of the Goldfields it’s about 58% non-Indigenous, that’s a very important factor.”

To coincide with the announcement of Kalgoorlie as a third trial site for the cashless debit card, the government has released a final evaluation report of its two existing trial sites, conducted by ORIMA Research.

Aboriginal leader withdraws support for cashless welfare card and says he feels used Read more

The report found the cards have had a “considerable positive impact” in the communities where they have operated and concludes the card “has been effective in reducing alcohol consumption and gambling in both trial sites and [is] also suggestive of a reduction in the use of illegal drugs”.

It found 41% of people who drink alcohol have reported drinking less frequently and 37% of binge drinkers were doing so less frequently. It also found a decrease in alcohol-related hospital presentations, including a 37% reduction in Ceduna in the first quarter of 2017 compared with the first quarter of 2016.

In the East Kimberley, it found decreases in alcohol-related pick-ups by the community patrol services in Kununurra (15% reduction) and Wyndham (12%), and a reduction in referrals to the sobering up shelter in Kununurra by 8%.

It found a decrease in the number of women in East Kimberley hospital maternity wards drinking through pregnancy.

It found 48% of gamblers who were using the cashless card reported gambling less. In Ceduna and surrounding local government areas, poker machine revenue was down 12% during the trial period, which is the equivalent of almost $550,000 less spent on poker machines in the 12-month trial.

In Ceduna and East Kimberley, where the cards have been used by 2,141 people across both trial sites since early last year, a large majority of participants have identified as being Indigenous Australians.

Participation in the trials has been mandatory for all working age recipients of income support payments in the trial sites, but wage earners, age pensioners and veterans’ affairs pensioners who live in the trial sites have been able to volunteer for the cards.

The cards are designed to reduce the levels of harm in those communities that is underpinned by alcohol consumption, drug use and gambling.

They limit participants’ access to cash and prevent the purchase of alcohol or gambling products (other than lottery tickets) in local stores.

The cards work by directing 80% of participants’ income support payments, as well as other supplementary payments, to a restricted bank account, accessed only by the debit card.

Remote work-for-the-dole scheme is racist, ACTU head Sally McManus says Read more

Alan Tudge, the minister for human services, who has led the design and implementation of the trials, said the evaluation report showed the trials had been a success in reducing alcohol, gambling and drugs.

“The card is not a panacea but it is has led to a fundamental improvement in these communities. There are very few other initiatives that have had such impact,” Tudge said on Friday. “As many local leaders noted, these communities were in crisis largely due to massive alcohol consumption paid for by the welfare dollar.

“I hope that we can look back in a decade’s time and say that this initiative was the beginning of the turnaround.”

The Nationals leader, Barnaby Joyce, said the cashless welfare card had been a “great success” but he did not say if it should be rolled out nationally.

“We are having great success in reducing alcoholism and also the things associated with it such as family violence, women getting beaten up,” Joyce said on Friday. “What we can say at this point in time is it’s got a good outcome.

“We are also noting places that have had the cashless welfare card, they certainly don’t want to go back to the alternate system. They like the safer society they live in.

“We should be supporting that. Especially for families, especially for mothers, for kids.”

In the 2017-18 budget, the Turnbull government announced it would expand the cashless debit card into two new regions.

Friday’s announcement refers to one of those new regions. A fourth location will be announced in coming months.

The government will still require legislative change to come into effect to expand the card.