Crackdown announced in budget labelled ‘wacky’ but Malcolm Turnbull says Coalition is doing jobseekers a favour

Welfare advocates say the Coalition’s plan to drug-test welfare recipients undermines the fabric of Australia’s needs-based safety net, while drug experts are warning the trial could have “unintended consequences” on those in the throes of addiction, including driving them into criminality.



The proposal has provoked an outcry from the welfare sector, which has labelled it a demonisation of those on social security.



Under the plan, 5,000 new welfare recipients on newstart and youth allowance will be tested across the three trial sites, starting in 2018 and running for two years.

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Saliva, hair follicle and urine testing will be used to detect drugs including ecstasy, marijuana and ice. Tests, administered by a private contractor, will be conducted during Department of Human Services appointments.

The targeting of recipients is described as “random” but in truth will use government data to profile certain individuals the government believes are more likely to be abusing substances.

Jobseekers who test positive will have their welfare quarantined “to help them to stabilise their finances”, and would then be subjected to further drug tests. Penalties would be applied if they failed to comply with further tests, and anyone who tests positive more than once would be referred for health treatment.

Random drug-testing is a measure that was previously ruled out by the former social services minister and conservative, Kevin Andrews, in 2014, under the then Abbott government.



A Melbourne University drug expert, Assoc Prof John Fitzgerald, described the policy as “wacky” and said similar measures had been deployed in 15 US states. They had not detected many positive results, he said, and were costly to deliver. The government has not given an estimate of the program’s cost, saying it is commercial in confidence.

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Fitzgerald described the policy as “unusual, symbolic and unhelpful”, saying it risked pushing disadvantaged Australians into criminal activity to survive.

“It’s so unusual, it really seems quite wacky, to tell you the truth,” told Guardian Australia. “It would be interesting to see whether anyone in Treasury had actually modelled this on the state criminal justice budgets, because that’s where it’s going to end up.”

Malcolm Turnbull said he was doing welfare recipients “a favour” by drug-testing them.

“You’re doing them a favour, you’re doing a huge favour,” he said on Wednesday morning. “You know as well as I do that substance abuse … you’ve got a very high correlation with unemployment,” he said.

“The lesson is, don’t do drugs. And the bottom line is if you’re on welfare, you’ve got to get off welfare and into a job.”

The deputy prime minister, Barnaby Joyce, said welfare recipients “can’t go to work if [they] are smashed”.

“If I go to work and I can’t go to work drunk or under the influence of drugs, neither can you,” Joyce said.

But the Social Security Rights Network expressed serious concerns that the trial undermined the country’s needs-based safety net.



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The network’s executive officer, Matthew Butt, echoed Fitzgerald’s concerns that the policy would have unintended consequences for those who were dealing with drug addiction. He said it was important not to be alarmist, and highlighted the relatively small number of individuals involved, but warned that the network held serious concerns about the trial’s practical implications.

“Because, inevitably, the purpose of the trial is to impose obligations on people who maybe in the throes of serious addiction,” Butt said.

“We’re very concerned that might have unintended consequences for both people’s families and for communities. The burden falls on the people around them.”

The Australian Council of Social Service chief executive, Cassandra Goldie, said drug-testing further marginalised and stigmatised those on welfare, who already faced one of the strictest compliance regimes in the OECD.



“This is further demonising of people on social security, people on the lowest incomes in the country,” Goldie told the ABC. “Another harsh welfare crackdown, compliance, it’s already really tough,” she said.

Katharine Murphy (@murpharoo) The PM says he's doing welfare recipients a favour by drug testing them #Budget2017 #auspol

The government will also now prevent people from claiming the disability support pension solely as a result of an alcohol and drug addiction. This measure is expected to only impact about 450 people, 90% of whom will be eligible for the youth allowance or Newstart instead.

It also announced a further rollout of the cashless welfare card from July, expanding it to two as-yet-undisclosed locations. A demerit point-style system to strip welfare payments from jobseekers who fail to show up to appointments or interviews will also be introduced.

Anglicare Victoria’s chief executive officer, Paul McDonald, said the welfare measures combined to “punish the poor and further disadvantage vulnerable families and children”.

“Welfare payments in Australia are so low that people on government benefits are shut out of the private rental market and trapped in poverty,” McDonald said. “Anglicare’s recent housing affordability statement showed that even renting in a sharehouse was beyond the reach of Victorians on Newstart or youth allowances.”

The Department of Human Services, which includes Centrelink, will be forced to shed 1,188 jobs next financial year, designed to save $277m.

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That has prompted union fears that more cuts will place additional strain on the agency. The Community and Public Section Union said the department had already sustained 5,000 job cuts, leaving it in a state of crisis.

“The government’s refusal to repair the damage it has caused through years of cuts means there’s very likely to be more disasters in the coming year and that they could be on an even larger scale,” said the union’s national secretary, Nadine Flood. “Worst of all, it’s ordinary people who’ll continue to bear the brunt when things go wrong.

“Centrelink, Medicare and child support services in DHS are a prime example. Five thousand permanent staff have been cut in that agency and 36m calls went unanswered last year and yet this budget cuts over 1,100 jobs in DHS. It’s a massive cut and a disaster for our community.

“To add insult to injury, the only thing offsetting that massive cut is government outsourcing DHS work to the private sector, with a $5.5m pilot program that creates 250 jobs in an unnamed provider. There’s no way that will fix an agency in crisis.”

In more positive news for the department, a further 250 workers will be added to its call centre in an attempt to shorten Centrelink’s lengthy call times.