Federal ministers announce second area for pilot drug-testing scheme, but mayor of Logan says ‘we didn’t even know this was happening’

This article is more than 3 years old

This article is more than 3 years old

Logan City in Queensland will be the second site of the Turnbull government’s trial of drug tests for welfare recipients – much to the surprise of its mayor.

Welfare recipients in south-west Sydney first to be targeted by drug testing Read more

Christian Porter, the social services minister, and Alan Tudge, the human services minister, announced Logan as the second trial site for welfare recipient drug testing on Wednesday.

On Tuesday, Canterbury-Bankstown in western Sydney was chosen as the first of three trial sites due to the high number people signing up for welfare and the rapid growth of ice-fuelled hospitalisations in the area.

But Luke Smith, mayor of Logan, says he has been kept in the dark about the federal government’s plan to make his city the second site of its drug-testing trial of welfare recipients. Smith says he has been given no information on the trial or why the city was chosen.

“We didn’t even know this was happening in the city of Logan,” Mr Smith told ABC radio.

Smith said he only found out after a call from the ABC and since then his office had tried “relentlessly” to learn more from the federal government.

“I think to announce this from the top down is a disgrace and the lack of consultation is something I am quite amazed by,” Smith said.

Tudge defended the lack of consultation by saying the issue was “purely in the federal domain ... because it is to do with welfare payments”.

“We want to ensure that if people have got a drug addiction, particularly, that we can identify them and put them onto the right treatment to get them off,” Tudge told ABC radio.



Tudge said a drug testing regime would have deterred him from using marijuana during his youth.

“If I knew that there was going to be a drug testing regime in place, there is no way that I would have been even having a puff of someone else’s,” Tudge said.

“And hopefully this will have that effect actually in the area,” he said.

Smith agreed accountability is needed for those on welfare payments, but he is resistant to Logan participating in the trial. He said there has been “tremendous” work to reduce unemployment and crime in the city.



“The drug problem is clearly a nation wide issue ... to stigmatise Logan with this is quite an atrocious lack of understanding of what’s going on, on the ground,” he said.

Tudge said there was no intention to stigmatise Logan, saying “many, many communities across Australia” have drug problems.

“We know that people who are on unemployment benefits are two and a half times more likely to be taking drugs, compared to somebody who is not. Of course, welfare benefits are not there to support a person’s drug habit,” he said.

On Tuesday Porter said there was “lots of evidence” that compelling people into treatment programs could have a positive result but conceded: “No one has quite done particularly what we’re doing here in Australia anywhere else in the world.”

The government’s proposed drug testing scheme will see 5,000 people tested at three trial sites across the country.

Failing the first test will cause welfare recipients to be placed on income management, which effectively quarantines the spending of 80% of their employment benefits, most likely through a restricted-use cashless welfare card.

Welfare recipients who fail a second test would be referred to treatment, and forced to cover the costs of their tests. If they drop out of treatment, they will face the loss of their welfare.

The new powers are included as part of a package of broader welfare reforms currently before parliament. Labor and the Greens have pledged to vote against the bill, making the Nick Xenophon Team a crucial bloc in the senate.

Xenophon said on Tuesday indicated a willingness to negotiate in good faith with the government on the proposal, but voiced some concern about introducing a punitive system to combat drug addiction.

Serious concerns have been expressed about the proposal by drug researchers, frontline workers, and community groups.

They say the scheme, by taking a punitive approach to addiction, will be ineffective, costly, and cause vulnerable Australians to disengage from the welfare system.