Prime minister says card designed to cut spending on alcohol and gambling has made a ‘positive difference’ in Ceduna, South Australia

This article is more than 3 years old

This article is more than 3 years old

Malcolm Turnbull says a cashless welfare card designed to reduce spending on alcohol and gambling has made a “positive difference” and could be rolled out to other communities.

The prime minister made the comments on a visit to Ceduna, in South Australia, where a 12-month trial of the healthy welfare card began on 15 March.

The card is also being trialled in Wyndham and Kununurra in the east Kimberley region of Western Australia.

A six-month progress report on the trial, released by the Department of Social Services on Monday, found a 15% drop in poker machine revenue in the Ceduna region in the three months after the start of the trial, and a drop in the number of alcohol-related arrests. Other results are mixed.



The human services minister, Alan Tudge, told the ABC’s AM program the results were “encouraging”.

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All welfare recipients in the trial sites have 80% of their welfare payments placed into a debit account that cannot not be used to buy alcohol or gambling products, or to withdraw cash.

It is not explicitly targeted at Indigenous people, but they make up the bulk of welfare recipients in both Ceduna and the east Kimberley, prompting the Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander social justice commissioner, Mick Gooda, to raise concerns of indirect discrimination.

The introduction of the card was accompanied by a $1m injection into social services in both the trial sites, including funding for drug and alcohol support services, financial planning, domestic violence support services and mental health services.

West Australian Greens senator Rachel Siewert has suggested it was those additional support services, not the card, which had led to some positive results.

Tudge disagreed, telling AM: “It’s the operation of those three things together which I think is making the trial work.”

He said the trial could be rolled out to other communities: “If we get this right, it can be used a model for elsewhere.”

The progress report showed mixed results.

In Ceduna, the number of people arrested for public drunkenness between March and June was 54% lower than for the same period in 2015, although that figure had been trending down since liquor restrictions were introduced in August 2015, and has since increased.

The number of people picked up by the mobile assistance patrol, one of the community services given additional resources under the trial, increased by 35%.

There was also an increase in the number of people admitted to the sobering-up unit, but the proportion discharged while still at risk decreased from 14% at the start of the trial to 2% in June.

There was a 42% reduction in the number of people supported by specialist homelessness services, and a 25% reduction in the proportion of those clients with drug and alcohol issues.

Admissions to the emergency department fell sharply in May 2016 before levelling out.

There have been no reported robberies or arrests for drug-driving since April, but drink-driving has increased, as have the number of assaults.

The Koonibba Community Aboriginal Corporation said the number of families coming to the community store to ask for urgent supplies of bread and milk had dropped since the start of the trial, and there was anecdotal evidence that local parties had become shorter and quieter.

Ceduna’s mayor, Allan Suter, told the department: “This is the best thing we’ve ever had.”

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In the second trial site in the east Kimberley, the number of admissions to the Wyndham sobering-up centre was 69% lower in September than in April and the number of people picked up by the night patrol had dropped on 2015 figures.

The number of people picked up by the Kununurra-Miriwoong community patrol dropped by 20% from April to May, but has since stabilised.

Reports of domestic violence fell 13% from April to July, but the number of assaults in the region doubled between April and September.

Referrals to the Kimberley mental health and drug service have declined, and St John Ambulance’s callout figures for September 2016 were 28% lower than September 2015.

Ian Trust, an Indigenous leader, executive director of the Wunan Foundation and long-time supporter of the healthy welfare card, told the department the trial had been successful because it had been led by Indigenous people.

“This has not been about government imposing its will on us,” he is quoted as saying. “This has been about Indigenous leaders making the tough decisions, backed by government policy, in order to make change happen.

“We believe it’s a model that could drive reform across the country.”

An independent evaluation of the trial is due next year.