A Senate inquiry has recommended the Coalition proceed with its plans to drug-test welfare recipients, despite hearing “overwhelming evidence” against it.

The Turnbull government is pushing ahead with its plans to trial the drug-testing of about 5,000 welfare recipients at three sites across the country: Logan in Queensland, Canterbury-Bankstown in New South Wales and Mandurah in Western Australia.

Those who fail a test would be forced on to income management for 24 months, meaning 80% of their welfare is quarantined and can only be spent on certain items. A second failed test will prompt a referral to treatment. Failure to comply with the drug-testing regime could see a welfare recipient lose their welfare.

The proposal has been met with strong opposition from doctors, psychiatrists, welfare advocates, community groups, local mayors, the United Nations, and charities.

Many fear taking a punitive approach to drug addiction will simply drive people away from the welfare system and further into poverty.

The government failed to secure crossbench support for drug-testing last year, and the proposal was referred to a Senate inquiry, which held hearings last month.



The inquiry delivered its final report on Monday afternoon and recommended the government proceed with the bill. It relied in part on evidence from prisons abroad where compulsory drug treatment has been used.

“The committee understands that the trials from the criminal justice setting are different to the welfare context, but the committee considers that a limited methodologically appropriate Australian drug-testing trial should be conducted in the welfare context to test whether substance abuse issues are causing a barrier to employment for trial participants,” it said.

Both Labor and the Greens produced dissenting reports that urged the government to abandon the plan.

Labor said there was no evidence that drug-testing would be effective at getting people into work, and lacked community support at the trial sites.

The Greens said the Coalition’s continued pursuit of the “flawed policy indicates their total failure to listen to the advice of those with expertise in this field”. It also showed the government’s “dogged determination to pursue a punitive, ineffective and damaging policy in the face of all evidence”.

In a statement, the Greens senator Rachel Siewert said there was almost universal opposition to the plan.

“It was overwhelmingly rejected for good reason by Senate when it was previously proposed as part of the welfare reform bill,” she said. “It is astounding the government has reintroduced the same measure as a standalone bill.”

Many of the experts warned the measure risked driving people into crime to support their drug addictions. That included the St Vincent de Paul chief executive, John Falzon, who said: “We would also suggest that this program will also drive some behaviours further underground, further off-the-grid, where people – rather than being able to access the support they need – will be driven further away from those supports because they want to escape attention.”

An addiction expert, Prof Adrian Reynolds, said that the drug-testing trial is “unlikely to bring about any sustained changes in patients” drug use and may even be counterproductive.

The Australian Council of Social Service (Acoss) senior policy officer, Charmaine Crowe, warned drug treatment services were already struggling to meet demand, even without welfare drug-testing.

“Our concern would be that this policy is just going to aggravate that,” she said. “We should also remember that the welfare reform bill will coerce a number of people into treatment as well across Australia.”

The inquiry heard about half of those seeking treatment are currently able to receive it. The government has offered an added $10m for drug treatment services to accompany the drug-testing trial but experts say it is not enough.

The Ted Noffs Foundation CEO, Matthew Noffs, described the money as a “drop in the ocean”.