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The government will be back at the negotiating table this sitting fortnight, trying to woo Jacqui Lambie after again putting drug testing welfare recipients and restricting payments to job seekers on the agenda. Last week, Social Services Minister Anne Ruston resurrected plans to trial drug-testing welfare recipients in some test areas, with those found with drugs in their systems to be directed to counselling and have their payments restricted on a cashless welfare card. Despite being howled down by addiction and unemployment experts, as well as facing stark opposition from Labor and the Greens, the government needs just one vote to get the plan over the line. But the vote may not come easily, with Jacqui Lambie saying her support would be forthcoming only if random drug-testing was introduced for politicians, an idea which hasn't been dismissed outright. On Sunday it was announced that Tasmania's housing debt to the federal government had been waived, which was Senator Lambie's demand before passing the tax cut package in July. The Tasmanian senator said over the weekend she should have asked for more, so may be a more tough negotiator this time around. Cashless welfare cards have already been part of trials across the country, where 80 per cent of payments can only be spent on a specific card, and only 20 per cent in cash, in a bid to stop money being spent on alcohol or at the pokies. "The rate at which people are coming off this welfare is twice the national average in where we're putting this into place. It's getting people off welfare and into work," Prime Minister Scott Morrison said on the weekend, signalling a move to roll out the plan nationally on a volunteer basis by the start of next year. Despite the focus on job-seekers, the government is continuing to resist calls to increase the payment itself. Meanwhile, Labor will be attempting to keep the public's attention on issues the government would rather weren't the focus of debate, especially the economy. After another set of underwhelming economic markers last week, Labor has called on the government to do more to stimulate the economy, but the Prime Minister told NSW Liberal faithful on the weekend the government would be holding on tightly to its hard-won surplus. The reprieve won by the Tamil family from Biloela, now detained on Christmas Island, will hang across the sitting fortnight. The government is refusing to budge, while Labor asks for ministerial intervention, or concessions to fast track applications the family could make to come back to Australia if they return to Sri Lanka. The Canberra Times

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