I’M OUT — I’M NOT BACKING CASHLESS CARD BILL
The cashless debit card’s trial has had more lives than most trials get.
It’s been given years to show it’s working.
No matter how much promise the card has, it won’t work without a government prepared to make it work.
We don’t have one of those.
We haven’t had one of those for years.
Rather than treating the card like a single tool in the tool kit, government after government has treated it like the whole kit.
But if this legislation goes down, the card drops dead mid-stride.
Everybody who’s on it goes off it, right away. No counselling, no forward planning, no support. It all disappears in a puff of smoke.
And there are people who like the card, who are benefiting from the card, and who want to stay on the card.
You can’t dismiss their experience as being anecdotal. They’re real. They’re important too. You can’t just ignore them because they don’t fit your talking points.
There are people who feel the pain of this policy failure, by being forced onto this card without getting any benefit from it.
But a failure of policy doesn’t have to be a failure to everybody the policy impacts.
These trial sites have genuine problems. There are problems with long-term unemployment. With drugs, with drink, with violence and crime.
Those problems aren’t going away with the card in place, but they don’t go away when the card goes away either.
So I’m washing my hands of this policy.
I don’t do it lightly. I’ve backed this for years. I’ve seen the promise, the potential of this policy. I’ve visited all the trial sites. I’ve spoken with people for and against this policy. I’ve got my hands dirty with this policy. And I’ve tried to make it a success.
But what I’ve learned over these years is that the success of this card is completely dependent on what’s supporting the card.
Success comes from the services you attach to it. And it’s here we’re failing.
By all means, make it hard for a drug addict to buy drugs. But for some, they’re on drugs, or drunk, and they’re unemployed, unemployable and hopeless. It’s not the drugs that make them feel hopeless. It’s their hopelessness that pushes them to drugs.
They can’t see a better way ahead. They look out at a future where every day down the line looks the same as the day today, and today you’re bored, broke and invisible. And they feel like what’s ahead of them is already written for them.
I get that. I’ve been there myself. I never want to go back there, and I don’t want anyone to find themselves there if I can help it.
So here’s what I’m offering.
Six months transition off the card. It’s an exit strategy. And it’s a firm exit.
No extensions. No more last minute lifelines. The card’s over, six months from now. It’s over.
Nobody goes onto it from now until then. It’s closed to new entrants.
And to prepare people for the exit of the card, you put in place genuine work training and placement services.
You put in place genuine drug and alcohol rehab services. You put in place the sorts of things you need to fix the sorts of problems this card’s supposed to fix.
If you don’t want to take the offer, fine. It’s all the more evidence that you’re not serious about making this work.
Maybe you’d rather the card fail and die right now, despite the good you think it’s doing. Maybe that’s easier than investing in the sorts of services necessary to help the people you’re promising to help.
If that’s the case, and that’s your view, that’s why the card’s not worked. It’s why it’s not working now, and it won’t work six months from now. It’s why I’ll vote against this legislation.
Because you’re not serious about it.
And the cliff that’s coming, when this card’s over, and nothing’s there in its place, that’s a consequence of your decision to play chicken with people’s lives.
That’s on you, not me. The crossbench didn’t treat vulnerable people like bargaining chips. If anything, we gave you the chance to help them.
The card’s a stick. You’re not giving them a carrot. You’re just hitting them. I didn’t sign up to that.
Senator Jacqui Lambie is a Senator for Tasmania, based in Burnie.
