Bills Digest No.
001, 2022–23
PDF version [386KB]
Don Arthur
Social Policy Section
1
August 2022
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Key points
- There are two schemes for income support recipients that aim to limit spending on harmful goods such as alcohol, illicit drugs, and gambling. One is the cashless debit card (CDC) program and the other is income management.
- The CDC program currently operates in six areas around Australia — Ceduna (South Australia), Kununurra and Wyndham in the East Kimberly (Western Australia), the Goldfields region (Western Australia), the Bundaberg and Hervey Bay region (Queensland), the Northern Territory, and Cape York (Queensland). In June 2022 it applied to 17,382 people.
- The Bill will abolish the CDC program in line with the Government’s 2022 election commitment.
- The abolition will occur in two stages.
- Certain people who are currently participating in the CDC program may be moved to income management. Others may decide to voluntarily participate in income management.
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Contents
Purpose of the Bill
Background
Committee consideration
Financial implications
Statement of Compatibility with Human
Rights
Key issues and provisions
Concluding comments
Date introduced: 27
July 2022
House: House of
Representatives
Portfolio: Social
Services
Commencement: Sections
1-3 on Royal Assent; Part 1 of Schedule 1 on the later of the day after Royal
Assent and 19 September 2022; and Part 2 of Schedule 1 on the earlier of
Proclamation and six months after Royal Assent.
Links: The links to the Bill,
its Explanatory Memorandum and second reading speech can be found on the
Bill’s home page, or through the Australian
Parliament website.
When Bills have been passed and have received Royal Assent,
they become Acts, which can be found at the Federal Register of Legislation
website.
All hyperlinks in this Bills Digest are correct as
at August 2022.
Purpose of
the Bill
The purpose of the Social
Security (Administration) Amendment (Repeal of Cashless Debit Card and Other
Measures) Bill 2022 (the Bill) is to abolish the cashless debit card (CDC)
program in Part 3D of the Social Security
(Administration) Act 1999 (SSA Act) and to facilitate
arrangements for individuals to enter or re-enter the income management regime
under Part 3B of that Act in certain cases.
The Bill will also make consequential amendments to the A New Tax System
(Family Assistance) (Administration Act) Act 1999, the National Emergency
Declaration Act 2020 and the Social Security Act
1991.
Background
The cashless debit card program is one of two schemes for
income support recipients that aim to limit spending on harmful goods such as
alcohol, illicit drugs, and gambling. The other scheme is income management.
Both income management and the cashless debit card were
first implemented in Indigenous communities and then extended to communities
that are predominantly non-Indigenous.
The cashless debit card and income management’s BasicsCard
attempt to restrict access to cash by blocking cash withdrawals and
transactions involving excluded goods or at merchants that sell excluded goods.[1]
While the cashless debit card and the BasicsCard are provided by payment company
Indue,[2]
they were developed separately and operate in different ways.
Income management is the older of the two schemes. It was
created in 2007 as part of the Howard Coalition Government’s Northern Territory
Emergency Response (commonly known as ‘the intervention’).[3]
The scheme was further developed and expanded under the Rudd Labor Government.[4]
The cashless debit card was developed in response to a
recommendation of the 2014 Forrest Review.[5]
The cashless debit card program
The cashless debit card program was designed to reduce the
amount of money from income support available for the purchase of alcohol,
illicit drugs and gambling, help participants with their budgeting strategies
and encourage socially responsible behaviour.[6]
It is designed to function in two ways. For recipients
with alcohol, drug and gambling problems the card restricts the amount of
payments they can spend on excluded goods. For recipients without alcohol, drug
and gambling problems, the card is meant to protect payments from demands by
family members and others who want to spend money on alcohol, drugs or
gambling.
How the cashless debit card works
The program relies on Visa debit cards issued by payments
company Indue and by the Traditional Credit Union (in the Northern Territory
only). Cardholders can use their card at any physical store that accepts Visa
debit unless the store has been blocked. Cardholders can also use the card to
make online purchases at approved online merchants.[7]
Each person on the cashless debit card has a bank account
known as a ‘welfare restricted bank account’.[8]
The restricted portion of the person’s income support payments is placed in
this account and they access it using the cashless debit card, direct debit,
BPAY or other transfers.[9]
Participants generally receive 80 per cent of their
payment on the card and 20 per cent in their ordinary bank account. However,
these arrangements are different in the Northern Territory and Cape York. In
both these locations the proportions are the same as they were under the income
management scheme (for most participants in the Northern Territory 50 per cent
is put on the card).[10]
The cashless debit card system works by using merchant
category codes (MCCs) to block certain merchant categories. An MCC is a four
digit code that identifies merchants by the kind of goods or services they
sell.[11]
The system automatically blocks a number of MCCs including those covering
drinking places, packaged liquor stores, gambling venues and a category known
as ‘quasi cash’ (a category that includes things such as traveller’s cheques).[12]
There are special arrangements for merchants that sell a mix of excluded and
non-excluded goods (for example, a club that sells alcohol as well as meals).
Where the cashless debit card program operates
The card is operating in six areas around Australia — Ceduna
(South Australia), Kununurra and Wyndham in the East
Kimberly (Western Australia), the Goldfields
region (Western Australia), the Bundaberg
and Hervey Bay region (Queensland), the Northern
Territory, and Cape
York (Queensland).
Who does the cashless debit card apply to?
The cashless debit card is targeted at recipients of
working age payments but allows recipients of Age Pension to voluntarily
receive their payments using the card. In Bundaberg and Hervey Bay compulsory
participation is restricted to people aged 35 and under.[13]
In the Northern Territory the former Morrison Coalition
Government planned to transition all income management participants onto the
cashless debit card. However, the legislation which was intended to achieve
that goal was amended by the Parliament to allow people to choose which scheme
they wanted to participate in.[14]
In Cape York, the cashless debit card replaced income
management on 17 March 2021.[15]
The card applies to communities that are part of the long-running Cape York
Welfare Reform trial. It is used as a sanction for individuals who have
breached their obligations rather than applied to entire categories of income
support recipients.[16]
Table 1. lists the current cashless debit card locations
and, for each location, shows participant groups, number of participants and
percentage of participants who are Indigenous.
There is no evidence the previous Government planned to
expand the program to Age Pensioners.[17]
Table 1. Cashless debit card participation by location
| Location |
Participant groups |
Number of participants* |
Per cent Indigenous* |
| Ceduna |
- Recipients
of working age payments
- Age
Pension recipients may volunteer
|
1035 |
74% |
| Goldfields |
- Recipients
of working age payments
- Age
Pension recipients may volunteer
|
3790 |
49% |
| East Kimberley |
- Recipients
of working age payments
- Age
Pension recipients may volunteer
|
2031 |
83% |
| Bundaberg and Hervey Bay |
- People
aged 35 and under who receive JobSeeker Payment, Youth Allowance (Job
seeker), Parenting Payment (Partnered) and Parenting Payment (Single)
- Income
support recipients over 35 may volunteer (including recipients of the Age Pension)
|
6488 |
20% |
| Cape York |
- Income
support recipients referred by the Family Responsibilities Commission
- Age
Pension recipients may volunteer
|
107 |
95% |
| Northern Territory |
- Income
Management participants who have chosen to transition to Cashless Debit Card
as well as eligible income support recipients who have volunteered for the
program
|
3931 |
78% |
*As at 3 June 2022.
Source: Department of Social Services (DSS), ‘Cashless
Debit Card’, DSS website, last updated 1 August 2022. Australian
Government, ‘Cashless
Debit Card Data Summary - June 2022’, data.gov.au, June 2022.
Rationale for the cashless debit card program
The cashless debit card was created in response to a
recommendation of the 2014 Indigenous Jobs and Training Review headed by Andrew
Forrest. Forrest argued that many vulnerable recipients were unable to manage
money effectively and that spending on alcohol, illicit drugs and gambling was
entrenching disadvantage.[18]
According to the review’s report, Creating Parity,
those ‘aware of the tragedy that untied welfare cash has on vulnerable
individuals, families and communities have fruitlessly searched for a solution
acceptable to the community for decades’.[19]
The report recommended replacing cash payments with a debit card that denied
access to cash and blocked spending on alcohol and gambling. Forrest called it
the ‘Healthy Welfare Card’.[20]
The Abbott Coalition Government adopted Forrest’s
recommendation and endorsed his claim that cash payments were contributing to
social dysfunction. In an opinion piece for the Australian,
Parliamentary Secretary to the Prime Minister, Alan Tudge asked:
What responsibility should we have over how welfare is
delivered to those in need? Since the introduction of federal unemployment
benefits in 1944, the government has provided welfare in cash. The reason is
expedience: dropping cash into an account is simpler and cheaper than the
traditional church welfare of providing clothes, food or vouchers.
But what happens if the cash is wasted on drugs, alcohol and
gambling, leading to catastrophic social consequences?[21]
Earlier, Mr Tudge had argued that it was irresponsible to
provide cash to people who were chronic alcoholics or were addicted to
gambling. Describing the problem as ‘welfare fuelled’ alcohol and drug abuse,
he implied that cash payments were a major cause and argued the Government had
a moral obligation to replace cash income support if there was an alternative.[22]
The Government’s rationale for the cashless debit card was
that it would reduce harm related to alcohol, illicit drugs, and gambling.
According to the statement of compatibility with human rights for a 2020
cashless debit card Bill:
The primary purpose of the CDC [cashless debit card] program
is to reduce harm at a community level from the use of harmful products such as
alcohol, illicit drugs and gambling. A flow-on impact of providing this tool to
help address these issues is that participants are able to stabilise their
lives, leading to an increased ability to participate in the workforce.[23]
While supporters of cashless payments often refer to
gambling and illicit drug use, most of their concrete examples of harm relate
to alcohol abuse. In a 2017 interview Mr Tudge spoke about the East Kimberley
region saying that ‘welfare-fuelled’ alcohol abuse ‘underpins so much of the
domestic violence, the child neglect, and the other very significant social
harms there’.[24]
According to a 2014 media report, Mr Tudge claimed a ‘quarter of babies are now
being born with fetal alcohol syndrome in some places’.[25]
However, despite the emphasis on reducing alcohol abuse,
the cashless debit card is not integrated into the Australian Government’s
broader strategies to reduce alcohol related harm. For example, the card is not
mentioned in the Government’s National Alcohol Strategy 2019–28 or the National
Fetal Alcohol Spectrum Disorder Strategic Action Plan 2018–2028.[26]
Administratively the cashless debit card sits under the Department of Social
Services’ Outcome 2, Program 2.1—Families and communities.[27]
Income management and the BasicsCard
Income management sets aside a proportion of a recipient’s
income support payment to pay for necessities such as food, clothing, housing
and utilities. Recipients can spend their income-managed funds using a PIN
protected debit card, known as the BasicsCard, or by arranging for Centrelink
to make payments on their behalf (for example, regular rent and utilities
payments).[28]
Payment amounts subject to income management are paid into
a person’s income management account. Each person’s income managed funds are
held in an income management account within the Income Management Record.[29]
Amounts standing to the credit of the income management record may be kept in a
single bank account.[30]
Individuals can transfer funds between their income management account and
their BasicsCard.[31]
The BasicsCard was developed specifically for income
management and is provided by Indue. It is a PIN protected card that operates
on the EFTPOS system. It replaced an earlier system that relied on vouchers and
store cards.[32]
A merchant can only accept BasicsCard if they have signed an agreement to abide
by its terms and have been approved by the Department of Human Services.[33]
The BasicsCard is more restrictive than the cashless debit
card. Because of the opt-in approval process for merchants, fewer merchants
accept the BasicsCard. Purchases of tobacco products and pornography are
allowed by the cashless debit card but are prohibited under income management.[34]
In a 2020 regulation impact statement in support of a Bill
which proposed to continue use of the cashless debit card, the Department of
Social Services was critical of income management and argued that the cashless
debit card was a superior technology:
… Income Management is a costly and complex program to run,
that requires the Government to provide significant support to participants and
merchants. Due to the complexity of the separate measures, including
personalised targeting, different placement criteria and payment splits, Income
Management is a largely incoherent policy that has a limited ability to create
change within communities.
Additionally, technology associated with Income Management
has not advanced as much as the Cashless Debit Card, which increases the burden
on participants and merchants. It limits the number of merchants who can accept
the BasicsCard, which limits the options for where Income Management
participants can purchase essential items.[35]
Committee
consideration
In its 28 July 2022 report, the Selection of Bills
Committee deferred consideration of the Bill.[36]
At the time of writing this Bills Digest, the Bill has not been referred to a
Committee for inquiry and report.
Financial
implications
According to the Explanatory Memorandum for the Bill:
Abolishing the Cashless Debit Card has commercial
implications for contractors. Due to these commercial implications the
financial impacts are not for publication. This is consistent with the
financial impacts disclosed in previous budget statements.[37]
Statement of Compatibility with Human Rights
As required under Part 3 of the Human Rights
(Parliamentary Scrutiny) Act 2011 (Cth), the Government has assessed
the Bill’s compatibility with the human rights and freedoms recognised or
declared in the international instruments listed in section 3 of that Act. The
Government considers that the Bill is compatible.[38]
Key issues
and provisions
The Government does not need legislation to end the
cashless debit card program. If the Bill is not passed, the Government will not
be able to operate the cashless debit card program after the end of 2022. This
is due to the sunset provision in section 124PF of the SSA Act.
The Bill brings forward the date participants can leave
the program. In all locations except the Northern Territory and Cape York,
income support recipients will be able to have 100% of their payments deposited
in their normal bank account. Depending on when the Bill is passed, this could
be as early as September 2022.
This option will not be available to cashless debit card
participants in the Northern Territory and Cape York. People who are currently
compulsory cashless debit card participants will be able to leave the cashless
debit card program on the closure day but may be moved to compulsory income
management. If this occurs, they will continue to have their payments
restricted.
Closure day and repeal day
Item 1 in Part 1 of the Bill defines two days:
- closure
day being the day the cashless debit card program will be closed to new
entrants and program participants can ask to leave the program and
- repeal
day being the day the cashless debit card program is abolished due to
the repeal of Part 3D of the SSA Act.
The closure day will be the later of the day
after Royal Assent and 19 September 2022.
The repeal day will be no later than six
months after Royal Assent—although the Governor-General can proclaim an earlier
date.
The sunset provision
The cashless debit card program is enabled by Part 3D of
the SSA Act. Section 124PF within Part 3D includes a sunset provision
the effect of which is that the cashless debit card program must cease at the
end of 31 December 2022.
Item 32 in Part 1 of the Bill repeals the sunset
provision.
What happens to cashless debit card participants outside
the NT and Cape York?
In Ceduna, the East Kimberley, the Goldfields and in
Bundaberg and Hervey Bay cashless debit card participants will be able leave
the program by making a request to the Secretary (items 33–36 in Part 1
of the Bill).
The Secretary will be required to give the person a notice
that specifies the day on which they are no longer a program participant. This
day must be no later than seven days after the person made the request.[39]
New participants will not be placed on the cashless debit
card program from the closure day onwards.[40]
What happens to cashless debit card participants in the
NT?
Currently income support recipients targeted by income
management are offered a choice of income management or the cashless debit
card. The Bill will take away this choice when Part 3D is repealed.
Importantly, the Bill may operate to force income support recipients in the
Northern Territory who formerly chose the cashless debit card back onto income
management.
Number of persons effected
As at 3 June 2022 there were 3,931 cashless debit card
participants in the Northern Territory, 78% of whom are Indigenous.[41]
Income support recipients who choose the cashless debit card have the same
proportion of their payments restricted as they would have had on income
management. For most Northern Territory recipients this is 50%.[42]
Income management is structured around ‘measures.’ Each
measure applies to a particular group of income support recipients (for
example, disengaged youth or long-term welfare payment recipients), and income
manages a particular percentage of a person’s income support payments.
The two measures with the largest number of participants
in the Northern Territory are the Long-Term Welfare Payment Recipient measure
(15,906 participants) and the Disengaged Youth measure (4,673 participants).[43]
How the Bill works
Part 1 of the Bill amends Part 3B of the SSA Act which
establishes the income management regime. In particular, it sets out the
various reasons that a person may become subject to the regime and how their
payments will be made.[44]
Table 2 lists those reasons and the section of the SSA Act in which they
are detailed
Table
2: existing income management measures
The Bill works in the following ways:
- first
it identifies those persons who use the cashless debit card in the Northern
Territory. Items 2, 4, 7, 8, 11, 12, 15–19 and 27 amend the sections in
Table 2 by making reference to a person who ‘was a program participant under
section 124PGE on the day before the closure day’. This is a specific reference
to persons using the cashless debit card in the Northern Territory
- second,
it allows the Minister to make a legislative instrument to determine that those
persons (or a subset of those persons) are members of a class of persons[45]
- third,
once a person has been declared a member of a specific class of persons, the
Bill operates so that the person will be subject to the income management
regime for the same reason as other members of that class. These amendments
mean that people currently on the cashless debit card can be transitioned to
income management under the appropriate measure and
- finally,
the Bill preserves those decisions of the Secretary which have been made under
subsections 124PHA(1) (that a person is not a CDC participant because it would
pose a serious risk to the person’s mental, physical or emotional wellbeing)
and 124PHB(3) (that the person can demonstrate reasonable and responsible
management of the person’s affairs).[46]
What happens to cashless debit card participants in Cape
York?
Cashless debit card participants in Cape York also will also
be able to be transitioned to income management.
As at 3 June 2022 there were 107 cashless debit card
participants in Cape York.[47]
Income management participants were transitioned to the Cashless Debit Card on
17 March 2021.
How the Bill works
Items 20-26 of the Bill amend section 123UF to
require the Queensland Commission to issue a notice on or after the closure
date to trigger entry or re-entry into the income management regime for persons
exiting the CDC program in Cape York.
Concluding comments
The Bill leaves open the possibility that compulsory
income management may continue in the Northern Territory and that some or all
current cashless debit card recipients will move to compulsory income
management when the cashless debit card is abolished.
The Government’s plans for compulsory income management in
the Northern Territory are unclear. In an interview with Patricia Karvelas on
ABC’s Radio National, the Minister for Social Services, Amanda Rishworth
refused to rule out continuing some form of compulsory income management:
In terms of the BasicsCard, the income management that
predates the Cashless Debit Card, we've said that we want to work with
communities in the Northern Territory about what the future of that type of
income management looks like. So I would like to have a lot of consultation
about that.[48]
It may be that compulsory income management will continue only
in communities where a significant number of local people ask for it. It is
also possible that the Government will abolish compulsory income management
entirely. This Bill appears to be designed not to close off the Government’s
options.
[1]. Social Security
(Administration) Act 1999 (SSA Act), sections 124PL and 124PM.
Department of Human Services (DHS), ‘What
You Can Use It For’, DHS website, 9 February 2022.
[2]. Indue Ltd, ‘All Cardholder FAQs’,
Cashless Debit Card website.
[3]. Mal Brough
(Minister for Families, Community Services and Indigenous Affairs), ‘Parliament
Supports Vital Reforms to Protect Aboriginal Children’, media release, 17
August 2007.
[4]. L
Buckmaster, C Ey, and M Klapdor, Income
Management : an Overview, Background Note, Parliamentary Library Australia,
21 June 2012, 5–7.
[5]. Andrew
Forrest, The
Forrest Review: Creating Parity, (Recommendation 5), (Canberra:
Department of the Prime Minister and Cabinet, 2014), 28.
[6]. The
objectives of the card are set out in section 124PC of the SSA Act.
[7]. For a more
detailed description of how the cashless debit card works, see Don Arthur and
Paula Pyburne, ‘Social
Security Legislation Amendment (Debit Card Trial) Bill 2015’, Bills
Digest, 27, 2015–16, (Canberra: Parliamentary Library, 2015).
[8]. DSS, ‘8.7.6.40
Welfare Restricted Bank Accounts’, Social Security Guide, DSS
website, last updated 4 February 2019.
[9]. Transactions
such as online purchases and transfers that do not involve the physical use of
the card are more restricted than those where the card is used. Merchants are
excluded unless they are approved. See DSS, ‘8.7.6.40
Welfare Restricted Bank Accounts’, Social Security Guide, 4 February
2019.
[10]. Department
of Social Services (DSS), ‘Cashless
Debit Card’, DSS website, last updated 1 August 2022.
[11]. Visa, Visa
Merchant Data Standards Manual: Visa Supplemental Requirements, (Visa
Public: November 2021), 15.
[12]. Indue Ltd, ‘Where can I shop?
Blocked and Excluded Merchants’, Cashless Debit Card website; Social Security
(Administration) (Cashless Welfare Arrangements) (Declinable Transactions and
Welfare Restricted Bank Account) Determination 2019. Quasi cash refers to
articles such as traveller’s cheques and money orders that can be converted
into cash as well as transactions related to gambling. Westpac, Merchant
Business Solutions, (Sydney: Westpac, 2019), 11.
[13]. Department
of Social Services (DSS), ‘Cashless
Debit Card’, DSS website, last updated 1 August 2022. Australian
Government.
[14]. Don Arthur,
Joseph Ayoub, ‘Social
Security (Administration) Amendment (Continuation of Cashless Welfare) Bill
2020’, Bills Digest, 33, 2020–21, (Canberra: Parliamentary Library,
2020). See amendments at Australian
Parliament, Social
Security (Administration) Amendment (Continuation of Cashless Welfare) Bill
2020 homepage and in the Act as made: Social Security
(Administration) Amendment (Continuation of Cashless Welfare) Act 2020.
[15]. DSS,
Cashless
Debit Card – Cape York, DSS website.
[16]. Arthur and
Ayoub, ‘Social Security (Administration) Amendment (Continuation of Cashless Welfare)
Bill 2020’.
[17]. Paul Karp, ‘Factcheck:
Is there any truth to Scare Campaigns about the Cashless Debit Card and Retiree
Tax?’, The Guardian, 18 April 2022. AAP FactCheck, ‘Claim
Aged Pensioners will be put on Cashless Debit Cards is due for Retirement’,
AAP website, 22 November 2021.
[18]. The Forrest
Review, 101.
[19]. The
Forrest Review, 102.
[20]. The
Forrest Review, 27–29.
[21]. Alan Tudge
(Parliamentary Secretary to the Prime Minister), ‘Solution
to Grog on the Cards’, media release, 19 August 2015.
[22]. Patricia
Karvelas, ‘ACOSS
Slammed Over Cash Welfare’, Australian, 21 November 2014.
[23]. Explanatory
Memorandum, Social Security (Administration) Amendment (Continuation of
Cashless Welfare) Bill 2020, 29.
[24]. Alan Tudge
(Minister for Human Services), ‘Transcript
of Joint Press Conference: welfare reform; Centrelink; compliance system;
cashless debit card; Budget’, Canberra, 11 May 2017. See also: Tudge, ‘Solution
to Grog on the Cards’.
[25]. Patricia
Karvelas, ‘Forrest
Grog-Ban Card 'Has Merit'’, Australian, 19 December 2014. According
to information published by the Australian Medical Association (AMA), ‘The
prevalence [of Fetal Alcohol Spectrum Disorder] may be as high as 12% in some
high-risk Indigenous communities.’ AMA, ‘Fetal
Alcohol Spectrum Disorder (FASD) – 2016’, AMA website,
24 August 2016.
[26]. Department of
Health (DoH), National
Fetal Alcohol Spectrum Disorder (FASD) Strategic Action Plan 2018-2028,
(Canberra: DoH, 2019). DoH, National
Alcohol Strategy 2019–2028, (Canberra: DoH, 2019).
[27]. Department of
Social Services (DSS), Corporate
Plan 2020–21, (Canberra: DSS, 2020), 15.
[28]. Don Arthur, Income
Management: A Quick Guide, Research Paper Series, 2015–16,
(Canberra: Parliamentary Library, 2015), 1.
[29]. DSS, ‘11.1.3.20 Income
Management Record’, Social Security Guide, DSS website, last updated
11 November 2019.
[30]. SSA Act,
section 123VC.
[31]. DHS, ‘Centrelink
Online Account Help - Manage Your Income Management Account and BasicsCard
Money Online’, DHS website, last updated 8 April 2019.
[32]. Jenny Macklin
(Minister for Families, Housing, Community Services and Indigenous Affairs) and
Joe Ludwig (Minister for Human Services), ‘Government
unveils the Income Management BasicsCard’, joint media release, 22 July
2008.
[33]. DHS, ‘BasicsCard
for Business: Applying’, DHS website, last updated 23 October 2019.
[34]. DSS, Cashless
Debit Card Option to transition from Income Management to the Cashless Debit
Card in the Northern Territory, factsheet, n.d.
[35]. Regulation
Impact Statement in: Explanatory
Memorandum, Social Security (Administration) Amendment (Continuation of Cashless
Welfare) Bill 2020, 34–35.
[36]. Senate
Standing Committee for the Selection of Bills, Report,
2, 2022, 28 July 2022.
[37]. Explanatory
Memorandum, Social Security (Administration) Amendment (Repeal of Cashless
Debit Card and Other Measures) Bill 2022, [2].
[38]. The
Statement of Compatibility with Human Rights can be found at page
of the Explanatory Memorandum to the Bill.
[39]. For Ceduna
residents, proposed subsections 124PG(8) and (9); for East Kimberley
residents, proposed subsections 124PGA(8) and (9); for Goldfields
residents, proposed subsections 124PGB(8) and (9); and for Bundaberg and
Hervey Bay residents, proposed subsections 124PGC(8) and (9).
[40]. For Ceduna
residents, proposed subsection 124PG(7); for East Kimberley residents, proposed
subsection 124PGA(7); for Goldfields residents, proposed subsection
124PGB(7); and for Bundaberg and Hervey Bay residents, proposed
subsection 124PGC(7).
[41]. DSS, ‘Cashless
Debit Card Data Summary - June 2022’, data.gov.au, 19 December 2019.
[42]. Department
of Social Services (DSS), ‘Cashless
Debit Card’, DSS website, last updated 1 August 2022. Australian
Government.
[43]. Australian
Government, ‘Income
Management Data Summary - July 2022’, data.gov.au, June 2022.
[44]. SSA Act,
section 123TA.
[45]. Item 3
inserts proposed subsection 123UC(3); Item 7 inserts proposed
subsection 123UCA(4); Item 11 inserts proposed subsection 123UCB(5);
Item 15 inserts proposed subsection 123UCC(5); Item 17
inserts proposed subsection 123UD(4A); Item 19 inserts proposed
subsection 123UE(5) ; item 28 inserts proposed section 123UFAA(3).
[46]. Item 7
inserts proposed paragraph 123UCA(5)(b); item 11 inserts proposed
paragraph 123UCB(6)(b); item 15 inserts proposed paragraph
123UCC(6)(b); item 17 inserts proposed paragraph 123UD(4B)(b);
item 19 inserts proposed paragraph 123UE(6)(b); and item 28
inserts proposed subsection 123UFAA(4)(b).
[47]. DSS, ‘Cashless
Debit Card Data Summary - June 2022’.
[48]. Amanda
Rishworth, ‘Transcript
of Interview with Patricia Karvelas: ABC RN Breakfast: Legislation for Family
and Domestic Violence Leave; Cashless Debit Card’, media release, 28 July
2022.
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