Residents of Hervey Bay in southern Queensland have rubbished claims that their campaign against the cashless welfare card is dominated by Sydney-based socialists, saying: “It’s local, and we’re scared.”
The federal government is expected to soon announce two new trial sites for the controversial cashless debit card, which controls the way a welfare recipient spends 80% of their social security.
The debit cards quarantine a person’s welfare payments to prevent spending on drugs, alcohol or gambling, and have been trialled in communities in Ceduna in South Australia and the Kimberley.
The federal government says the card has been successful in reducing crime in those areas but opponents say it’s an ineffective, punitive and paternalistic approach to addressing complex issues.
A push by the federal member for Hinkler, Keith Pitt, to bring the card to Hervey Bay and Bundaberg has prompted some opposition, including an online petition with more than 1,300 signatures.
Pitt said his office’s own surveys showed 70% support for a trial. He said the card was crucial in addressing the area’s traditionally high rate of unemployment.
The MP told the ABC on Wednesday the online opposition to the card was either fake or from Sydney members of the Socialist Alliance.
That claim has been rejected by a Hervey Bay local, Dianne Smith, a disability support pensioner who fears the card will have a damaging impact on the region.
“It’s absolutely not: it’s local and we’re scared,” Smith said.
“There are people talking about suicide, you don’t want stuff like that. People are really, really frightened of not being able to control their own income.”
Jennifer Cameron is another Hervey Bay local opposed to the card. She has lived in the region for 20 years and worked with the local Red Cross service.
Cameron said her work helped her understand the nature of drug and alcohol use there. She said the cashless debit card was not the answer.
“Most of the people who used to come in for drug addictions were people who were working,” she said. “Usually miners who were flying in and out, high-stress jobs.
“You have your small margin of people who are on benefits who do do that sort of thing, but that comes down to their family unit, their history.
“Nothing like a card is going to magically fix all of these problems. They come from decades of abuse.”
Last month the human services minister, Alan Tudge, met Pitt in Hervey Bay. During his trip, Tudge spoke of the benefits of the card, saying it had reduced gambling and alcohol and drug use in the first two trial sites.
Tudge sought to reassure the community that the card could be used as widely as any other Visa card, and said he was given a good reception from local community leaders while in Hervey Bay.
“We would only proceed in this region if there is community support,” Tudge said last month. “That has been the basis on which we have proceeded in South Australia and Western Australia and would continue to be the basis on which locations would be chosen.”
Smith said almost everyone she knew was opposed to the card.
She said local businesses feared it would hit them hard, particularly those still reliant on cash payments.
Concerns about drug and alcohol use and crime had been overblown, she said.
“I’ve been here two years and I get out and about to the local community often, I’ve never been humbugged here, I’ve never seen anyone drunk on the street or drugged out of their brain,” Smith said.
“We don’t do that sort of stuff, and the demographic here is that there’s not that many young people. When Keith Pitt says there are X amount of people on welfare, he’s taking about three-quarters of them being of pension age.”
The local community plans to hand out leaflets near the local Centrelink on Friday, and rally in the town on Monday.
Cameron said the card, by stifling spending, would have a “ripple effect” through the community.
“It’s not going to affect just people on the card, it’s going to affect small businesses. It’s going to affect working families. It’s going to hurt the whole region.”
