I would have the hot dog if Peter Dutton suggested the sausage roll.

ACOSS warmly welcomes cashless debit abolition. Now same must happen for mandatory income management   
Sep 28 2022
Mirage News
ACOSS welcomes the passage of the legislation to abolish mandatory cashless debit. We congratulate the government for prioritising this bill and agreeing to amendments to support community-led services and initiatives in cashless debit sites.   

ACOSS acknowledges the long-standing advocacy against mandatory income quarantining of The Greens and the improvements to the bill they secured. We also acknowledge the Jacqui Lambie Network and Senator David Pocock for their support of the bill and work with government to improve it.

While we welcome the abolition of mandatory cashless debit, mandatory income management continues for more than 25,000 people in the Northern Territory and other sites for at least 18 months.

Acting CEO Edwina MacDonald said:

“This is a long overdue step to removing one of the worst examples of paternalism in our social security system. Cashless debit is a failed policy that discriminates against First Nations People and people on low incomes. We congratulate the community members and organisations who have fought hard to abolish cashless debit.


“We urge the Federal Government to also abolish mandatory income management. Income management has also failed to meet its objectives and discriminates against First Nations people, with four in five people subjected to the card being Aboriginal or Torres Strait Islander.

“Mandatory income quarantining, in whatever form, does not support individuals or their communities. Repeated evaluations have shown it does not work. It is instead a tool of punishment that targets people receiving income support.   

“It’s important that the Federal Government quickly move to end mandatory income management, working with communities to do so.”

Gnads wrote on Feb 4^th, 2023 at 8:08am:



Actually this is one situation where a CDC could be used advantageously IF the plan was well
thought-through, properly targetted, and had adequate alternative support in place.

Where they went seriously wrong, though, was targetting EVERYONE on welfare, not just those
whose poor lifestyle choices and/or addictions put themselves and their kids at risk.

This meant people who would normally have supported the card did not do so as the card was
causing undue hardship to those who were doing nothing at all wrong.