By Amanda Smith
The Cashless Debit Card is the latest iteration of a policy called “compulsory income management” (CIM) in Australia. Compulsory income management – meaning government and corporate control over all or portions of people’s social security entitlement payments, is an idea that had its roots as far back as 1982 in government, though it began in earnest in 2007, targeting over 70 Aboriginal communities in the Northern Territory with the roll out of the “Basics Cards” during the Northern Territory Emergency Response (NTER) also known as “The Intervention”.
Much the same as Basics Cards, the Cashless Debit Card began its life based on the racist, classist assumptions and stereotypes of a multi billionaire, and through a raft of political lies and the manipulation of media and the public. The history of NTER is explained well here. The history of the Cashless Debit Card, is still being lived and written.
The Cashless Debit Card (aka the “CDC”) is the end result of The Creating Parity Report, written by Andrew Forrest. The CDC program currently operates across six sites – East Kimberley, Ceduna, Goldfields, Hinkler electorate, Cape York Region and the Northern Territory. Despite being introduced by government as a limited 12-month trial in one location, the policy is now in its sixth year of blanket operation and expanding rapidly.
The Cashless Debit Card takes 80% of a person’s social security entitlement and quarantine it into a third-party account.
To be specific, the LNP hands legal ownership of that 80% portion to a private (alleged) LNP-backed financial services corporation – Indue Ltd.
This leaves the payment recipient with access to just 20% of the payment paid into their personal account ‘as cash’.
This 20% is the only “lawful income” that the banks ‘see’ which has had the effect of ending access to the credit system and loans for most participants. For some payment recipients that 20% cash sum is less than $7 a day.
Despite the LNP’s media spin, Indue income management cards are not “just welfare paid out in another form.” If placed onto a card, a person’s income is strictly and actively managed by Indue Ltd and the Department, who exert control over all spending, not just over purchases of prohibited items. At any time, the Department or Indue Ltd acting independently can reject any purchase while also controlling your access to venues, from hotels/motels, and air travel, to the local school photographer and bookstores.
Despite government rhetoric, not one report on Indue income management cards or any compulsory third party income management iteration in over 14 years has shown any success from the act of quarantining peoples income.
To the contrary, extensive longitudinal studies showed increases in individual and community health problems and devastating social harms including increases in infant mortality and low birth weights, rises in domestic violence, increases in Centrelink and government dependency, culminating in the entrenchment of poverty in every roll out region.
Rising crime rates, crimes of opportunity and increases in suicides and attempted suicides of forced trial participants and people on other forms of forced income management are just some of the ‘side effects’ and have all been reported to the Senate since 2017.
The impact of increased bank and transaction fees and other financial losses forced program participants have had to endure, have also been documented multiple times in multiple senate inquiries.
Why you should care about the Indue Card:
➤ Legal and Civil Rights: Government is using the social status and economic dis-empowerment experienced by the unemployed as a means to segregate forced Indue Income Management trial participants from their communities and society as a whole. They are circumventing civil and economic rights, ‘justify’ Human Rights infringements nefariously, and even bypassing Social Security law itself.
➤ Social and economic segregation based on income source: The existence of several exemptions to existing Consumer laws and Data rules given to Indue Ltd by the Morrison government and written into the cashless welfare arrangements section of the Social Security Act, has meant that people on Indue Income Management cards have been prohibited from taking legal actions against the department on discrimination grounds, and are prevented from acting against Indue Ltd for economic losses or personal injuries. Government has provided this company with a ‘no action’ letter and other exemptions often mean complaints, while important to make, simply go nowhere. Importantly, and rather than changing laws directly, the Morrison government is simply not enforcing them for anyone captured under this policy.
https://twitter.com/thesayno7/status/1447517673949057025
➤ All of these payments: Which represent the majority of Centrelink payments, excepting DVA, are captured by this program.
➤ Human Rights Abuses: The Indue Income Management card as we cal the CDC, infringes on five articles of non-discrimination law and other articles of human rights legislation. The AHRC writing in multiple senate submissions, has stated repeatedly that this policy does not meet Australian human rights standards or obligations and that despite Government claims, these infringements on our basic human rights, are not justified.
➤ Workers: Full-time, gig, part-time and casual, and including union members are on cards right now.
➤ Targeting women, children and people with disabilities and carers: People aged 16-100 yrs and people with disabilities are on cards right now.
➤ Public money being wasted: Massive sums of public money is being preferentially given to a private corporation in payments and in contract, milestone payments and management fees. Public money is going offshore and returning via Bank of America, at significant cost to the Australian public and forced trial participants in interest losses and international banking and transaction fees.
➤ Needless duplication of service: The Indue cards were never about drugs/alcohol or welfare spending. These were just a pretext for roll out of the policy. Government already had income management in place for people the department considered ‘at risk’, it is called the weekly payments income management program. People on this program were until Dec 2020, exempt from current “trials”.
➤ Reducing community cashflow: Indue Income Management cards reduce local spending in small businesses and second hand markets, they impact and restrict the cash flow to all businesses within communities they have been rolled out in. Government is removing money from the community at a time the community needs it desperately.
➤ Housing/Homelessness Crisis: The impact of Indue unreliability in rent payments and direct debit transfers has made people homeless and reduced peoples living incomes. Hinkler electorate is now #1 for homelessness in QLD.
https://twitter.com/thesayno7/status/1226468592608108544
➤ Usurping institutional practices: In April 2019, an amendment to the legislation was made, that enabled people to “exit” the cashless debit card program. However by Jan 1st 2020 just 14 forced participants of over 12,000 had been exited and the excuses given now to thousands more for rejecting exit and well-being applications border on the inhumane and ridiculous. Exit decisions – a determination of “individual capacity to manage ones own financial and other affairs” are made in secret by DSS and usurp the role of the State Trustee and bypass all normally applicable fiduciary and guardianship rights and processes.
(See also: Cashless welfare card recipients denied exit from trial claim unfair treatment, ABC News).
➤ Plans for more “inclusive” trials: Not content to expand the program to the entire NT and Cape York regions in December of 2020, the department has now included age pension in the Act, and age pensioners in Cape York are now compulsorily on the card. Both Liberal and National Party have publicly confirmed, a national roll out of this program will comments, and proceed incrementally – starting with all under 35s.
(See: Nationals MPs push party to support Australia-wide rollout of cashless card, welfare inquiry, SMH); Age pension ministers #QON reply and confirmation of inclusion; Government have already budgeted for expansions #estimates response; and Legislation including Age Pension in the Act).
➤ Civil and Legal Rights: Among a serious if legal rights and protections suspended or removed from forced program participants under the cashless debit card program, participant privacy rights are, in practice, wholly suspended. While government continues to distract the public by stating they and Indue Ltd are bound to the Privacy Act, clauses within the 89 page Indue Ltd terms and conditions brochure state clearly that data is on sold to several nations. If people refuse to allow this data gathering process, access to the Indue Ltd account and 80% of their income, is suspended.
(See also: List of suspended, removed and infringements of legal rights and protections).
➤ Political lies and misrepresentation of facts: Government has gone to great lengths to misrepresent information and data concerning the trials even to the point of withholding the entire Adelaide University Report and Evaluation from the Australian Senate until after the December 2020 vote to expand the program further had taken place. The Adelaide University evaluation was a damning indictment against expansion, and documented substantial increases in Domestic Violence social harms, children at risk, increased financial stress and resulted in an 85.4% NO positive impact for the six years of program roll out overall. It also failed to provide answers to the questions demanded in legislation as to the programs suitability for expansion entirely. If those answers exist, they have never been released to the public.
Not one senator or MP who voted to expand and extend the program had read the evaluation prior to voting. The evaluation cost the Australian public $2.5M.
➤ Plans to let the banks run social security payment systems: The LNP have declared they want the Big 4 banks to take over day to day running of Indue Income Management cards. If this plan goes ahead, your mortgage holder will have the power and authority to control your every day spending.
➤ It doesn’t work to solve problems: Every report, both government and independent on the card trials to date, has shown the Indue Income Management Card has not achieved the results which are being claimed by the Federal Government.
➤ Targeting the vulnerable: The Indue Income Management cards are crippling people already bearing burdens most people wouldn’t or couldn’t bear themselves and they are bringing the spectre of active socioeconomic apartheid to everyone’s front door.
https://twitter.com/thesayno7/status/1226062531204009984
➤ You are already being impacted: Even if you are not on the card yourself, we are all still being impacted directly through:
The rising cost of Social Security, insurance, social and economic impacts of entrenched systemic poverty; mental health declines, rising crime and homelessness, the impact of overwhelmed services.
We are all impacted by the erosion of citizenship rights and liberties, the undermining of equality in the application of the rule of law; workers rights and power is being undermined. And unaccountable( to Senate) corporations are taking control of government portfolios.
Needless to say, the impact of wholesale privatisation, the wider acceptance and silence on the inhumanity and neglect of vulnerable people as well as the division this policy has created and maintained in our communities, is harming us all.
There is no sector of Australian society and no sector in the fight for social justice that is not directly or indirectly impacted by the advent and expansion of Compulsory Income Management policy.
Thanks to people who follow and support No Cashless Welfare Debit Card Australia and the Say No Seven group, a fight back against this draconian policy and the ideology driving it has been ongoing. Grassroots effort has contributed to the end of bipartisan support for the policy in 2017 and has included sabotaging plans for the national rollout in 2018, raising noise levels so loud that the Hinkler rollout, largest group on cards in the country, became a limited shadow of the intended policy itself, to supporting the defense of the NT expansion – also a shadow of government intentions, and the continued process of raising public awareness. Today’s grassroots involvement in the Protecting Pensioners Task Force being run by the ALP has allowed cardholders and grassroots a means through which to address major issues with senators and members of the public alike. For the last six years these groups have been fighting tooth and nail to combat the government narrative and share the facts about this policy and its impacts.
The three causes that guide the SN7 and NCWDCA are:
- To amplify the voices of people being impacted negatively by the Cashless Debit Card policy.
- To investigate and promote the policy’s role in the segregation of people on centrelink from the rule of law and to highlight ongoing centrelink privatisation issues.
- To overcome propaganda and explain to the public the differences between simple cashless-ness and forced third party income management cards.
(See SN7 Resources and No Cashless Debit Card Australia).
Members of these grassroots groups have spoken in the press, in the Senate, in the streets, out font of Centrelink offices and at market stalls across the country.
Via active fact checking of government misinformation and obfuscation, they have impacted the social narrative and myth busted their way to an ever widening informed support base. While they have had success in delaying the roll outs and impacting the roll out agenda thus far, they urgently need your support and help now more than ever.
The most important thing you can do to support them, is to take the time to get informed and learn about the local and national impacts of “life on the card”. Please share this information to all your networks and families, and let them know this card is coming to their doorsteps, too. We have very little time left to lift the roof of public awareness and urge you to gather your resources to support and participate in supporting this vital grassroots effort.
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So if the purpose of the indue card is to stop excessive alcohol consumption , get Beetroot to try it first before foisting it on pensioners ( I haven’t had anything alcoholic and the end of this month will be 3 months ) just trying to see how much I need it and I don’t smoke either
If you receive any form of social security you WILL be forced onto this insidious scam card if the LNP remain in power. Labor has pledged to abolish it.
Direct expression and influence of US white nativist, radical right libertarian and authoritarian ideology in GOP politics as encouraged by Koch linked think tanks, following eugenics.
Exemplified by denigrating ‘welfare’ or ‘dole bludgers’ and anyone using it, as an economic load on the nation, hence, need to reduce or nobble access, then lower taxes and decrease government (while firewalling pension entitlements); the targets are youth through working age and those with health issues.
Back to the good old days for good old boys who can wield influence as the ‘top people’ in the pecking order demanding others follow their orders; pretty base stuff with much narcissistic personality disorder to boot.
If you cannot do anything officially to bring an end to this system (apart from voting these bastards out) then it is time to go after the the people who administer it. Not the elected officials but the bureaucrats and employees of Indue and anyone and any organisation or company that facilitates them. Social media can be put to effective use if we get stuck into them.
An old aboriginal Auntie who used to visit us on a regular basis before she died told me that the ‘Cashless Debit Card’ had significantly reduced the incidence of humbugging which particularly impacts older people and women.
As far as she was concerned it gave these communities better control of their income and allowed them to exercise personal discretion on how they spent their money without the pressure to hand it over to relations and extended family.
She was in favour of the arrangement.
Horses for courses I guess !
Terry, it was odd that Abbott wanted a cashless card introduced in to the Anangu Pitjantjatjara Lands (as Howard did in the NT) even though the AP Lands are alcohol free.
Anne Rushton on the cashless debit card
https://m.facebook.com/watch/?v=332582081883885&_rdr
Margot, if Morrison tries to put pensioners on a cashless welfare card I dare say they’ll kick him to the gutter at the next election.
The L/NP, Morrison, his ministers, partners in crime, Andrew Forrest &co are despicable bastards. They must be stopped.
https://www.theguardian.com/australia-news/2021/may/23/labor-promises-to-scrap-privatised-cashless-welfare-card-if-elected
Look at this DISGUSTING PROPAGANDA pushed out by the Dept of Social Services. Even suggesting volunteering. FFS!
https://www.dss.gov.au/families-and-children/programmes-services/welfare-conditionality/cashless-debit-card-overview
There are many other sneaky and nasty bills the L/NP are trying to make law such as…
https://www.abc.net.au/news/2020-12-07/cash-ban-law-10000-dollars-abandoned-amid-covid-crisis/12951720
“Currently, age pensioners can only be forced onto the cashless debit card in Cape York.”
https://www.julianhillmp.com/protect-pensioners.html
Don’t be fooled, this heartless grab by the L/NP for welfare funds has now gone well past the thin edge of the wedge…
Now they’re coming for anybody who’s on any kind of pension, the sick, the old, the poor, you, me, us, right across Australia.
The L/NP are 100% liars and crooks, thieves and deceivers, they are never ever to be trusted, they are vile, nasty criminals.
They already steal whatever they can get their hands on by privatisation and are selling such to their mates at “mates rates”.
They have already stolen a great deal of our “CommonWealth”. Stashed it in offshore tax havens like the Cayman Islands.
Put LABOR FIRST on your ballot paper and put the L/NP LAST on your ballot paper at the next Federal elections.
Greens 2nd, or 1st and Labor 2nd is good as well if that is your preference.
And please be vigilant about Independents as many are Liberal RW wolves in sheep’s clothing… Be Aware and Vote Wisely!
Australia needs a Federal Independent Commission Against Corruption with real teeth.
https://independentaustralia.net/politics/politics-display/australias-first-anti-corruption-party-fin-is-now-official,15500
Whichever way you vote just, make sure for our kids future, the planet, Australia, you put the crooked L/NP LAST
All pensioners are presumed to be hopeless addicts that can’t handle their own money. Therefore, all benefits are considered not to be taxpayers. One could imagine living with any drug addict or drunk when their supply is cut off.
Worse, they say the benefit received belongs not to the recipient but still to the government.
The only rationale for the Indue card I can see is for demonising all on benefits. Not recognising them as taxpayers, The card fits in with the belief that all welfare is terrible, Encourages sloth & laziness.
At $10,000 plus per person per annum is a lot of money. Money is better spent in the communities treating the ills the government claim beset so-called welfare recipients.
Thank you Amanda Smith for this excellent objective informative warning about the corrupt intentions of the Scummo Liarbral misgovernment to plunder Treasury and throw retired persons into penury for the profit of political rogues.
@Florence Howarth: The reason for the Cashless Credit card is to enrich supporters of the Nazional$ Party at about a reported $10,000 per pensioner. This is further privatising government for no good reason except plundering the sovereign wealth of the nation by unscrupulous COALiiton supporters. The other effects you correctly identify are a bonus for the [perpetrators.
It’s time!! ….. again!!
Our ‘great Australian’ Twiggy master of indue and sleight of hand is,currently barnstorming the country with his ‘greenwashing ‘horseshit (he wouldn’t be doing it if there wasn’t a quid in it), and badgering governments into bankrolling his next profit making venture, is a huge hypocrite,which is probably why the Liar is in his thrall.Much the same as Nifty Nev and his ‘gas led’ recovery.Apart from lies,incompetence,corruption and serial shitheadedness,outsourcing government and avoidance of responsibility is Morrison’s shtick, and the less fortunate can go to hell.It dovetails beautifully into his mangled version of christianity.Can’t wait for these shitkickers to be consumed by the flames of their own evil.
The Indue Card is exceptionally patronising; it takes away freedom. It makes it complicated for people to be able to shop. An example of a top down program that stinks.
There are good reasons why conservative politicians are thought to dwell under rocks. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZwuBg-vmDv4&t=3s
Hi, Amanda,
Thanks so much for this. It’s a terrific piece of work. I have hated the cashless card from the very first. I hate it for all the reasons you have outlined. I especially hate it because it deprives people of their basic right to make their own decisions, to determine their own lives.
If there are relatives bullying vulnerable welfare recipients of their income, as Terence has pointed out, then let’s address the bullying directly. If some people are drinking themselves to death, it is no business of the government’s. It’s sad, but those people have their reasons. If we want to help them, support them with appropriate (voluntary) programmes and health care. It’s our job as a civilised community to provide a safety net for those of us who need it. How that safety net is used by the individuals concerned is none of our business.
It grieves me deeply that we, as a community, could allow so many of our most vulnerable people to be diminished and demeaned in this way.
I also hate the card for the very practical reason that it makes it so much harder for people who are struggling to make the pennies go around – the very people it is supposed to be helping. For most of my time as a parent raising children, I was a single parent. I simply couldn’t have done it if I hadn’t been able to buy so much of what my children and I needed in op shops, at markets and garage sales using CASH!
Give me strength!
If it’s supposed to be for everyone on some sort of government benefit then why are politicians exempt? Saint Scotty of the Marketing, the babbling beetroot, “I’ve only got ten fingers and toes” Frydenberg, and Simple Babblingham (our illustrious finance minister) have well and truly proved that they can’t handle money should be at the top of the list for the card.
Who could be a better choice as number one experiment candidate for a drink-stopping cashless card than Barnaby Drinkarortaroota?? And all federal ministers might volunteer to forget the excesses of potential bribery, corruption, donation and patronage by joining in.
the unbelievable hypocrisy of this misgovernment to assert that the nation cannot afford to increase the pension when they now propose to whack a $10,000 surcharge in administration fees to each pension beggars belief
i wonder how much will drip back into liberal coffers from their mates at Indue?
A great read, Amanda.
The waltz of the cuckoo has two points of the discussion. The first is the lack of regard of ‘aboriginal’ (sic) people as being worthy of a simple proper noun. The second is the ability to opt out/in is important to prevent the one size fits all, from evidence like Amanda’s disclosure of a ‘41%’ rort, being implemented across the board. Twiggy’s state is infamous for its treatment of Aborigines both historically and currently. His patronising indue card idea was worth millions to him and more when he sold it as Indue limited which is a bank that receives all the cash, of welfare payments from the gov, out of sight out of mind so no need for public service, and keeps 80%, $1200 per card operating fees, any unspent money and the unclaimed cash. Labor has form for not taking hard decision for Aborigines like the intervention but this time the establishment of a local welfare association of welfare recipients undertaking a personal budget organising help paid for from the indue fee could be organised???
From an article I wrote years ago (the quotes were from a pamphlet titled “Dispelling the myths”):
“Now let’s look at some facts on Aboriginal alcohol consumption:
Contrary to public perception surveys have in fact found that proportionally fewer Aboriginal people drink alcohol than whites do.
29% of Aboriginal Australians did not drink alcohol in the previous 12 months, almost double the rate of non-Indigenous Australians.
Aboriginal people are 1.4 times more likely to abstain from alcohol than non-Aboriginal people.
Further statistics I have found, which are similar to those that were produced while I was working at ATSIC show that:
By comparison with non-Aboriginal people, a large proportion of Aboriginal people do not drink alcohol at all and, in some Aboriginal communities, alcohol consumption has been banned by the residents.
Up to 35% of Aboriginal men do not drink alcohol compared with 12% of non-Aboriginal men.
40% to 80% of Aboriginal women do not drink alcohol compared with 19% to 25% of non-Aboriginal women.
In the Northern Territory, it has been estimated that 75% of Aboriginal people do not drink alcohol at all.
So why do we perpetuate the myth, the consensus reality that all Aborigines are drunkards? I am certain that events such as the 2007 Northern Territory Intervention helped perpetuate the myth. But it is about as far from the truth that the earth is flat.”
Michael, this is not about alcohol consumption but about a corrupt bunch of control freaks patronising, against all evidence and the overwhelming wishes of the supposed beneficiaries.
At the time of Twiggy Forrest’s Creating Parity Report, there was also a Report into Social Security, by Mc someone. Anyway, the Cashless Welfare Card was never mentioned in the Review of Social Security.
Abbott commissioned Forrest to report on ways to increase Aboriginal Employment. He went way outside his brief and recommended control mechanisms like the Indue Card.
Forrest made his billions by not recognising nor respecting Native Title.
He grew up on the family farm Mindaroo, worked by Aboriginal Stockmen, who had to be “let go” when the Equal Pay Case became law.
Twiggy rues that day.
His more recent dealings with the Yindjibarndi People suggest he does not believe in Native Title as such, nor that Traditional Owners have Rights to negotiate in good faith.
My guess is that the Indue Card is a means to “disperse the Blacks” from their Family Estates by making life in more remote areas almost impossible. Disconnecting People from their lands diminishes their Native Title Rights.
That Twiggy calls recompense to Traditional Owners “Mining Welfare” shows an underlying attitude.
That he recommends a rations card for people on compulsory work for the dole programs speaks volumes.
.
Andreas.
You have missed the point of Michael’s very revealing comment on the truth re Aboriginal alcohol consumption.
It is exactly about alcohol consumption (and other drugs), as if such are only a “problem” with Aborigines, which was the initial excuse used by the government to put people, mainly Aboriginals in the far north of QLD onto cashless cards in the 1st place.
They went for the far north of QLD, as being a relatively “quiet” place where they would get the least resistance and objections from the wider community of Australia, they then went for the same kind of isolated areas in north WA and north SA.
Michael is dispelling this fallacy by explaining the absolute lies and hypocrisy used by the government to impose the card in the 1st place by using alcohol consumption as the excuse..
And yes the entire objective of the card has nothing to do with alcohol consumption but yes it is about power over people.
The thin edge of the wedge of authoritarian L/NP jack boot control. The L/NP are trying to foist it on all ‘welfare’ recipients.
Thanks for those statistics, Michael. Amazing! I wonder what the stats would look like now, or at least more recently. Maybe someone here can help?
Andreas, I had the displeasure of working in the department which oversaw Howard’s Northern Territory Intervention – which was based on a lie about alcohol consumption – and the subsequent origins of what we’re now seeing as the Cashless Welfare Card. In the early days it was directed at Aboriginal people only. Even the trial areas of the Indue card were in areas with a large Aboriginal population. It was always about Aborigines. Now it is ‘branching out’ to include non-Indigenous Australians.
Every event causes another one. If Howard hadn’t have gone ahead with the NT intervention and the resultant cashless society, then Abbott wouldn’t have pushed for it to be introduced in other Indigenous communities, then we might not have had the current Indue card today.
Michael, the NTER was sold on the lie of “Pedophile Rings” which then required punitive measures like banning pornography and alcohol.
Whether or not such rings existed is not known, since the Political response was to target Aboriginal Men, so we still don’t know what the white males were up to. They were given more status and control, just when Senator Bob Collins was supposed to front court.
Graeme, a number of us were aware (thanks to close contacts) that the main perpetrators of alcohol abuse and pornography/sexual abuse were the white fellas working in the communities. But Howard knew that Aborigines were a soft target, so his sights were aimed on them.
In the Anungu Pitjantjatjara Lands – which are are by ‘law’ alcohol-free – white fellas from Coober Pedy or Marla made handsome profits by stocking up their 4-wheel drives with cartons of beer or casks of wine, taking them into the Lands and selling them for up to four times the price they paid for the grog to a lot of the white fellas (and, true, Aboriginal people) who lived on the Lands. And speaking of price, they paid a huge price if they were caught by one of the police aids: they would have their vehicles confiscated.
I heard a rumour that one of the blokes caught selling grog was a cop from Coober Pedy. Whether it was true or not, I cannot say.
Hi, Kate.
I’m not sure if there are updated statistics.
The stats I used were from an ATSIC brochure, and as Howard shut down ATSIC in 2005 they are no longer available online.
Kate, if you’re on Facebook this link might help you (let us know if you’re not on Facebook and we’ll copy the text for you and post it as a comment):
https://www.facebook.com/groups/SN7Resources/posts/3257096794536779
Thanks, Michael.
Yes, I found it. This is such a stinky business! I knew it was bad, but Amanda’s article and the ensuing comments have been a huge and horrible eye-opener.
Aye Michael, I don’t do Farcebook, so if you can post the comment that would good..
I don’t doubt for a second that a cop was involved in the grog supply.. Typical really..
I knew from personal experience in my youth a place in rural SA, where the only grass to be bought was at the local cop shop, and anyone who tried to open up separate trade suffered the consequences. We didn’t really care, we had a good supply and didn’t get busted for smoking. This was back in the early mid 70’s.
Here you go, BB:
📌#FactsMatter Adelaide University Evaluation data on Alcohol, Gambling and Illicit drug use showed that a large percentage of people did not drink, use drugs or gamble and of those that did, they did not do so to ‘problem’ levels. Across the board, it was made clear that the #CashlessDebitCard had made no significant difference to consumption or behavior change.
🌱Please #remember that percentages in this evaluation and in some of these clips below are percentages of percentages in that they reflect only the number of people who told evaluators they had used/drunk/gambled during the trial period. They are not a percentage of total people evaluated and not the total number of people currently forced onto the card even in trial zones where evaluations took place. See “The Percentage Deception” here for an explanation of how the Morrison government fudged the 2017 Orima data percentages in media and parliament: https://www.facebook.com/SAYNOSEVEN/posts/795449107516572…
🌱Another #reminder that the largest trial site #Hinkler electorate QLD has never been included in any of governments evaluation reports. Even in their reporting and evaluation, the LNP are racially profiling people forced onto the program.
Src link: Adelaide University : Quantitative Supplementary Report on the Evaluation of the Cashless Debit Card in Ceduna, East Kimberley and the Goldfields
(The data as opposed to opinions) https://www.dss.gov.au/…/fac_evaluation-cdc-ceduna-east…
BB, we had a cop on Kangaroo Island when I was a wee lad – Officer Tripp – who was transferred off the island because he was turning local, ie, was becoming one of the boys.
It might have had something to do with the two-up nights he was running at the Kingscote Football Club.
It was a pity to lose him. He was a nice bloke.
Thanks for the info Michael. It’s completely fraudulent the way that Morrison has misquoted and obfuscated the percentages.
The whole rotten card trial that has become a never ending trial is an obscene and criminal act of fraud and needs exposing.
(silly me, I did afterwards try (to see if it worked) clicking on the FB link and it did. Oh well, next time I’ll know to just click..)
Oh dear, Officer Tripp had a ‘bad trip’ and then ended up having a ‘mainland’ trip…. 😁
And I’ll never forget the cop’s name in that little old place in SA I knew… Sergeant Green..
It’s a funny old world at times eh..
.
The virtual reality word is ‘review’ a program has an effective meaning of: have a look to find the conclusion you want. A million years ago the word used to be ‘evaluate’ a program and its outcomes. There also was honesty in many words other than ‘statistics’ which are always set to a purpose and have ‘tricks’ to ensure the results are true to that purpose. A simple look at adverts show that statistics, despite being true, cannot be believed in any open context. When you can get a rabbottian’s attention for a minute or so the descriptions of how stats lie is fun.
ps Michael and BB, 65 years ago I was riding home in the wind and rain after scouts and switched off my generator to lighten the pedal push, one of the local coppers stopped the car and through the window gave me a safety lesson, him in the warm car, me in the wind and rain. He followed me home. He and dad had a big laugh at the pub on saturday.
Small towns may still have such down to earth coppers????
wam,
Maybe if it’s a small town way out rural bush, where the local cop is a real local and knows what’s going on “under the table”.
One knew where one stood with the local cop, in so many ways the local cop back then was trustworthy. Not so much now…
It’s a different world now, the internet, smart phones.. I think cops are under a lot more pressure to produce “results“.
Back then life was more carefree…
Our lovely Officer Tripp on Kangaroo Island was having a chat to Dad one day. When Dad went to hop in his Land Rover the cop said; “By the way, Bill. Your rego sticker is out of date. Best get that seen to.”
Recently the Queensland government (the Office of Liquor and Gaming Regulation) allowed a bottle-shop to open in a service station in our small regional community – this was despite the fact that there was strong community objection and despite there being an existing pub (with bottle shop) within 500 metres and a school within 200 metres.
The hotels lobby is all powerful in Queensland !
The clubs and pubs with pokies carry a lot of political weight. I can see them putting a lot of pressure on Morrison to drop any idea of adding age pensioners to the Indue card, if Morrison plans to do so.
About three or four times a year (before all the lockdowns) Carol and I would go to a very large club across the river for dinner.
As we walked past the pokie’s area we couldn’t help but notice it packed with hundreds of people with the average age something around 80.
Gosh Michael,
I never thought I’d be giving a 👍 to the pokies industry… Just goes to show there is always an exception to the rule…😁😎
BB, I’m wracking my brain here but I seem to recall the clubs (with the help of Abbott) lobbying against something Julia Gillard wanted to introduce. My memory of the incident is very muffled (in other words I haven’t a clue) but I certainly remember that the clubs were powerful lobbyists.
Michael, Here’s some links that maybe will jog your memory…
https://pmtranscripts.pmc.gov.au/release/transcript-18345
https://johnmenadue.com/author/charles-livingstone/
Ah, thank you, BB.
Carol told me it had something to do with Wilkie. I’ll need to tell her that you’ve proven her right.
It’s gonna be tough. 😁
No worries Michael, your welcome.
Tsk tsk, you’ll be on washing up duties for a week… 😁
I meant to upload this link a while back. It’s very appropriate for this article.
Better than that, BB, I’ll offer to cook tea.
I’ll find out soon enough if Carol would like Corn Flakes with hot milk for tea. 😁
Porridge would be a lot nicer Michael. Och aye.
Microwave, 15 mins on high. 1 cup traditional rolled oats to 4 cups liquid, (2 milk, 2 water), add sugar to taste. Serves 2…. 😐
True story, at boarding prep school back in UK, I was 10, one time there was no milk delivery for a week, so cook just used orange juice instead, poured on the cornflakes well in advance of us kids arriving for breakfast. I recall the mush was very sickly. Yuk…
BB, when last in Scotland we bought a spurtle for such occasions.
Despite its misleading appearance, a spurtle is what the Scots stir their porridge with.
BB,
“…so cook just used orange juice instead, poured on the cornflakes well in advance of us kids arriving for breakfast.” reminded me straight away of Vivian putting ketchup on his bowl of cornflakes:
https://i.pinimg.com/474x/4a/3e/61/4a3e61639a85201847de5f54261369a1–cornflakes-rik-mayall.jpg
I like my porridge cooked with LSA and water then adding some milk and honey.
The young ones was just so bad it was a laugh… and as for any more on the topic of porridge………
I want to see Morrison and his gang doing porridge!
I want to see them get extra large 2nd and 3rd helpings.
With plenty of salt and stirred vigorously with a spurtle!
Re the cashless welfare card, this petition from Change.org just arrived in my Inbox. Hoping some of the AIMN people will sign and share it. https://www.change.org/p/australian-government-and-all-senators-mp-s-stop-compulsory-income-management-cashless-welfare-card-basics-card-and-all-others/psf/membership-ask
Hi, Kate. Done already. 😀
Hi, Michael.
I might have guessed that! Got some high hopes for some of the other good folks here who mightn’t have seen it yet, though. That card is an abomination!
Hi, Kate.
I’d forgotten that I’ve already signed it. Didn’t find out until I clicked on your link. 😀
Have not had time to read all comments but did a search. 1. “Can I check my Indue account balance?
a flood of answers came back saying yes”.
Then I asked, “Can I access money from my Indue account?”
No answers re the question, but bounced back to can I check my account balance.
I checked a government site. It also gave no answers to the specific question of access to money despite a lengthy, weaselly QA involving other aspects.
This thing has me puzzled.
If I get a pension of a certain amount and (unlikely) don’t spend it all because I am careful, why can I not later withdraw the amount unspent (as seems to be the case) and what does this say about the specified amount as to my pension.
I’d thought they would have stopped and had a bit of a think after ROBOdebt.
They are lunatics.
.
6.04 here in Adelaide and they are just announcing a Jobs for Mates privatised quarantine system for imported slave labour involving Scomo’s mates.
Indue type policy grows another privatised head?
And, of course, Morrison claims to know nothing about.it….
Even Jennifer Hewett seems shocked.
You can’t trust a Liberal.
Morrison the pension is a welfare payment
Anne Rushton on the cashless debit card
https://m.facebook.com/watch/?v=332582081883885&_rdr
Margot re:
Seems like that description (read definition) has pejorative connotations for you.
Why is that the case? And if so – then what definition of the pension would be more acceptable? And why?
On a pension of sorts myself and feel no shame. My pension is heavily subsidised from the public purse btw.