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Crime increased in areas trialling cashless debit card programs, government analysis suggests

Coalition claims scrapping cards could lead to ‘tsunami of trauma’ but federal department analysis of available data paints a different picture


Crime rates have increased or remained steady in regions hosting cashless debit card programs, according to the department of social services, as the Albanese government prepares to abolish the controversial welfare program within weeks.

Critics of the government’s decision have claimed the card’s axing would increase crime and alcohol abuse, but the department has claimed its analysis of police data has shown total crime rates, assault and property damage have gone up in areas where the income management tool was being trialled.

Labor promised during the election campaign to abolish the cashless debit card, which quarantines between 30% and 80% of welfare payments and was designed to prevent money being withdrawn as cash or used to pay for alcohol or gambling. A bill to scrap the card passed the House of Representatives earlier this month and was set to pass through the Senate after most of the crossbench said they would support the repeal. After numerous hearings in recent weeks, a Senate inquiry was due to release its report on Friday. The opposition has strongly opposed Labor’s plan, with the shadow social services minister, Michael Sukkar, claiming the abolition would lead to a “tsunami of trauma”.

But a department analysis of publicly available data from state police services showed crime in cashless debit card trial sites like Ceduna, Alice Springs and Bundaberg had increased in recent years. In the Bundaberg and Hervey Bay region, which had 6,464 cashless debit card participants as of 29 July, the department claimed crime rates increased by 12% between 2020 and 2021.

In Ceduna, with 1,095 participants, the crime rate increased 22% between 2020 and 2021.

Across the Northern Territory, where the entire jurisdiction was hosting the cashless debit card program, the department claimed assault and other crimes had increased over the life of the program.

The analysis found Alice Springs, with 398 participants, had the highest increase in crime across the NT in 2021.  The abolition of the cashless debit card would not affect the basics card, a separate income management tool used by thousands of welfare recipients in the NT. The social services minister, Amanda Rishworth, has flagged further discussion later this year on other forms of income management.  In evidence to Senate hearings in recent weeks, participants and community advocates had warned crime rates had remained steady or increased during the cashless debit card program.

Beverly Walley, a Noongar Ballardong woman, told a hearing on Monday of the impact in the east Kimberley region.

“There’s been a lot of frustration, anger, domestic violence, kids not going to school,” she said.

“There has always been youth crime. There had always been parents drinking, drugs and gambling prior to the cashless card being enforced in 2015-16. Having said that, there is no change. Everything is still the same.”

Christine Donaldson, a cashless debit card participant and Wangkatha Ngadju elder from the Goldfields region, said the program had “increased crime, racism, elder abuse, alcohol and drug abuse, and self-harming”.  The deputy chief executive of the Western Australia Council of Social Services (WACOSS) and former Greens senator, Rachel Siewert, gave similar testimony to a hearing last week.

“In my opinion, and in WACOSS’s opinion, you can’t say there has been a decrease in crime due to the cashless debit card,” she said.  

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