Government's refusal to reveal cashless debit card report raises more questions

The Government’s refusal to make public the much anticipated $2.5 million University Adelaide report into the Cashless Debit Card has raised more questions.
 
The Government has so far failed to provide evidence the card actually works, with a 2018 Auditor General’s report panning the Government’s evaluation of the card.
 
The Government has since engaged the University of Adelaide to undertake a $2.5 million evaluation.
 
At Senate estimates in October, the Minister for Families and Social Services Senator Anne Ruston admitted that she had not read the report when the Government decided to make the cashless debit card permanent.
 
The Government expects the parliament to vote on the bill while refusing to disclose the much anticipated $2.5 million report and its findings.
 
If the report proved the card worked, the Government would have released it by now.
 
Labor had no choice but to put a series of questions to the Government on the many issues the Government has so far failed to address, including: 

  • insufficient evidence the card actually works;

  • widespread community concerns including those raised by members of the Government’s own backbench;

  • its disproportionate impact on First Nations’ people; and

  • its plans for a national rollout.


Yet the Minister representing the Minister for Social Services refused to answer any of these questions.

How can the Government expect parliament to vote on this bill while it keeps the University of Adelaide report secret?

What is clear is the Government plans to make changes that will affect thousands of lives based on hearsay, and not on evidence.

LINDA BURNEY

MEDIA RELEASE - TUESDAY, 8 DECEMBER 2020

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