It won’t work here say MPs

COMMUNITY leaders have dismissed calls for the North to trial cashless welfare, calling instead for emphasis to be placed on job creation.

It comes after indigenous advocate and former chairman of the Prime Minister’s Indigenous Advisory Council Warren Mundine said the region would be well suited to a trial.

The system would regulate the way welfare recipients accessed benefits, with 80 per cent not to be used to buy alcohol or to gamble.

The trial was introduced at Ceduna in South Australia and the East Kimberley regions of Kununurra and Wyndham about 12 months ago.

Herbert MP Cathy O’Toole said the trial would introduce significant issues with “connectivity”.

“We don’t have the NBN or internet connections and the use of those cards is dependent on connectivity,” he said.

“There are also large numbers of small businesses who only take cash.”

Ms O’Toole said the region had an ageing population that still relied heavily on cash.

“I think in a city where we have unemployment over 10 per cent, surely we should be putting any money we have into implementing programs to create jobs to get people off welfare and into work,” she said. “I don’t think Palm Island would have the infrastructure to have the welfare cashless card.

“Just putting in a cashless card with no education in teaching people how to manage their own affairs is pointless.”

State Local Government and Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Partnerships Minister Mark Furner said if the Turnbull Government had a plan to introduce the system in North Queensland, it suggested it was “out of touch”.

“Malcolm Turnbull should pick up the phone and call community leaders like Palm Island Mayor Alf Lacey first,” he said. “A key focus of the Palaszczuk Government is creating longterm jobs and opportunities for indigenous business.”

Townsville Mayor Jenny Hill said the cashless welfare trial would need to be rolled out for everyone.

“Where they’re introducing them, it is making a difference but it shouldn’t just be about indigenous communities,” she said.

“If the trials are as positive as what we’re seeing, I wouldn’t be against it but you would want it for people who are deemed at risk.”

Cr Hill said there were issues with how some welfare recipients used the system.

“I would like to think it could ( work) but you’d really want to monitor it,” she said. “It may very well help to change these people’s behaviour.”