Key Points
- Sitting late into the night, the government secured the votes needed in the Senate to scrap it.
- The amended bill will now return to the Labor-controlled lower house.
The controversial cashless debit card has been all but axed, paving the way for more than 17,000 people living in remote communities to come off the card next week.
The repeal bill passed its final parliamentary hurdle on Wednesday after the Senate sat late into the night to pass the amended bill.
The Greens and independent senators David Pocock and Jacqui Lambie voted with the government to repeal the card.
Social Services Minister Amanda Rishworth said the crossbench amendments helped strengthen the legislation.
'Sensible' amendments
"These amendments came from extensive consultation," she told parliament as the bill returned to the lower house.
"These are sensible amendments, they do improve the bill. They are a result of listening to communities."
Amendments included ensuring voluntary access to the card.
The bill's passing clears the way for welfare recipients on the card to come off it by 4 October.
More than 17,000 people living in remote communities are set to be affected.
Time to give people their autonomy back.Amanda Rishworth
The cashless debit card quarantines up to 80 per cent of a welfare recipient's income which cannot be withdrawn in cash or spent on gambling or alcohol.
Social Services Minister Amanda Rishworth said the card hadn't worked and it was "time to give people their autonomy back".
"So many people's lives were adversely affected because they couldn't access enough cash ... to be able to live their life," she told the ABC.
Independent senator David Pocock voted for the card's repeal alongside the Greens after securing an amendment to ensure voluntary access to the card.
Senator Pocock said while all mandatory income management needed to be abolished, the bill was an important first step.
The opposition voted against scrapping the card, arguing it would lead to an increase in drug use and violence in vulnerable communities.
Liberal senator Linda Reynolds said reducing access to drugs, alcohol and gambling has "significantly reduced alcohol and drug abuse, assaults, rapes and murder".
Senator Reynolds said Labor's opt-in approach wouldn't work for women being coerced to provide money to abusive partners.
Liberal Senator Linda Reynolds says an opt-in approach to the cashless debit card will not work. Source: AAP
"All I get from the Labor Party is a heap of silence and a stupid look of 'I don't know' on their face," she said.
'Momentous day'
Campaigners behind the push to abolish cashless debit cards have described the government decision as a victory.
The advocates who spearheaded the campaign, No Cashless Debit Card Australia, said the ending of the program acted as a "landmark on the continuing struggle" towards compulsory income management.
"The development and roll-out of the cashless debit card ... was an act of political violence," coordinators Kathryn Wilkies and Amanda Smith said.
"In practice, it was anathema to humanity, dignity and self-determination. It was brutally imposed via lies and coercion - an act of wholesale discrimination empowered through racism, classism and social ignorance."
The campaign expressed its support and gratitude to those who spoke out about the negative impacts that the cashless debit card had on them and their families' lives.
"We hope this victory provides you renewed strength and hope that justice is not only possible, justice is coming."
Additional reporting by Rayane Tamer
