Zombie alert: ALP pushes cashless debit card claim

Voters in the marginal Brisbane seat of Longman are being targeted on Instagram with one of Labor’s “zombie claims” – that the Coalition plans to introduce a cashless debit card for pensioners.

The post by ALP candidate Rebecca Fanning includes a graphic with the text, “Only a vote for Labor will save pensioners from the cashless debit card”, and echoes the social media campaigns of groups such as  Say No Seven and No Cashless Debit Card Australia.

Ms Fanning’s post also carries the logos of the Liberal National Party (LNP), the United Australia Party (UAP) and One Nation, and claims: “These parties support forcing pensioners onto cashless debit cards”.

Longman, held by the LNP’s Terry Young, is the most marginal seat in Queensland. First elected in 2019, Mr Young holds the seat by a slender 3.3 per cent margin.

Why this matters

Fanning posted her meme to Facebook and Instagram simultaneously. The post performed moderately on Instagram, sitting at 41 likes currently, but it has been liked more than 100 times and shared more than 20 times on Facebook. Her post has also generated 30 comments, almost all negative reactions to the cashless debit card. The Labor candidate’s post is similar to one shared a week earlier by the group No Cashless Debit Card Australia which has more than 20,000 followers.

Around 17 per cent of people in Longman are over 65, slightly above the national rate.

While a cashless debit card is used as a form of “income management” for welfare recipients in some remote communities, an investigation by RMIT ABC Fact Check was unable to find any evidence to support claims that the Coalition plans to extend the program to all age pensioners.

That hasn’t deterred Labor from making the fight against the card’s supposed extension a feature of its election campaign.

How did the speculation arise?

In 2016, the federal government introduced a trial of a cashless debit card (also known as an ‘Indue card’) in several regional locations across SA, WA, QLD and the NT. It restricted how people receiving welfare could spend a large part of their payments –as much as 80 per cent in some cases.

The stated aim of that program was to ensure that those people directed to use the card (or volunteering to use it) spent their payment "in responsible and meaningful ways". Money deposited on the card, for example, cannot be used for gambling or to buy alcohol. 

In 2020, legislative amendments entrenched the program on an “ongoing basis”.

What do the other parties say?

One Nation's Pauline Hanson consistently voted in favour of extending  the trial of cashless debit cards, according to the OpenAustralia Foundation which tracks parliamentary voting, while party colleague Senator Malcolm Roberts said in 2020 that the use of the card was “all about protecting kids and families”.

However, Senator Roberts has said: “I do not support pensioners being put on the cashless debit card. My voting record on this issue couldn’t be more clear”. 

“This scare campaign against pensioners appears to have been led by Labor and activist groups aligned with them.”

The UAP's Clive Palmer is reported to have called the cashless debit card scheme “unconstitutional”, and the party's advertising rails against a "cashless society", which its says would spell the end of garage sales, the tooth fairy and “tuck-away” money for people looking to flee domestic violence.

However, in 2018, UAP senator Brian Burston implored the Senate to pass a bill to extend the cashless card trial, and a 2015 press release, which can still be found on the party’s website, shows it did welcome the rollout of the trial in one community.

Meanwhile, former Liberal Party MP cum UAP representative Craig Kelly voted consistently for the introduction of the cashless debit card trial itself, but the Member for Hughes was absent for votes taken to extend the rollout and trials.