Key points:
* Greens asked Government to provide names of community leaders involved in discussions over the trial
* Government said some members of working groups "requested their names not be provided"
* The Coalition has justified the initiative by pointing to consultations with key figures in the locations it operates

The Federal Government is refusing to name the "community leaders" it claims support a Centrelink income management trial, amid a push to dramatically expand the program in May's budget.

The Cashless Debit Card forces 80 per cent of a person's welfare payments onto the card, which cannot pay for alcohol or gambling or be withdrawn as cash.

The Coalition has repeatedly justified the initiative by pointing to consultations with key figures in the locations it operates.

But after being pressed by the Greens in Senate Estimates to name those supporters, the Government refused.

"The [Human Services] department approached some of the members of the … groups to ask whether they agreed to their names being provided in this response," its statement said.

"Some of them requested their names not be provided at this stage."

The compulsory program currently operates in two areas with high Aboriginal populations — Ceduna in South Australia and Western Australia's East Kimberley region.

Greens Indigenous affairs spokeswoman Rachel Siewert said it was a rubbish response.

"People being affected have the right to know who in their community is making the calls that affect their lives so strongly," she said.

"Who are the people that are making these decisions? Are they really the people the community considers leaders?"

Refusal comes after MP backtracks on claims of support

The Government is searching for other communities where welfare quarantining can be rolled out.

"We're hoping to see another 10 trial sites rolled out in this year's budget," Kalgoorlie-based federal Liberal MP Rick Wilson said.

But fellow WA Liberal Melissa Price was recently forced to backtrack on a claim that communities were clamouring for the card.

Several councils told the ABC Ms Price had never even discussed the issue with them.

A government-funded report last month found a quarter of drinkers on the card reported consuming alcohol less often and many people had stopped gambling.

But the report showed one in two participants said their life was worse because of the card.

Less than a quarter of those in the trials said it improved their lives.

Support 'across the board' for welfare measure, says Tudge

There are three community groups working with the Government to implement the program.

Invited by the ABC to name supporters of the measure — including from its working groups — Human Services Minister Alan Tudge named one person.

"These community leaders, such as Ian Trust, are well-known figures, highly respected individuals," he said.

Mr Trust is the executive director of the Wunan Foundation, an Aboriginal development organisation in the East Kimberley.

During a recent visit to the Kimberley, Mr Tudge said support was "across the board".

"Whether it be some of the church leaders, the police officers, the supermarket owners, the ambulance drivers, the Indigenous leaders, the non-Indigenous leaders [or] the chamber of commerce," he said.

"Anybody who has been out with me and consulted with community leaders out there does know that is the case."

Mr Tudge said the Greens' opposition was blindly ideological and demanded the party offer its own solutions to the "welfare-fuelled alcohol abuse" in some Aboriginal communities.

cods wrote on Apr 12^th, 2017 at 1:00pm:

No, cods. These people do not actually exist. See first post in this thread for an example.




cods wrote on Apr 12^th, 2017 at 1:00pm:

Of course the country doesn't do enough. How about CREATING JOBS? We need two million full time jobs in this country, right now.



?....



cods wrote on Apr 12^th, 2017 at 1:00pm:

Yes, like the nanny state madness of a mandatory so-called "welfare card".

But they don't do enough of what really matters - creating jobs for Australians. These lazy-arse politicians need to get off their fat, shiny arses and create the two million full time jobs this country urgently needs. Easy access to secure employment does a hell of a lot more to help people than any nanny state intervention. They went to the last election promising "Jobs and growth" but that's an empty slogan.

And here's the thing about this "welfare card" - the contract to supply it was handed out to Indue Pty Ltd without a competitive tender. The national President of the National Party, Larry Anthony, son of Doug Anthony, is a major shareholder and stands to make MILLIONS out of this. That's CORRUPTION!

Bam wrote on Apr 12^th, 2017 at 1:12pm:

Its time wrote on Apr 12^th, 2017 at 8:32pm:

Recent opinion polling would disagree with you. 

cods wrote on Apr 12^th, 2017 at 6:08pm:

Adani is a company with numerous corrupt dealings that uses the Cayman Islands as a tax haven, and we don't even know WHICH "Adani" entity we are dealing with. This is a company that claims the mine would create 10,000 jobs but in a court case admitted the true number was closer to 1600.

We're spending $1 billion to create 1600 jobs mining a resource that has a dubious long-term future. That's not good value for money.

We could create jobs with less than $15,000 of new money per job, or roughly $10 billion a year to address long-term unemployment. We routinely give corporate welfare that pays more than this per job.

The government can bring unemployment down to 1% if it wanted. It doesn't do this because it suits their corporate masters better to have a huge number of people out of work at all times. They then mislead the public about the extent of the problem by fudging the "official" unemployment numbers. Both sides of politics do this due to their adherence to discredited neoliberal doctrine.