A Liberal-dominated committee has recommended the government's controversial plan to drug test thousands of people receiving Newstart and Youth Allowance go ahead unchanged.
The majority Liberal Senate Community Affairs Legislation Committee report was handed down on Monday and proposed that the welfare bill be passed. The committee also recommended that the Department of Social Services (DSS) should establish and publish the evaluation strategy of the drug testing trial prior to it starting, and that the results of the trial be published.
This is the second time the committee has handed down a report recommending the bill be passed. Last year it rejected the lack of evidence to support the need for the drug trial, instead pointing to the DSS which said the trial would provide the evidence.
Under the two-year trial, 5,000 newly unemployed people on Youth Allowance and Newstart would have their saliva, urine and hair follicles tested for ecstasy, marijuana and methamphetamine at three trial sites in New South Wales, Queensland and Western Australia.
Those who failed the test wouldn't be able to access their Centrelink payments in cash, and would instead be put on a cashless welfare card that could only be spent on rent, child care and food. A second positive test would result in the recipient being charged for the cost of the test and referred for treatment.
If the department believed income management would pose a serious risk to the person's mental, physical or emotional wellbeing, they would be exempt. Any person who refused to provide a sample for testing would have their welfare payments cancelled for 28 days.
The trial, which Malcolm Turnbull described as being "based on love", has been almost universally condemned by drug and alcohol experts, academics and welfare groups, and described as "misguided" by the prime minister's favourite charity, the Wayside Chapel in Sydney's King Cross.
The Senate committee investigating the trial heard half the number of Australians who want treatment for drug and alcohol addiction can't access it, because service providers can't keep up with demand.
The DSS admitted the government did not source information regarding the current waiting time for treatment services in the trial sites, and didn't know how long the 120 people they estimate will test positive could be waiting.
The Public Health Association of Australia and the Kirby Institute told the committee they believed there was a lack of evidence to indicate that drug testing welfare recipients would help them fix their substance abuse problem.
The mayor of Canterbury-Bankstown in south-west Sydney, one of the proposed locations for the trial, told the committee he believes drug testing has the potential to drive up crime. and further stigmatise and marginalise his area.
The government had planned to start the trial in January, but it was dumped after Labor, the Greens and Centre Alliance (formerly the Nick Xenophon Team) refused to support the measures. Then social services minister Christian Porter told BuzzFeed News that the government wasn't abandoning the trial, and that it would reintroduce the policy as a standalone bill when it believed it had the numbers in the Senate.
New social services minister Dan Tehan quietly reintroduced the trial as a separate bill in February, saying he was confident the government could secure the support it needed. Senator David Leyonhjelm has provided the minister with a list of demands before handing over his vote, including adding alcohol to the substances being tested for.
Recent changes to the numbers in the Senate – which has seen Centre Alliance and One Nation each lose a senator to the crossbench – has the government confident it can now pass the legislation.
Both Labor and the Greens have written a dissenting report calling on the government to dump its "ideological" policy and invest in drug rehabilitation services that are proven to work.
Labor senators said the committee was overwhelmed by evidence from the health sector, including from specialists in addiction medicine, as well as the community sector, that "the proposal to drug test income support recipients will not be effective, will further exacerbate long waiting times for treatment, will be very expensive and also further risks increasing levels of crime and homelessness".
“For the government to continue in its pursuit of this flawed policy shows total failure to listen to the advice of those with expertise in this field, and dogged determination to pursue a punitive, ineffective and damaging policy in the face of all the evidence," Greens senator Rachel Siewert told BuzzFeed News.
Siewert says the overwhelming evidence to the committee from addiction experts said the trial will do "more harm than good".
“The bill is the government’s attempt, in the face of universal opposition from health, mental health and addiction experts and community-based organisations, to bring back the punitive drug testing of income support recipients."