Face of Nation : Just 150 people with serious substance problems are expected to be detected by the Government’s controversial plan to drug test 5000 people on working-age benefits, it was revealed for the first time today.
But that proportion of two to three per cent of those tested would still be significantly higher than level reported by similar trials in New Zealand where the proportion of serious drug takers found in 2017-18 was 0.3 per cent.
The drug tests will be compulsory for 5000 recipients of the New Start allowance and the Youth Allowance randomly chosen in Logan in Queensland, Sydney’s Canterbury-Bankstown and Mandurah in Western Australia.
Social Services Minister Anne Ruston today said it was estimated 10 per cent of those chosen — or 500 — would fail their first test, and two to three per cent of the 5000 would fail a second test 25 days later. No one would lose a cent of their benefits, she said. But they would have to undergo either a urine test, a saliva test or a hair follicle test.
The test areas had been chosen because they had a higher proportion of people on working-age payments, higher levels of presentation at hospitals for drug problems, and higher police involvement in drug related incidents. These features “have all indicated that these are likely to have a slightly higher incidence of people who will be presenting with drug related activities”, Senator Ruston said.
Prime Minister Scott Morrison revealed his bid to revive the drug test program for welfare recipients on the weekend in what Labor has seen as a bid to embarrass the Opposition into backing a program it has previously rejected.
And the bid is also seen as an appeal to Mr Morrison’s so-called “quiet Australians” who would be hostile to people using taxpayer-funded benefits to buy illegal drugs. The Government had until today not identified the magnitude of what it saw as drug problems among welfare recipients, and critics have accused it of reviving the idea without justifying it.
“It is of great concern to the Government, is of great concern to the wider community that somebody who is unemployed is three times more likely to actually be taking ice than somebody who is employed,” Senator Ruston said.
“We have increased incidences of people taking cannabis for instance who are unemployed than those people who are employed.” The minister denied suggestions welfare recipients found to be illegal drug takers would have their benefits cut. “Not one cent of their welfare payment will be reduced,” she told reporters in Canberra.
“What we will seek to do is put them on a card, an income management card, which will require 80 per cent of their income to be quarantined and not accessible in cash.” Senator Ruston said this would “put barriers in their way so they can’t spend on drugs”.
