Australia to drug test welfare recipients

[Carolinesbeanies]

AIBU to totally agree with this?

www.newscientist.com/article/2145603-australia-plans-random-drug-tests-for-people-receiving-welfare/

(Not dumping and running, but Im working a late today and wont be back till late evening. Didnt want to let this article go under the radar!)

If they test positive more than once, they will be referred to a medical professional for addiction treatment

Great. What's the problem?

You hear of people have been waiting years for treatment and can't afford to go private.

If we are going to mass test members of society (or are welfare claimants no longer members of society ?) I'd rather we started with people in charge of heavy machinery, or in positions of great authority.

They do test people in charge of heavy machinery. It's pretty standard in the construction and heavy manufacturing industry. I'm in favour of this if it's used to target decent effective help to people overcome addictions.

I wonder if they drug test people in the City trading large amounts of money, shares and derivatives everyday...

Bet there's some addiction there.

Australia is very "Nanny". They've stopped paying for childcare for children who are not immunized.

I don't agree with anti-vaxers but I don't think stopping their childcare payments is wise either.

All that has happened is a load of non immunized kids now have no access to care...and socialisation.

The 80% of welfare income that can only be used for food clothing and rent is limited. Instead of being able to use ebay, farmers markets, gumtree and other cheap options, we will be limited to ColesWorth and Aldi and other chain stores. Some opshops take the Basics card but not all.

I don't spend 80% of my income on food and rent/mortgage! Centrelink will be holding significant money I can't use. I know it's not all about me but the thought of $40 000 for this scheme to be set up for my family (all on pensions) when we are financially secure and nobody is in debt fucks me right off. Follow the money. Corporations are making $10 000 per person off this nonsense.

Crime has risen in the roll out areas and no surprise there.

All that will do is create more problems for people who've already got enough of them."

Exactly that. Nobody grows up wanting to be addicted to drugs. Something usually happens to them to take them down that path.

YABU. How bloody awful! Its pathetic that people cannot understand it's not a bloody choice!

Actually, having overcome more than one addiction myself I would disagree with you strongly, as would most ex addicts. A choice is exactly what addiction is. It's the easy choice rather than the hard choice of stopping.

There's access to rehab in Australia which is public.

If you believe the rhetoric that two positive drug tests lead to treatment, you are a fool. Firstly rehab is effective when the person wants to stop the addiction. Secondly where are all these rehab centres and addiction professionals going to manifest from?

We will have addicts turning to crime if their benefits are cut. It's already happening.

YABU

Whilst I am here , have you any ire toward the wealthy , ala George Osbourne, who stick cocaine up their noses ?

Is it just the poor you have it in for ?

I think this is disgusting and yet ANOTHER benefit bash . Plenty on here.

Oh here we go

Coz getting a job is SO EASY !! NOT.

How long before landlords refuse to accept new tenants who use this card for their rent?

Yanvu. What next sterilisation of anyone on JSA for more than a month?

Yabvu!

*I wonder if they drug test people in the City trading large amounts of money, shares and derivatives everyday...

Bet there's some addiction there*

They can afford to go private. Why should tax payer pay rehab for them

Initially I thought oo that's a good idea but then I really thought about it

No I don't think they should do it

Like PP said, when do you draw the line at what can and can't be bought?

Fruit and veg no problem
That packet of biscuits however, nooooo

Sometimes I wish the drug scene was more legalised. Then people can seek help without the fear of being imprisoned.

People are going to take drugs. People are going to get addicted.

I can see all perspectives. But drug addiction is a massive cost on society.

Mind you - gambling is legalised and we have a massive problem with gambling addiction.

I'm an Australian doctor.

Why should my taxes be spent on drug addicts? Because substance abuse is a disease, and it is only the ignorant who fail to recognise this.

In any event, this is not about drug addicts. It is a revolting and cynical attempt to lower welfare recipients even further in the eyes of average Australians.

It disgusts me.

They can afford to go private. Why should tax payer pay rehab for them

You missed the point - what effect does drug addiction have on their behaviour and the financial impact on all of us?

There is a social impact from drug use and crime. As well as on families.

Maybe we should all be randomly checked for drugs.....it is illegal after all.

They'd be far better off testing them, then insisting on a 6 month rehabilitation scheme as a condition of receiving the benefits.

You know, actually HELPING them...

They'd be far better off testing them, then insisting on a 6 month rehabilitation scheme as a condition of receiving the benefits

And what if the person refused the rehab scheme?

Would you cut off their benefits?

I never understand this shit. Any health expert can tell you it won't work, but these idiot MPs forge ahead. Fuck I hate democracy sometimes.

I am in one of the areas they are targeting in Western Australia. There is lots of meth here. I absolutely love where we live and have never had a problem althougn I hope this introduction doesn make crime etc worse

But c3pu they are not setting up the schemes to help! I'm opposed to people being tested and then forced into those schemes but how obscene is it that there is no roll out of funding for those schemes yet they will pay $10 000 per person to put them on the Welfare Card?

Pyong, I don't think it will be an issue for most landlords. If anything it's a good idea for them as the rent would be paid directly from Centrelink and bypass the welfare client. I get the impression that this kind of payment is more complex in the UK with housing benefit and the like?

My two cents worth:

Recovering from addiction is about more than detox or abstinence. You need something to recover to. Being punished by withdrawal of benefits is not going to be any kind of incentive to get help, it will just demotivate and alienate people from society even more. If you're an addict, and have no money, you're not going to stop trying to get drugs, you'll just turn to more antisocial methods of obtaining them.

State money should be spent on helping addicts recover because this is not the Victorian age of poorhouses, and everyone deserves a safety net, no matter what choices they've made or circumstances they've come from. I'd much rather my hard earned tax dollars be spent on helping addicts recover than giving Google or Amazon or big business tax breaks to be honest!

It's ridiculous. If income management was brought in as compulsory here I'd be stuffed.

I pay my rent through online payments to a private landlord - that would stop.

I pay school fees for a child in a public high school - I wouldn't be able to pay that as it's more than the 20% each fortnight.

I buy fruit/veg from the markets and farm shops - they won't take the basics card.

I buy specialist dog food from the vet - they won't take the basics card.

I smoke - wouldn't be able to buy those (that's not a bad thing though)

I buy petrol from the village store - can't do that with a basics card.

I buy clothes off eBay & furniture off gumtree - can't do that with a basics card.

I top up my weekly shop at the village store and buy meat from a butchers - can't do that with a basics card.

What about paying for Drs appointments and specialists referrals?

How am I supposed to pay for LPG and pay my direct debits?

The govt would be much better off sanctioning those who don't bother to turn up for job centre appointments and putting more effort into clawing back student loans from those who never earn the threshold to pay them back. Why isn't there any system where you have to start paying it back when you've been graduated for 10 years?

Also, if the country is do damn broke that the govt has to bring this kind of bullshit policy in, why are they wasting $122 MILLION on the postal vote for sane sex marriage? And why have they just voted themselves a 2% pay rise when welfare rates have been frozen till at least 2019?