Beyond Formal Equality: The Cashless Debit Card and the Myth of Equal Opportunity in Australia
Keywords:
Equality, formal equality , welfare policy, social security, First Nations, Social policyAbstract
The concept of ‘equal opportunity’ and a ‘fair go’ are cornerstones of Australia’s national identity but in practice these are not realities for all Australians. Using the Cashless Debit Card (CDC) scheme as a case study, this article argues that First Nations Australians have been systematically denied equal treatment, instead being subjected to enduring dynamics of control, assimilation, and structural oppression. This paper contends that the prevailing conception of equality embedded in Australian law and policy, rooted in classical liberalism, is insufficient in upholding First Nations equality. To achieve genuine equality, alternative approaches grounded in substantive equality, self-determination, and sovereignty are both necessary and urgent.
References
Aboriginal Land Rights (Northern Territory) Act 1976 (Commonwealth).
Aboriginal Provisional Government. (1992). The APG Papers Vol. 1, July 1992: Beyond equality, intellectual prisoners, towards Aboriginal sovereignty, reconciliation by 2001, law reform and the road to independence, the Mabo case, the structure of the APG. http://www.faira.org.au/issues/apg01.htm
Australian Council of Social Service. [ACOSS] (2018). Cashless Debit Card briefing note. https://www.acoss.org.au/wp-content/uploads/2018/02/010218-Cashless-Debit-Card-Briefing-Note_ACOSS.pdf
Australian National Audit Office. [ANAO] (2018). Implementation and performance of the Cashless Debit Card trial. https://www.anao.gov.au/work/performance-audit/implementation-and-performance-cashless-debit-card-trial
Australian National Audit Office. [ANAO] (2022). Implementation and performance of the Cashless Debit Card trial — Follow-on. https://www.anao.gov.au/work/performance-audit/implementation-and-performance-the-cashless-debit-card-trial-follow
Australian National Audit Office. [ANAO] (2024). Transitional arrangements for the Cashless Debit Card: Department of Social Services; Services Australia (Auditor General Report No. 48 of 2023–24). Australian National Audit Office. https://www.anao.gov.au/work/performance-audit/transitional-arrangements-the-cashless-debit-card
Behrendt, L. (2003). ‘Practical Steps Towards a Treaty—Structures, Challenges and the Need for Flexibility’, in Treaty, Australian Institute of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Studies Press, Canberra, pp. 18–29.
Bielefeld, S. (2018). Cashless Welfare Transfers for ‘Vulnerable’ Welfare Recipients: Law, Ethics and Vulnerability. Feminist Legal Studies 26, 1–23. https://doi.org/10.1007/s10691-018-9363-6
Bielefeld, S., & Beaupert, F. (2019). The Cashless Debit Card and rights of persons with disabilities. Alternative Law Journal, 44(2), 114–120.
Craig, G. (2002). Poverty, Social Work and Social Justice. The British Journal of Social Work, 32(6), 669–682. http://www.jstor.org/stable/23716487
Cronin, D. (2008). Welfare dependency and mutual obligation: Negating Indigenous sovereignty. In A. Moreton-Robinson (Ed.), Sovereign Subjects: Indigenous Sovereignty Matters (pp. 136–150). Taylor & Francis Group.
Davidson, H. (2013, August 6). Twiggy Forrest 'smashes' target of $1bn in contracts to Indigenous companies. The Guardian. https://www.theguardian.com/world/2013/aug/06/twiggy-forrest-1bn-indigenous-companies
Department of Home Affairs. (2020). Life in Australia – Australian values and principles. https://immi.homeaffairs.gov.au/support-subsite/files/life-in-australia/life-in-australia.pdf
Falk, P., & Martin, G. (2008). Misconstruing Indigenous sovereignty: Maintaining the fabric of Australian law. In A. Moreton-Robinson (Ed.), Sovereign Subjects: Indigenous Sovereignty Matters. (pp. 53-66) Taylor & Francis Group
Federation of Ethnic Communities’ Councils of Australia. (2019). Australian Mosaic – Exploring Australian values (Issue 51). https://fecca.org.au/wp-content/uploads/2024/11/mosaic-issue-51.pdf
Frankel, S., & Ray, J. (2023). Equality and Excellence in Ancient and Modern Political Philosophy. (1st ed.). State University of New York Press. https://doi.org/10.1515/9781438492803
Fredman, S. (2016). Substantive equality revisited. International Journal of Constitutional Law, 14(3), pp. 712–738.
Gray, S. (2020). The Northern Territory Intervention: An evaluation. Castan Centre for Human Rights Law, Monash University. https://www.monash.edu/__data/assets/pdf_file/0003/2106156/NT-Intervention-Evaluation-Report-2020.pdf
Ho, C. (2007). Muslim women’s new defenders: Women’s rights, nationalism and Islamophobia in contemporary Australia. Women’s Studies International Forum, 30(4), 290–298. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.wsif.2007.05.002
Holland, A. (2023). ‘A salvage exercise for Aboriginal rights’: human rights and social justice in Indigenous political responses to the Mabo (No.2) decision, Australian Journal of Human Rights, 29 (3), 453-472, https://doi.org/10.1080/1323238X.2023.2280286
Jordan, K., & Mavec, D. (2010). Corporate initiatives in Indigenous employment: The Australian Employment Covenant two years on. Centre for Aboriginal Economic Policy Research, Australian National University. https://openresearch-repository.anu.edu.au/server/api/core/bitstreams/838a416f-c4fa-4126-8def-701497d3b4ae/content
Klein, E. (2014). Academic perspectives on the Forrest Review: Creating parity (Working Paper No. 109/2014). Centre for Aboriginal Economic Policy Research, Australian National University. https://openresearch-repository.anu.edu.au/server/api/core/bitstreams/e715d347-1b86-4c1d-8f44-f356b9cb642a/content
Klein, E. (2020). Settler colonialism in Australia and the Cashless Debit Card. Social Policy & Administration, 54(2), 265–277. https://doi.org/10.1111/spol.12576
Lattas, A., & Morris, B. (2010). The politics of suffering and the politics of anthropology. In Jon C. Altman & Melinda Hickson, Culture Crisis: Anthropology and Politics in Aboriginal Australia (pp. 61-87). University of New South Wales Press.
Loenen, T. (2024). The conceptualization of equality and non-discrimination as legal standards. Brill, Nijhoff. https://doi.org/10.1163/9789004538368
Macoun, A. (2011). Aboriginality and the Northern Territory Intervention. Australian Journal of Political Science, 46(3), 519–534. https://doi.org/10.1080/10361146.2011.595700
Marston, G., Humpage, L., Peterie, M., Mendes, P., Bielefeld, S., & Staines, Z. (2022). Compulsory income management in Australia and New Zealand: More Harm than Good? Policy Press.
Mendes, P. (2017). The Australian welfare state system: With special reference to welfare conditionality – The case of the income management system. In C. Aspalter (Ed.), The Routledge international handbook to welfare state systems (1st ed.). (pp. 71–86). Routledge.
National Press Club. (2012, May 3). Andrew Forrest [Video]. ABC News. https://www.abc.net.au/news/programs/national-press-club/2012-05-03/national-press-club-andrew-forrest/3985448
Native Title Act 1993 (Commonwealth)
Nipperess, S. (2016). Towards a critical human rights-based approach to social work practice. In S. Goldingay (Ed.), Doing critical social work: Transformative practices for social justice (pp. 42–56). Taylor & Francis Group. http://ebookcentral.proquest.com/lib/rmit/detail.action?docID=6215114
North Australian Aboriginal Justice Agency. (2019). Submission: Social Security (Administration) Amendment (Income Management to Cashless Debit Card Transition) Bill 2019 (Cth). https://www.naaja.org.au/wp-content/uploads/2020/12/Social-Security-Administration-Amendment-Income-Management-to-Cashless-Debit-Card-Transition-Bill-2019-Cth-Part-1.pdf
Nussbaum, M. C. 2011. Creating Capabilities: The Human Development Approach. Cambridge Mass., USA: Harvard University Press.
O’Connor, T. (2022, September 25). Cashless debit card users voice anger, apprehension about its looming end. ABC News. https://www.abc.net.au/news/2022-09-25/cashless-debit-card-axing-sparks-anxiety-in-remote-north/101441002
Pro Bono Australia. (2010, July). Forum calls for Indigenous employment funding. Pro Bono Australia. https://probonoaustralia.com.au/news/2010/07/forum-calls-for-indigenous-employment-funding/
Queensland Council of Social Service. (2018). QCOSS position statement: Cashless Debit Card (CDC) trial. https://www.qcoss.org.au/wp-content/uploads/2018/09/QCOSS-Position-Statement-Cashless-Card-Expansion.pdf
Racial Discrimination Act 1975 (Commonwealth)
Rademaker, L., & Rowse, T. (2020). Indigenous Self-Determination in Australia: Histories and Historiography. (1st ed.) (Aboriginal History Inc. Monograph Series). ANU Press. https://doi.org/10.22459/ISA.2020
Roemer, J. E. (1998). Equality of opportunity. Harvard University Press.
Social Security Legislation Amendment (Debit Card Trial) Act 2015 (Commonwealth)
Stanley, J. (1977). Equality of opportunity as philosophy and ideology. Political Theory, 5(1), 61–74. https://doi.org/10.1177/009059177700500104
Thornton, M. (2021). Equality and anti-discrimination legislation: An uneasy relationship. Law in Context, 37(2). https://doi.org/10.26826/law-in-context.v37i2.149
Von Leyden, W. (1961). Aristotle on equality and justice. London: Macmillan and London School of Economics.
Walter, M. (2008). Indigenous sovereignty and the Australian state: Relations in a globalising era. In A. Moreton-Robinson (Ed.), Sovereign subjects: Indigenous sovereignty matters. Taylor & Francis Group. pp. 20–34.
