Julian Hill the member for Bruce in Victoria, claims the Coalition wants to extend the cashless debit card to pensioners.
Mr Hill has posted footage on Twitter of the prime minister from 2019, calling the aged pension “a welfare payment”.
“The prime minister said repeatedly on television that he believes the age pension is welfare, that it is not the same as being able to keep your own money.
“The pension is not welfare; it is a right,” said Mr Hill to Neos Kosmos.
A spokesperson for Anne Ruston the minister for families and social services said the Coalition has no plans to extend the cashless debit card to pensioners.
“The claims are disgusting and shameful, it’s a Labor scare campaign, the minister and prime minister have been clear and consistent – the government never has and never will have a plan to force age pensioners on to the cashless debit card,” said the spokesperson for Anne Ruston.
Mr Hill rejects that saying: “The Coalition have been trying to force age pensioners onto the cashless card and now they’re running scared.”
Neos Kosmos found only one instance in 2020 when minister Ruston said that “a discussion needs to be had” about extending the cashless debit card to pensioners in Cape York.
The cashless debit card cannot be used to buy alcohol and gambling products.
“If the government wants to put pensioners and everyone’s minds at ease they should join with Labor and scrap this cruel card once and for all.
“Labor will scrap the cashless cards while the Liberals want to expand it, we do not support forced income management,” Mr Hill said.
The spokesperson for Ms Ruston said that Ian Yates, the chief executive of Council on the Ageing (COTA) wrote to the Labor party calling on them “to end this scare campaign because it is frightening pensioners.”
Mr Yates wrote, ‘we are 100 per cent sure that the claim has no factual basis at all’.
The Coalition say that Mr Hill has concocted “a lie to frighten age pensioners and the program does not even operate in the state he represents.”
Mr Hill said the introduction of the cashless debit card in First Nations communities is racist and “based on prejudice and stereotypes.
The Auditor General of the Commonwealth, found no evidence to back the government claims that the card was helping people.”
Ms Ruston’s representative pointed to a University of Adelaide evaluation that “found that 25 per cent of participants reported they are drinking less, 21 per cent reported gambling less and 45 per cent reported the cashless debit card had improved things for themselves and their family.”
According to Mr Hill Liberal Bridget Archer in 2020 expressed concerns about the expansion of the card.
“The government introduced legislation to make the cashless debit card trial sites permanent without having even conducted an evaluation.”
Currently a welfare recipient can volunteer to be on the cashless debit card. That means that 80 per cent of “the pension payment would be put on the privatised cashless card.”
Mr Hill told Neos Kosmos of a woman in Southern NSW who had to ring Indue, the private company administering the card, and “beg for permission to buy a special bra that fitted her because there were no shops where she was allowed to use the card.”
The woman needed a special bra because she had a “double mastectomy”
“The response from the private company was ‘well you need to prove that you need it you’ll have to send in photos and receipts.'”
Mr Hill’s claim was rejected by minister Ruston’s representative.
“Indue, the financial institution which operates the card, has absolutely no role in approving what items can be purchased.
“The cashless debit card is a Visa debit card, and can be used at any shop, or service, that accepts Eftpos in the same way any other Visa debit card functions, except for stores which sell either alcohol, gambling products, or cash-like gift cards.”
Neos Kosmos talked to the nation’s treasurer, Josh Frydenberg about Mr Hill’s campaign.
“It’s a scare campaign, and deceitful, and journalists, like yourself need to call it out.
“Labor’s claim is wrong, it’s a lie.”
Mr Hill doubled down when Neos Kosmos showed him the treasurer’s response.
If the Coalition ever considered the extension of the cashless debit card, that consideration is now off the table.
There is another question though. Are the Liberals going against the party’s philosophy of self-reliance and the right to manage one’s own money in the case of First Nations’ people on the cashless debit card?
If politics is war without guns, then the fog of war has blanketed this election campaign.