Budget 2017: Turnbull says welfare drug test policy ‘based on love’
Mr Turnbull at St Vincent's Hospital Heart Lung Clinic in Sydney on Friday. Photo: AAP
Prime Minister Malcom Turnbull says drug testing welfare recipients and potentially managing their spending is “a policy based on love”.
The Coalition will drug test 5000 new Centrelink clients and those who test positive will be forced onto an income-management scheme, which controls how a recipient spends their money.
Young people deemed to be at risk of substance abuse will be required to undertake random saliva, urine or hair follicle tests for drugs in three locations from next year.
The proposal has been slammed by anti-poverty activists who say it is a discriminatory move that will profile vulnerable people.
Greens leader Richard Di Natale has described it as “a violation of human rights”.
But Mr Turnbull has defended the proposed trial, telling reporters at a Sydney hospital on Friday that it was a policy motivated by love and a commitment to support vulnerable Australians.
“I think it is pretty obvious that welfare money should not be used to buy drugs,” he said.
“If you love somebody who is addicted to drugs, if you love somebody whose life is being destroyed by drugs, don’t you want to get them off drugs?
Mr Turnbull said he hoped the trial would be a success so it could be expanded across Australia, describing it as a sensible, rational and compassionate policy.
Tasmanian senator Jacqui Lambie has welcomed the announcement and called for federal politicians to lead by example and be drug tested at work.
“It won’t hurt them [politicians]. They are paid by the taxpayer, just like welfare is, and I think for them to show some leadership in this, that is exactly what should be done,” Senator Lambie said.
—ABC