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senate vote 2018-09-11#1

Edited by mackay staff

on 2018-10-26 14:37:43

Title

  • Bills — Social Services Legislation Amendment (Cashless Debit Card Trial Expansion) Bill 2018; in Committee
  • Social Services Legislation Amendment (Cashless Debit Card Trial Expansion) Bill 2018 - in Committee - More certainty

Description

  • <p class='motion-notice motion-notice-truncated'>Long debate text truncated.</p>
  • The majority voted in favour of [government amendments](https://www.openaustralia.org.au/senate/?id=2018-09-11.4.2) (1) to (5) and (8) to (11), which means they succeeded.
  • ### What do these amendments do?
  • These amendments would move several matters that are currently in disallowable instruments - that is, legislative instruments that the parliament is able to vote against in a single vote so they stop being law - to standard legislation that can't so easily be undone. These matters include the location of the trial sites. According to Liberal MP [Mitch Fifield](https://theyvoteforyou.org.au/people/senate/victoria/mitch_fifield), who introduced the amendments, *"[this will give certainty](https://www.openaustralia.org.au/senate/?gid=2018-09-11.6.1) to trial participants and local communities"*.
  • ### What does the bill do?
  • The [bill was introduced to](http://parlinfo.aph.gov.au/parlInfo/search/display/display.w3p;query=Id:legislation/billhome/r6130):
  • * *expand the cashless debit card arrangements to a further trial site, the Bundaberg and Hervey Bay area, to run until 30 June 2020;*
  • * *specify the class of trial participants for the area and increase the total number of trial participants overall to 15 000;*
  • * *provide for an exception from the restrictive trade practices provisions of the Competition and Consumer Act 2010 for merchants that implement product level blocking systems to identify that a cashless debit card is being used for payment and, if any restricted products are being purchased, decline the transaction; and*
  • * *limit the use of the restricted portion of a payment to prevent the portion being used to obtain cash-like products which could be used to obtain alcohol or gambling.*