The majority voted in favour of the bill's main idea, which is to expand the trials for the cashless debit card to other places.
In parliamentary jargon, this vote was a vote to read the bill for a second time and, because it was successful, means that the House can now discuss the bill in more detail.
What is the bill's main idea?
- 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.