Budget

The majority voted against a motion introduced by WA Senator Rachel Siewert (Greens), which means it failed.

Motion text

That the Senate—

(a) notes:

(i) the drug testing trial of 5,000 people applying for income support announced in the 2017-18 budget,

(ii) that the Government may require an exemption from the Disability Discrimination Act 1992 to enact this measure,

(iii) that, in 2013, a position paper by The Australian National Council on Drugs, found there would be serious ethical and legal problems with implementing a drug testing program for income support recipients in Australia,

(iv) that both the United Kingdom and Ontario, Canada stepped away from proposals for drug testing income support recipients because it was rejected by experts as being discriminatory or imposing unfair conditionality, and

(v) that, from 2011 to 2014, only two people out of 108 408 tested in Arizona, USA had a positive drug test; and

(b) calls on the Government to abandon this budget measure.