The government is pushing for a national rollout of a controversial cashless welfare card system after several successful trials.

The trial sees 80 per cent of a Newstart recipient’s payments put onto a debit card that can’t be used to buy alcohol, gamble or withdraw cash.

President of Wyndham East Kimberley Shire in Western Australia David Menzel tells Ben Fordham the cashless welfare card was trialled in his area.

“What we’re seeing in town is a lot less people on the streets showing inappropriate behaviour, and a lot more people in the supermarkets filling up trolleys with food.”

But he says he’d like to see more than just anecdotal evidence.

“Everyone likes really hard data and we haven’t seen a lot of that generated out of the trial side so that’s a bit disappointing.”

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