Paternalistic welfare or co-designed partnerships with local communities? Analysis of community group submissions to six Australian parliamentary inquiries into the cashless debit card from 2015–2020

Prior to the election of the Labor Government in May 2022, consecutive Australian Liberal–National Coalition Governments argued that local community leaders and organisations endorsed the introduction of the restrictive cashless debit card (CDC) in multiple trial sites. As a result, the CDC policy was presented as a meritorious example of a co-designed policy model based on collaboration with local communities. This article explores this assertion by examining the views presented by local community groups via written and oral submissions to six parliamentary inquiries into the CDC from 2015 to 2020. Our findings suggest major divisions across community groups within the CDC locations. In four of the six inquiries, most community group submissions opposed the introduction or expansion of the CDC. However, these views received cursory recognition in the inquiry reports, with little influence on policy. This article concludes that the CDC policy is more accurately conceptualised as a centralised policy imposed by the government on local communities without considering local views.