Debit card (‘cashless welfare card’) Australia 2017, Donation, British Museum 2017,4087.1

In 2016 the Australian Government initiated a trial scheme for a cashless debit card for people who receive particular forms of welfare payments. The card could not be used to purchase alcohol or gambling products and the recipient could only withdraw 20% of their payments in cash. While some recipients supported the project there were many protestors who claimed the system unfairly stigmatised welfare claimants.

The trial of these cards started in the Kimberley region of Western Australia in 2016 as a form of income management after Aboriginal communities had suffered ongoing issues relating to alcohol abuse, gambling, domestic abuse and youth suicides. Some critics in the community likened the cards to the days when Aboriginal people worked on pastoral stations and were paid in rations of tea and sugar rather than real wages (i).

The use of such cards reflects ‘top down’ government policy practices rather than grass roots initiatives of the people who live in affected communities and who are best suited to find local solutions. It especially affects Aboriginal people who suffer high rates of disadvantage. Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Social Justice Commissioner June Oscar said in 2019: ‘Limiting people’s ability to access their welfare payments in cash does not address the reasons for drug and alcohol misuse, poverty, trauma, and lack of education' (ii). After being trialled for three to four years in several communities, the Australian Government extended the use of such cards for a further two years from late 2020, including introducing its use to communities in other states and territories.

This card was used by a non-Indigenous person living in Kununurra in 2017 who donated it to the British Museum when it was no longer needed for financial support. It is housed in the Department of Coins and Medals as part of the ‘Modern Money’ collection. The curator in that department commented that:

I remember reading about the card and the controversy it generated in a UK news article and thinking how fantastic it would be if we could acquire one. It’s so unusual for a numismatic object to represent the collision between state and society so bluntly, that it seemed too good a story to miss. At the time I felt that there were parallels to be drawn with other experimental political ideologies, not least the ‘Big Society’ in the UK. These connections may explain why it resonated so much with news outlets over here (iii).

The debit card is an interesting example of the ways in which contemporary collecting can take place within existing institutional policies in ways that build on and reflect existing collections. In this case, the card can be seen to represent both another form of money as well as a form of government control in the lives of disadvantaged Aboriginal and other people.