DEAR News Of The Area,

HANDS up all those who believe Australia is a democracy?

Hands up all those who do online shopping, go to your local bowls club, and play bingo.

Before my research into the LNP Indue Card (also known as the Healthy Welfare Card or Cashless Debit Card which started off as the Basics Card in the Northern Territory), l would have agreed with you that of course Australia is a democracy and we have economic freedom.

Wrong on so many accounts.

If you receive just one dollar from Centrelink you can be forced to go onto the Indue card and your basic human rights are removed.

Depending on where you live, or where the LNP government sticks a thumb tack in the map of Australia – Coffs Harbour could be next.

Currently the towns of Ceduna, Kununurra, Wyndham, Kalgoorlie, Hinkler and Tennant Creek are all undergoing mandatory trials of having all their financial affairs managed against their will by the LNP government.

The Indue card is now undergoing a major expansion to many parts of Australia.

Opposing voices to the card has been ignored by the government.

Democracy and independence of financial choice are for some but not for others.

If you are on any sort of a government benefit or pension, aged and veterans affairs, or Aboriginal, Torres Strait Islander, unemployed, a single parent, carer, or a person with a disability, you can be deemed incapable of enjoying democracy or financial choice.

Are we revisiting Europe in the 1930s, or becoming too close to the South China Sea area?

How does belittling and demonising sections of the community help with situations of domestic violence, intergenerational trauma and extreme poverty?

The LNP seems to enjoy causing pain to thousands of people via their friends and financial counterparts in the
mining industry.

Why does the Indue Card have to be mandatory?

Where is Australian democracy and financial choice for all?

Please do your own research if you are concerned about being placed on the Indue Card against your will, and having an upstart thirty year old that has all your Mygov private details on their screen telling you what you can afford and what you cannot.

The Older Women’s Network has a great analysis on their website of this horrendous card, where even
a woman was denied the ability to buy a bra, because it was an online purchase.

Yours sincerely,
Ms Margaret JOHANSON,
Coffs Harbour.