Dave5

It’s funny how the anti-nanny state crew are all for getting the state up in your face.

Across the Tasman, the conservative Howard government invented electronic income management in 2007, with the original idea being to prevent Aboriginal First Nations Peoples from spending their money on booze, tobacco and pornography. Beneficiaries in certain parts of Australia are prevented from even being able to withdraw money – say, for a bus fare – lest they spend that cash in ways that the state frowns upon.

In short, the idea of electronic income management has emerged from Australia’s racist, paternalistic attitude to indigenous people. (Its roots go even further back to 19th century beliefs about the feckless, undeserving poor.) 

http://werewolf.co.nz/2023/12/gordon-campbell-on-how-the-state-aims-to-dictate-what-the-unemployed-are-allowed-to-buy/