ABSTRACT
The automation and privatisation of aspects of Australia’s social security system, exemplified by the Cashless Debit Card (CDC), is framed by its proponents as benefiting recipients and reducing social harm. This chapter argues that substantive evidence counters this perspective of the espoused beneficial outcomes. Rather than reducing harm, the CDC causes social harm and suffering, meted out by systems that evince forms of injustice and structural violence. This chapter draws on Critical Political Economy theory to problematise the political, economic and class-based character of Australia’s social security system and its impact on people’s lives. It is argued that the design of Australia’s market-driven social security policy is inherently aimed at meeting the imperatives of capital accumulation, incorporating an impetus towards automation, privatisation, workfare and welfare retrenchment. Drawing on this theorised schema, the automated and privatised CDC is characterised as a toxic mix that manifests social injustice, structural and cultural violence, and vested class interests. Attention is drawn to class and racialised discrimination, facilitated by the CDC’s geopolitical locus and increased levels of surveillance, enabled by automation. Excerpts from interviews with those subjected to the CDC illustrate the effects of violence-induced social suffering on people’s everyday lives.
