Government puts BasicsCard to tender

The Australian government will move to a permanent card-based income management system for indigenous communities and will go to the market for a long-term solution to replace the current BasicsCard supply arrangement.

The Minister for Human Services, Joe Ludwig, told delegates at the Card and Payments Conference in Sydney yesterday that the government considered the BasicsCard scheme a success and would extend it.

Introduced last September in the Northern Territory as a way of limiting purchases to priority items, the card is now in use in Western Australia and is being trialled in Cape York.

More than16,000 people have been issued with BasicsCard, which works through the Eftpos system, and more than $50 million has been spent on approved goods and services at over 800 approved stores.

Shoppers cannot use the card to buy alcohol, tobacco, pornography or gambling products.

To get the system up and running the government chose a direct procurement route and awarded a contract to Retail Decisions.

As part of its move to a permanent income management solution it will go to the market with a tender by mid year.