Moral Framings in the Australian Parliamentary Debate on Drug Testing of Welfare

The Australian government has tried three times to pass legislation for a trial of drug testing of working-age social security recipients, despite vociferous opposition from public health advocates. 

This is part of a larger international trend to impose strict behavioural conditions on people receiving income support. This talk is based on an analysis of the different ways drug testing is morally framed in the Australian parliamentary debate on drug testing. 

To shed light on how the debate on drug testing might be moved beyond its current impasse, Katherine will examine the appeals made by supporters and opponents of the trial to paternalism, consequentialism and social justice.  

About the Speaker

Dr Katherine Curchin in a Senior Lecturer in Social Policy in the ANU Centre for Social Research and Methods. Her research focuses on the ethics of social policy interventions aimed at behavioural change. 

She holds an honorary position in the ANU School of Philosophy and is an Associate of the Centre for Deliberative Democracy and Global Governance at the University of Canberra. She is co-editor of the Australian Journal of Social Issues. 

Before joining CSRM, Katherine held a DECRA in the Centre for Aboriginal Economic Policy Research where she examined debates about the relationship between Indigenous development and the Australian welfare state.

**This event will be delivered online via Zoom.**

Image by Curtis Adams from Pexels under Pexels License.