The head of the nation's most powerful doctors' group, Michael Gannon, says he would give a "nasty star" to the Turnbull government's plan to drug test welfare recipients.
The Australian Medical Association president told the National Press Club in Canberra on Wednesday the policy was "mean and non-evidence based", and would not help people who had problems with drugs.
!["It simply won't work:" Dr Michael Gannon.](http://web.archive.org./web/20170831112958im_/https://www.fairfaxstatic.com.au/content/dam/images/g/y/2/c/0/x/image.related.articleLeadwide.620x349.gy2b37.png/1503635764025.jpg)
"It simply won't work," Dr Gannon said.
"I'm sure the aspiration for everyone in this room is for people on welfare to, wherever possible, return to a productive life in the workforce. [But] if you discriminate against them, if you impair their return to full functioning by labelling them as a drug user, then you impair their ability to get their life back on track ... We don't expect people in most industries to have drug testing before they turn up to work. It's simply unfair and it already picks on an impaired and marginalised group. It's not evidence-based. It's not fair. And we stand against it."
As many as 1750 young people and job seekers in western Sydney, and 2500 in Logan, Queensland, will be drug tested and face strict welfare quarantining measures as early as next year, should the Senate approve the government's contentious welfare crackdown.
Under the two-year trial – a policy which was first unveiled in the May budget – 5000 new recipients of Newstart Allowance and Youth Allowance will be drug tested for illicit substances such as ice, ecstasy and marijuana across three locations.
The trial is accompanied by strict income management measures. People who test positive to two drug tests will have 80 per cent of their welfare payment redirected to a cashless welfare card, which quarantines the money for use on essential goods and services such as groceries.
The policy has been widely criticised by rehabilitation services, which say it will not help people with drug problems.
![Human Services Minister Alan Tudge says the government wants to see if the policy will change people's behaviour.](http://web.archive.org./web/20170831112958im_/https://www.fairfaxstatic.com.au/content/dam/images/g/w/r/q/g/e/image.related.articleLeadNarrow.300x0.gy2b37.png/1504008800663.jpg)
Human Services Minister Alan Tudge​ said the government wanted to "test" the policy.
"But this is a trial, we want to test it. We want to see if it does have that impact of helping people to get off drugs and back into work. And if it works, of course, we might roll it out further," Mr Tudge told local ABC radio in Brisbane.
Mr Tudge said the government hoped two things would happen because of the policy.
"One being that those people who do have a serious problem are identified and do get help. Second, that it might just have that behavioural impact, whereby people stop using drugs because they are thinking 'Well, you know what, I might just get tested in the near future, I am not going to take it anymore'," Mr Tudge said.
Dr Gannon also repeated the association's call for the Marriage Act to be changed because of the significant mental and physical health consequences, including suicide, of continuing to exclude same-sex couples from marriage.
But Dr Gannon refused to comment on the postal vote as a mechanism to resolve the issue, other than to say "many of my members ... would have favoured a quicker solution to this".
"There is that risk that the wider discussion on these issues will have mental health impacts on people directly affected by this. Equally, we live in a democracy where people are entitled to have their say. I faced criticism of our position statement from within the membership, and I have made it very clear that we as an organisation are a broad enough church that we can accommodate different views on this topic, and I am not uncomfortable with the Australian people being given their say," Dr Gannon said.
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