Cashless welfare card to lift people up by their bootstraps: Australian PM

Australian Prime Minister Tony Abbott is optimistic a cashless welfare payment card, to be trialled in remote indigenous Australian communities, will lift people up"by their bootstraps." "If people have got nothing to do, they can often blow their dough on things which are quite counterproductive, which are quite harmful,"Abbott told local reporters in Kununurra -- 440 kilometers south west of Darwin -- late on Sunday before commencing his week-long trip to the Torres Strait.

The card will replace existing social welfare payments, which would contain 80 percent of payments to be spent on food and other basic necessities, Australia's national broadcaster reported on Monday.

Twenty percent of payments will be placed into a person's bank account.

Local authorities in outback Western Australia where the new system will be trialled will be able to alter the percentage of payments depending on individual circumstances, however, payments would still need to meet strict criteria.

"All the indicators are they want this because they want to lift their people up by the bootstraps,"Abbott said.

"They want their people to face the future with confidence and pride and this debit card will help that to happen."

The restrictions apply to both indigenous and non-indigenous Australians.

Speaking to reporters ahead of his week-long trip to the Torres Strait, Abbott said Australia's indigenous community are finally getting the attention they deserve. "There's nothing like being the man on the spot,"Abbott said.

"We can read all the briefing papers in the world, we can read the books, we can talk to the experts but there is nothing like being present on the spot to see the good and the bad and to see a way forward." Endi