Budget sewerage

The Federal Coalition has delivered its 2017 budget.

It has been reasonably well received ever though our hip pocket wallets will be bit lighter. It is described as a Labor like budget (which it is) and will take a lot of the sting out of Labor's ongoing grumbles.

An interesting aspect of the budget is to randomly drug test Newstart and Youth Allowance recipients who receive welfare payments. As long as politicians are also randomly drug tested, then the proposed drug testing will probably be accepted by the community.

The Guardian reports ...

'The treasurer, Scott Morrison, has confirmed sewage will be tested to find areas of high drug use to trial drug testing of welfare recipients.

In a video interview with Buzzfeed on Periscope on Thursday, Morrison said that areas of high drug use were “the best place to start” the trials and promised the controversial new measure would only be retained if it “helps people”.

Tuesday’s budget announced a trial of drug testing for 5,000 Newstart and Youth Allowance recipients, with positive tests to be used to push drug users on to cashless welfare cards.'

It is interesting that analysis of sewerage will be used to find the hot spots of drug use for the trial project. Some years back I raised this matter at Unley Council. The intent was to discover if drugs in the recycled water (from sewerage treatment plants)  used for irrigation in Unley's parks would adversely affect plant growth. Expert opinion was divided on the matter.

Here's a link to the Guardian media report