A national welfare card that will allow the federal government to control payments to negligent parents across the country will be unveiled in Tuesday's budget.
The debit card will be introduced in selected indigenous communities before being rolled out across Australia.
It will ensure half of the cardholders' welfare payments are spent on approved goods and services, such as food and clothing for their children, rather than wasted on alcohol and drugs.
The card will be available soon after July 1 and not carry a photograph but will be PIN-coded to prevent it being sold on the black market and abused by welfare-dependent parents.
It will initially be introduced into Aboriginal communities in the Northern Territory and the Kimberley region of Western Australia, where the government has begun quarantining welfare payments.
But the government plans to roll the program out across the country and into white communities.
Family and Community Services Minister Jenny Macklin said security measures would stop people selling the cards for cash.
"We have to make sure that payments are spent in the interests of children," Ms Macklin told Fairfax newspapers.
"The government supports income management to make sure that all welfare payments are spent on items that are essential for the wellbeing of children."
