The cashless debit card quarantines up to 80 per cent of a welfare recipient's income which cannot be withdrawn in cash or spent on gambling or alcohol.

Nationals senator Matt Canavan believes unrestricted cash payments enable a cycle of drug use and addiction.

"You're getting them addicted to free money that destroys their lives and creates a generation cycle that ends up with domestic violence and addiction," he told the Senate on Tuesday.

"We are at least trying with things like the cashless debit card. It's not perfect but ... what's going to be the alternative?"

The Senate will sit late into the night to clear the Labor government's push to repeal the card.

Government leader in the Senate Penny Wong accused the opposition of filibustering debate on the bill to delay a vote.

Senator Wong said the government had a clear mandate and it was important the bill passed on Tuesday so there was enough time for the amendments to go back and be passed by the lower house.

Welfare recipients will be able to move off the card by October 4, if the legislation passes this week.

Indigenous Australians Minister Linda Burney said the card diminished people's self-worth.

"It is discriminatory and arbitrary," she told parliament.

"This measure is voluntary. If people want to stay on the cashless debit card or income management, that is their decision.

Independent senator David Pocock sounded the death knell for the cashless debit card by supporting the government's push to scrap it.

Senator Pocock says all compulsory income management needed to be scrapped altogether but welcomed the voluntary management aspect.

"This bill is far from perfect but is clearly ... needed and any significant delay in its passage will subject people to further distress."

Labor's bill will be able to pass the Senate with the support of the Greens and Senator Pocock.

The Greens will seek to amend the bill to end all forms of income management including the BasicsCard, as well as having the government report back to parliament in six months.

The first is unlikely to succeed.

Labor senator Marielle Smith said she travelled to Ceduna in South Australia and heard how the cashless debit card was stigmatising individuals and leaving the most vulnerable worse off.

She acknowledged the card had a positive impact for some, but forcing people onto it had a "punitive effect".

Indigenous coalition senator Jacinta Price said the government was ignoring the suffering of vulnerable children and favouring the rights of abusers, perpetrators and adults controlled by addiction.

The Northern Territory senator said those wanting to abolish the card couldn't comprehend what it was like to "constantly have your income demanded from you by addicted relatives".

"This is fact. I live this culture," she said.

One Nation senator Pauline Hanson urged the Senate to heed the lived experience of Senator Price.

"Those of us who have never been in these people's shoes must listen to someone who has and speaks common sense," she said.

"Sometimes people need to be taken by the hand, show them love and guidance and that's what we must do."

Australian Associated Press