Key events
Amy Remeikis
David Pocock says Labor not protecting most vulnerable after failure to raise jobseeker rates
Hello again from Canberra where the economic inclusion advisory committee interim report – which was released just after 5pm yesterday recommending a rise in jobseeker – is still making waves.
The Antipoverty Centre, which advocates for people living on welfare and in poverty (they go hand in hand these days) have taken to calling it the “economic exclusion committee”. They were sceptical of the process from the outset, questioning what impact it would actually have when it came to raising the rate.
Well, it seems we have the answer – not really a lot.
As Paul Karp reported, it doesn’t appear that the government is going to take up the committee’s (non-binding) recommendations. And that has left senator David Pocock, who had negotiated for the committee to be established in return for his support on the government’s IR legislation, a bit miffed.
The current level of income supports for more than one million Australians is seriously inadequate. The committee recommended a substantial increase in the rate of jobseeker as a first priority and an increase to commonwealth rent assistance.
It is unacceptable that as one of the wealthiest countries in the world so many people in our community, especially children, are being forced to live in poverty in this worsening cost-of-living crisis.
It appears that this Labor government can find extra money for just about anything – from inland rail cost blowouts to submarines – but it won’t do more to protect the most vulnerable.
The Antipoverty Centre was a little more blunt in its response, saying the government “never cared” what the committee would say.
Welcome
Martin Farrer
Good morning. I’m Martin Farrer and welcome to today’s rolling news coverage. It promises to be a pretty busy day so I’ll have a couple of breaking stories for you before my colleague comes along to run the show.
We’re getting into budget bargaining season as stakeholders and interest groups bid to put pressure on the Albanese government ahead of Jim Chalmers’ big day next month. Specifically, our story says ministers are being urged to include a pay rise and increased rent assistance for all childcare and aged care workers as part of “specific and urgent” recommendations by the women’s economic equality taskforce.
Meanwhile, there are warnings the planned extra $4.8bn spend on aged care will still not be enough, while the government may ignore calls from its own experts to lift ‘seriously inadequate’ jobseeker rate. The latter move has angered the independent senator David Pocock who says it is “unacceptable”. More coming up on his comments.
Students are being left with as little as $13 a day to live on as the youth allowance fails to keep pace with soaring rents, according to analysis from Homelessness Australia. We’re also looking at how Help or Hecs debts are ballooning thanks to inflation, and how best to tackle paying them off. One former student tells us that she now owes more than she did when she left uni.
The Australian Chamber of Commerce and Industry will no doubt also have suggestions for the treasurer when it releases its national electric vehicle strategy this morning. Chris Bowen and Catherine King, the energy and infrastructure ministers respectively, will make a joint announcement about it shortly and we’ll have the latest as soon as it happens.
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