Thursday 20 March marks 5 years since the Scott Morrison government raised income support by $275 per week. Overnight, it lifted nearly a million people over the poverty line – but later Morrison ripped away these supports, plunging people back into poverty.
On the same day this year, the Albanese government will increase JobSeeker by only the legislated indexation rate – a paltry $1.55 per week, leaving single JobSeeker recipients $220 below the poverty line.
News headlines say we’re in a cost of living crisis, but this is an unnatural crisis created by political cowardice: Poverty is a policy choice, and one that Parliament could overturn today.
Welfare recipients and advocates are holding a joint press conference at Parliament House on Thursday 20 March to mark this anniversary and share the simple policy solutions that could end poverty in Australia: increase payments, expand eligibility, and end the punishing and pointless system of “mutual” obligations.
For those who can’t make it to Canberra, there will also be a free online event on Monday 24 March at 7:30pm AEDT with Antipoverty Centre, Australian Unemployed Workers’ Union, Anti-Poverty Network Queensland, Anti-Poverty Network South Australia and Nobody Deserves Poverty.
Fiona Moore – Nobody Deserves Poverty; Disability Support Pension recipient:
“The coronavirus supplement in 2020 showed that governments can choose to lift people out of poverty overnight. With the supplement, people were happier and healthier – able to buy fresh fruit and vegetables and the medications they needed. Many were able to actually find work in this time without the added survival pressures of poverty. Keeping people in poverty is unnecessary, and subsidies are no substitute to giving people cash to support themselves.”
Brendan Folwell – Anti-Poverty Network South Australia:
“The COVID supplement was a wake-up call for our members who saw that a better life was possible with just a small increase to their welfare payments. Forcing people back below the poverty line was an act of cruelty that will not be forgotten any time soon.”
Avery Howard – Vice-President, Australian Unemployed Workers’ Union; JobSeeker recipient:
“With the fourth Budget from this Government being handed down next week, they have shown us time and time again that they are choosing to keep millions of us in poverty. The Supplement made it obvious that they can vastly alleviate poverty in Australia, but they are intentionally keeping us back in some misguided attempt at a ‘responsible budget’. There’s never anything responsible about trapping people in poverty.”
Kristin O’Connell – Co-coordinator, Antipoverty Centre; Disability Support Pension recipient:
“Five years on, when Centrelink payments feel more inadequate than ever, it is hard to think about the extraordinary outpouring of relief and joy when the JobSeeker payment was lifted to the poverty line, and the despair when it was ripped away. It is cruel and insulting for governments to insist every six months that the crumbs we receive through indexation are an ‘increase’, while our rent and bills go up faster than payments ever do.”
Jayden Oxton-White – Anti-Poverty Network Queensland; Disability Support Pension recipient:
“2020 was the first time in decades that we had a substantial raise to JobSeeker. This showed people that both major parties were well aware just how dire the situation is for people on income support payments. The fact that they then took it away further illustrates just how callous this colonial system is to those who are disenfranchised.”
Maiy Azize – Deputy Director, Anglicare Australia:
“Five years ago, the Government gave hope to hundreds of thousands of people when it raised the rate of JobSeeker and pulled them out of poverty. Lives were transformed, with many people being able to afford food and shelter – and plan for the future for the first time. It is all the more hurtful that we’ve gone so far backwards. The Government chose to end poverty once before. It can choose to do it again.”
Elise Klein OAM – Associate Professor, Crawford School of Public Policy, ANU:
“5 years ago, the Federal government showed how to end poverty in Australia. Today, rather than doing what we know works, the government chooses to inflict poverty on thousands of Australians. This is not necessary, make no mistake about it. Poverty in Australia is largely a government policy choice”.