Greens\u2019 Social Services spokesperson, Senator Janet Rice, has slammed Labor\u2019s paltry increase to Centrelink payments that will leave millions of people on poverty-payments.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The Greens introduced a suite of amendments to Labor\u2019s Strengthening the Safety Net Bill – including implementing recommendations from the Government\u2019s-own Robodebt Royal Commission, the Economic Inclusion Advisory Committee, and the Womens\u2019 Economic Inclusion Taskforce – to help make life easier for the most vulnerable Australians. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
Senator Janet Rice, Greens spokesperson for Social Services said:<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cThe Labor Government claims they’re leaving no one behind. Labor is leaving everyone on JobSeeker behind with this bill.<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cIf Labor cared about helping those struggling the most, they would have backed the Greens amendment to raise all Centrelink payments above the poverty line to $88 a day.<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cWhile the Greens will never stop a cent going towards the people who need it most, this bill was pathetically inadequate at addressing the systemic problems plaguing our social security system and still leaves millions of Australians on poverty-payments.<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cWe know the cost of living crisis has hit those on JobSeeker hardest. Labor managed to find room in the budget for $9000 a year in Stage 3 tax cuts for every billionaire and politician in the country, but can\u2019t raise Centrelink above the poverty line for struggling Australians.<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cWhen it comes to income support, we don’t have a real safety net. As a witness at the bill\u2019s inquiry said: \u201cI wouldn’t call it a safety net, I would call it a parachute with holes. If you are on JobSeeker, you are going to hit the bottom at some point.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cAll this bill does is put a tiny patch on some of those holes. The increase works out to be around $4 a day, which is less than a cup of coffee and won\u2019t help anyone pay their rent.<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cThe Greens tried in good faith to improve this bill in ways we thought Labor could support, even proposing amendments based on the Government\u2019s-own Economic Inclusion Advisory Committee and the Robodebt Royal Commission that Labor established, and a recommendation from the RC report that the Prime Minister tearfully endorsed.<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cInstead of listening to the community, and their own advisory bodies, the Labor Government teamed up with the Liberals to vote all these amendments down, betraying Robodebt victims, single mothers, and everyone on Centrelink payments struggling to keep a roof over their heads.<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cLabor ignored an opportunity to make a meaningful difference in lifting Australians out of poverty and building a strong social safety net for everyone who needs it.<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cWith paltry bills like this from Labor that don’t even keep pace with record rent hikes and skyrocketing grocery prices, we are in real danger of creating a permanent underclass of people in this country that can\u2019t afford to participate fully in society.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Greens\u2019 Social Services spokesperson, Senator Janet Rice, has slammed Labor\u2019s paltry increase to Centrelink payments that will leave millions of people on poverty-payments. The Greens introduced a suite of amendments to Labor\u2019s Strengthening the Safety Net Bill – including implementing recommendations from the Government\u2019s-own Robodebt Royal Commission, the Economic Inclusion Advisory Committee, and the Womens\u2019 … Continue reading “LABOR\u2019S SAFETY NET BILL IS A PARACHUTE WILL HOLES”<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-22115","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-aussie"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.16news.com.au\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/22115","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.16news.com.au\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.16news.com.au\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.16news.com.au\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.16news.com.au\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=22115"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"http:\/\/www.16news.com.au\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/22115\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":22116,"href":"http:\/\/www.16news.com.au\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/22115\/revisions\/22116"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.16news.com.au\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=22115"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.16news.com.au\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=22115"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.16news.com.au\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=22115"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}