The Greens have urged Labor to lift all income support above the poverty line in the upcoming budget, with the weight of evidence given to a Senate inquiry into Australia\u2019s cost of living crisis calling for an immediate increase to Centrelink payments.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
In dissenting comments to the Liberal-controlled Select Committee on Cost of Living\u2019s second interim report<\/a>, the Greens have quoted more than 50 organisations that are all singing from the same song sheet when it comes to raising JobSeeker and Youth Allowance.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Greens Social Services spokesperson Senator Penny Allman-Payne:<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cWe\u2019re now 18 months into this inquiry, and the most consistent and frequent recommendation the committee has received in 190 written submissions and 17 public hearings is that income support must be raised.<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cThe overwhelming evidence we have heard is that by keeping Centrelink payments well below the poverty line, Labor is keeping millions in poverty and insecurity and putting lives at risk. <\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cThe Liberals\u2019 minority report, which has been rejected by both the Greens and Labor, ignores the weight of testimony provided to the inquiry and reads more like an IPA wishlist than a serious attempt to parse the evidence.<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cBut the evidence was clear: the single most effective way to tackle the cost of living crisis is to raise the rate of income support payments. <\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cHow many more reports and inquiries and recommendations from hundreds of experts and organisations and people with lived experience will this government ignore? <\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cLabor have got to get their priorities in order. Tax breaks for property investors, giving hundreds of billions of dollars to billionaires and corporations and the fossil fuel industry doesn\u2019t help the average Australian get through this cost of living crisis, and does nothing for the millions struggling to survive on Centrelink poverty-payments.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" The Greens have urged Labor to lift all income support above the poverty line in the upcoming budget, with the weight of evidence given to a Senate inquiry into Australia\u2019s cost of living crisis calling for an immediate increase to Centrelink payments. In dissenting comments to the Liberal-controlled Select Committee on Cost of Living\u2019s second interim … Continue reading “COST OF LIVING INQUIRY EVIDENCE IS CLEAR: LABOR MUST RAISE THE RATE”<\/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-26558","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\/26558","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=26558"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"http:\/\/www.16news.com.au\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/26558\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":26559,"href":"http:\/\/www.16news.com.au\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/26558\/revisions\/26559"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.16news.com.au\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=26558"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.16news.com.au\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=26558"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.16news.com.au\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=26558"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}