Greens Leader Adam Bandt and spokesperson on Family and Community Services Senator Rachel Siewert have responded to today’s announcement that the government has agreed to Labor\u2019s proposal to cut JobKeeper and JobSeeker payments, even as unemployment soars and the Covid outbreak continues in Victoria and NSW.
\nThis is being billed as an extension, but the reality for millions of Australians, many of whom are still under lockdown, is that this is a cut in vital income support.
\n\u201cDisappointingly, the Liberals have listened to Labor\u2019s call to cut JobKeeper support for low-income earners,\u201d Bandt said.
\n\u201cThese cuts will see push part-time and casual workers closer to poverty. Many casual workers are young, insecure, low-paid and underemployed workers desperately seeking more work & higher wages.
\n\u201cWith JobKeeper, many workers were getting something close to a living wage but the Liberals and Labor are readying to throw these vulnerable workers off a financial cliff.
\n\u201cIt\u2019s deeply disappointing to hear Anthony Albanese describe a living wage for the lowest income earners as \u2018waste\u2019. It is the sell-out of the century.
\n\u201cThe ACTU, the Victorian Trades Hall Council and the United Workers Union have all rejected cuts to JobKeeper and the do Greens too. The extended scheme is still $44 billion under budget and there is no excuse for this targeted attack. We should be expanding the payment to all workers who need it, not cutting it.
\n\u201cThe Greens will fight every attempt by the Liberals and Labor to cut support for low income and unemployed workers.\u201d
\nSenator Rachel Siewert said:
\n\u201cA temporary arrangement on JobSeeker is a mistake. We are deeply concerned that this payment will take people below the poverty line and the impact this will have on their lives. We have to give the community and businesses confidence for the long haul.\u201d
\n\u201cThe Government recognises the ongoing impacts of COVID-19 by taking Jobkeeper through to March, why haven’t they done the same for Jobseeker?
\n\u201cWe are in a recession. Not only is it cruel to keep people living with uncertainty and in poverty, we need people spending to stimulate our economy.
\n\u201cClaims that the Jobseeker rate is discouraging people from working is a regression to myths and tropes used to demonise people who are accessing income support.
\n\u201cIt should not be Government policy for those without work to live in poverty. The higher level of Jobseeker has enabled many people to get out of poverty or stay above the poverty line, which is a key barrier to finding and maintaining employment.
\n\u201cThe employment services system was already not fit for purpose before the COVID-19 pandemic and somehow the Prime Minister expects the system to manage with the huge increase in caseload.
\n\u201cThe jobs are simply not there and it is absolutely senseless to deny people adequate support in the midst of a recession,\u201d Siewert said.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Greens Leader Adam Bandt and spokesperson on Family and Community Services Senator Rachel Siewert have responded to today’s announcement that the government has agreed to Labor\u2019s proposal to cut JobKeeper and JobSeeker payments, even as unemployment soars and the Covid outbreak continues in Victoria and NSW. This is being billed as an extension, but the … Continue reading “Greens will oppose Liberal & Labor agreed cuts to low-income JobKeeper and JobSeeker”<\/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-7378","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\/7378","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=7378"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"http:\/\/www.16news.com.au\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7378\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.16news.com.au\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=7378"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.16news.com.au\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=7378"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.16news.com.au\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=7378"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}