Newstart Allowance

The Hon. T.T. NGO (15:46): I rise today to urge the federal government not to abandon the most vulnerable people in our community and to support the community campaign for the increase of unemployment benefits of Newstart payments by at least $50 per week. I was really disappointed there was nothing in last night's federal budget to support this initiative, but I do hold out some hope that there are enough decent and caring politicians federally to eventually support this.

I would like to give an example of what those living on Newstart have to survive on. A single parent with two children who is unemployed would receive a base rate of $295 a week ($42 a day), plus a maximum of $76 a week in a rental allowance. This income would be supplemented by family tax benefit A and B. From this meagre sum, the family would need to pay their rent of about $350 in Adelaide and obviously more for people living in Melbourne and Sydney. This would amount to about half of their income. The remaining dollars would then need to be spread amongst food, phone, internet, electricity, car registration, school fees and uniforms, just to name a few, as well as ensuring they have enough left over to attend mandatory job search commitments.

As you can see, it would be almost impossible to make ends meet. This would force parents to take drastic action, such as choosing between paying off a utility bill and having enough money to make sure that their children do not go without food. With the low payments that these families are receiving, there is little ability to put money away for an emergency. If their car or fridge breaks down, they would not have the financial capacity to replace it. This forces further drastic action, such as having to turn to borrowing from payday lenders who charge ridiculously high interest rates.

To pay off these loans, these families put themselves under further financial stress by not being able to pay utility bills or rent on time. This could result in them being evicted from their home or having their gas or electricity cut off. I have seen struggling families time and again in similar situations when I have visited families who called for help from the St Vincent de Paul Society during my time as the member and chairperson of the Croydon Conference. It beggars belief that the Liberal Party are so out of touch with the most vulnerable in our community, as demonstrated by one of their federal MPs, Ms Julia Banks, who said on the ABC radio that she could live on $40 a day. This is the mentality of the current federal government, and comments such as this is why the public is so mistrusting of politicians.

The Australian Council of Social Services has been calling for a rise of the Newstart Allowance by $51 a week. Achieving this alone would not solve the issues of poverty in Australia; however, it would alleviate some of the financial pressures that those families living on Newstart face every day.

Leading economist Chris Richardson from Deloitte Access Economics also supports the campaign for a $50 increase in the Newstart Allowance. He urged that fixing the unnecessarily cruel dole payments is a more urgent priority than budget repair. Mr Richardson said:

…we here in Australia don't have a dole-bludger problem—what we have is a society that is unnecessarily cruel.

I would like to acknowledge the work of Anti-Poverty Network SA, which has been advocating for an increase in Newstart for many years. I thank them for their continuous support and campaign on behalf of the most vulnerable Australians. I also thank many local councils who got behind this campaign—in particular, my old council, Port Adelaide Enfield council, which became the first Australian council to support and formally advocate for a rise in Newstart.