Kylea Tink (North Sydney, Independent) Share this | Hansard source

It's a core belief of mine and the people that I represent that everyone deserves respect and a fair go, no matter their background. I welcome the opportunity to speak on the Economic Inclusion Advisory Committee Bill 2023.

Right now, many Australians are doing it tough. The cost of living is increasing, rents and petrol prices are skyrocketing, and it is the individuals and families on lower incomes or without work who are being hit the hardest. According to Mission Australia, over 3.3 million Australians are living in poverty, facing significant disadvantages and challenges in their day-to-day lives. The Intergenerational report released this year shone a light on the barriers to economic inclusion and participation in Australia for underrepresented and historically disadvantaged groups. These include women, who continue to face barriers to finding a job or working the hours they would prefer, with unpaid work and caring responsibilities particularly impacting those with young children. At the same time, the share of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people in employment is around 22 percentage points lower than for non-Indigenous Australians. Similarly, people with disability have considerably lower employment rates than people without disability.

I believe we can have a healthy, productive, thriving and inclusive society, but to achieve this we must address the root cause of disadvantage, look for ways to ensure economic and social inclusion for all and provide an adequate social security safety net. In this context, I welcome the government's bill and congratulate Senator David Pocock, particularly, on his work to make this committee a reality.

This bill creates a committee to provide advice to government, ahead of every federal budget, on ways to boost economic inclusion and tackle disadvantage. In simple terms, the committee will advise government on ways to help those who are doing it tough. The committee will provide advice on policy settings, systems and structures, and the effectiveness of income support payments, as well as providing options to reduce barriers to work and economic inclusion, particularly for long-term unemployed and disadvantaged or disengaged groups. In providing this advice, the committee will consider the government's economic and fiscal outlook and fiscal strategy, workforce participation, existing policies, and the long-term sustainability of Australia's social security system in the overall context of the budget.

Within this bill, I particularly welcome the provisions of independent expert advice to government, framed by consistent terms of reference. I also welcome the efforts to ensure the committee is comprised of a diverse range of experts, including a representative of the community sector involved in assisting or supporting persons who are economically disadvantaged, a representative of a peak employer or business association and an academic expert in social security. I also welcome the inclusion within the committee's functions of specifically having regard to the impact of economic inclusion policies on people with barriers to work, including those with caring responsibilities, Indigenous peoples and people with disability, as well as the impact of economic inclusion policies on gender equality.

However, I believe there are ways to strengthen this legislation to ensure the government receives the best possible advice on ways to lift economic inclusion and reduce disadvantage. The Australian Council of Social Services has put forward several recommendations that they believe would strengthen the integrity and diversity of this committee, to help ensure its advice is well informed. I'd like to particularly draw attention to the following of their recommendations.

Firstly, they recommend that the bill set out a process and time line for the development of national poverty targets and a national poverty measure or measures. This would ensure that poverty reduction is put front and centre on every agenda. They also recommend that the bill stipulate that reports must be published at least two weeks ahead of the federal budget, as this would ensure a minimum period of time for consideration of the committee's advice ahead of the federal budget. They also recommend that the bill ensure the committee includes representation from those people experiencing poverty by stipulating a minimum proportion of people directly affected, with a range of experience represented. To make this possible, they recommend that the bill provide that committee members be remunerated. They also recommend that the bill require that women should comprise at least half the membership of the committee, and, finally, that the bill ensure consultation with First Nations bodies to ensure there is sufficient representation of First Nations people on the committee.

It is my hope that the establishment of this committee will lead to better policy that addresses entrenched disadvantage and includes measures to ease cost-of-living pressures. I believe these recommendations would help make that a reality. If the committee's advice is truly listened to, and acted on, it could lead to powerful policy outcomes—policies that see more affordable early childhood education and care, and the expansion of paid parental leave; policies that increase income support to adequate and livable rates; policies that address entrenched community disadvantage and create more affordable housing; and policies that close the gap between outcomes for First Nations Australians and those for the non-Indigenous community. However, the establishment of the committee is not a panacea for retaining economic inclusion.

As we know, the Interim Economic Inclusion Advisory Committee was established earlier this year, pending this legislation being passed. The interim committee comprised the nation's leading economists, academics, philanthropists and community advocates. Their report, which was released on 21 April this year, just over two weeks before the May budget, had a number of recommendations, the primary one of which was:

The Government commit to a substantial increase in the base rates of JobSeeker Payment and related working age payments as a first priority.

The committee also recommended that any increase in income support be accompanied by, but not contingent upon, major reform of the employment services system so that it works much more effectively for disadvantaged jobseekers and employers.

I hear from the North Sydney community regularly about the need for major reform of these services, and I'd like to speak about that feedback for a moment. In calling for a substantial increase to the JobSeeker payment, the interim committee found increasing the rate to 90 per cent of the age pension would improve adequacy, which means it would be the minimum increase required to support a basic standard of living in line with community expectations. While the interim committee made several recommendations, they highlighted this as the highest and most immediate priority. According to the committee, substantially increasing the JobSeeker payment, potentially to 90 per cent of the value of the age pension, is the most effective way to tackle poverty. But come budget day, there was no such substantial increase in support to be seen. Yes, working age and study payments increased, but only by $20 a week; that's just $4 a day. That doesn't even buy you a coffee, and it is certainly not the substantial increase recommended by the interim committee. Adopting the interim committee's recommendation would have resulted in a rise of closer to $100 a week, and that's just to ensure people can cover the basics.

According to ACOSS research, in 2023, seven in 10 people on income support are eating less or reporting difficulty getting essential medicine and care because their incomes are inadequate. When coupled with poor services and stigma around receiving these payments, the inadequacy of JobSeeker payments is truly damaging. We must push for better employment services and payment rates for those facing barriers to employment. Adequate social and community services are critical to Australia's social cohesion and the development of a fair and equitable society.

I and my electoral team regularly hear from members of the North Sydney community who tell us about their difficult and sometimes traumatic experiences accessing these services. Many of their calls are truly heartbreaking. We hear from people experiencing major mental health crises who find that the process of engaging with Centrelink compounds an already stressful situation. We've heard from constituents whose wellbeing is suffering; they're losing sleep and they're struggling with their addictions as a result of unnecessarily navigating the Centrelink system.

Many constituents comment on their lifetime of paying taxes and doing the right thing, only to feel betrayed by their government when the chips are down and they need help. Instead, they're being made to feel they cannot be trusted and are somehow scamming the system when legitimately trying to access Commonwealth support.

When people try to follow up on their claims on the phone, they are met with a circular recorded message, or an automatic disconnection when the system actually recognises that they have called before. Sometimes the call simply fails, regardless of how long they've been waiting. One constituent told my office that seeking to contact Services Australia is like trying to talk to the man on the moon. Another said, 'If you don't speak to someone, my income will be reduced; yet I cannot get anywhere. It's impossible and makes life 10 times harder—for what?' We hear a lot about customer accounts failing to be updated with the latest data and missing documentation that was submitted online, as well as inconsistencies in information on the myGov account versus the customer records. The recently-announced increases to staffing at Services Australia is, therefore, long overdue and welcome.

However, as inflation, interest rates and other living costs continue to rise, it's disappointing to reflect that, while the interim committee made clear recommendations to raise the adequacy of income support payment rates and services, those recommendations were neither heeded nor implemented. Other recommendations of the interim committee have also gone unheard.

The interim committee called for the scrapping of the activity test for childcare subsidies. Childcare accessibility and affordability are other key issues for my community in North Sydney and are also complicated by a frustrating level of administration, often at odds with the economic and social outcomes we, as a society, want to achieve. The activity test is a major barrier to families accessing early learning and child care, as it adds unnecessary complexity to the social security system, increasing job-search costs for unemployed parents and creating uncertainty for parents engaged in casual work. If it were removed, children and families would have greater access to early learning and child care, and we know that that supports children's development and allows parents to participate in the workforce. Specifically, the interim committee recommended that:

The Government abolish the Activity Test on the Child Care Subsidy and commit to guaranteeing all Australian children access to three days of early childhood education and care. All children benefit from access to early childhood education and care, and government policies that ensure affordable access can lift female participation.

This call has been made by numerous experts and independent bodies, including, most recently, by the Women's Economic Equality Taskforce report, which again recommend that the government:

Abolish the Child Care Subsidy Activity Test, as an immediate first step towards universal access to early education for Australian children.

While I welcome the establishment of this committee, we must acknowledge that, in and of itself, simply establishing it does not solve the extensive challenges to economic inclusion of all Australians. The committee's advice is not binding, and, as this very recent history shows, the government may choose to ignore the committee's recommendations. If that continues to be the case, this committee will simply become another box to tick, another advisory body whose advice goes unheeded while people continue to struggle to make ends meet. That will mean more individuals and families battling every day, despite the existence of commonsense, workable solutions, and, in fact, will leave many of them feeling like the solutions that could be directed towards them are being deliberately ignored.

I really, truly hope that, with the passage of this legislation, the government intends to not only establish this committee but also properly consider and act on their advice. To ensure this, I point again to the recommendations made by the Australian Council of Social Service which I believe would strengthen this legislation, and I'd like to advise both the House and the minister that I'll be moving several amendments during consideration in detail on this legislation to try to effect some of those amendments. We can only make our nation greater if we are prepared to listen to each other and move forward when good ideas are presented. I look forward to being a part of that process.

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