Nick Champion (Spence, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

Newstart must rise, and it must rise by $75 per week. In this country, and in my electorate, one cannot help but be confronted by the poverty that the current rate of Newstart causes. This is not just a terrible waste of human capital and a terrible blight on the local community and on the nation; it is also an attack on economic growth. If we want to prevent poverty, if we want to stop that dreadful waste of human capital, if we want to boost economic growth, the government must act.

I have been confronted, both before the election and since that time, by people approaching me in my local electorate telling me just how desperate their lives are on this payment. They go into pretty graphic detail of the desperation they feel, and it is a very confronting thing. The observation I would make about Newstart is that it is set not just at subsistence levels but a couple of ratchet levels below that. People simply cannot survive on it.

I think this parliament and, in particular, this government has a desperate moral imperative to address this issue. It is not just me saying this. Of course, ACOSS is saying it. The ACTU is saying it. The Country Women's Association of New South Wales is saying it. Barnaby Joyce is saying it. The Business Council of Australia is saying it. The Business Council of Australia's plan for a stronger Australia—its to-do list—says we should lift the single rate of Newstart for those who remain on Newstart for a long period of time and are unlikely to return to sustained work. It says it has supported increasing Newstart since 2011 because it is the right thing to do. So business itself recognises that when you can't feed yourself, when you can't pay the rent, when you can't maintain a car, when you can't maintain your own health, when you can't buy a decent set of clothes to go to a job interview, your chances of getting a job diminish significantly.

There are those who find that they and their skills are unsuited to the modern labour market. I meet these people all the time. They have often worked from the age of 15 or 16. They have left school at year 10 and gone to work in a manufacturing plant. They have worked pretty steadily until they are over 40. They have been the subject of a redundancy and they find themselves unable to get back into work. That is a desperately bad situation to be in. Under the current Newstart rules, the liquid asset test and other tests are applied. That mean your asset base gets diminished before you can go on to Newstart. So you are already pretty skint before you get onto it and, once you really get onto it, things get more and more desperate over time.

There is an obligation on this government. They won in unexpected fashion. They are doing their level best not to become arrogant. But the critical thing, when you sit on the Treasury benches, is that you inherit a whole lot of responsibilities, and they have the responsibility to address the poverty, the waste of human capital and the waste of economic capacity that the low rate of Newstart causes today. I just hope that they listen to reason, that they listen to John Howard—I mean, there couldn't be a greater conservative in the country. He says that this rate has been left too low for too long. Howard says it. For all of those people who talk about being great conservatives, here is a conservative cause that perhaps you can get behind and find some popular acclaim for doing so.