Dai Le (Fowler, Independent) | Link to this | Hansard source

In Fowler, more than 13,000 people rely on payments like JobSeeker and youth allowance. They are families in Prairiewood and Cabramatta. They are young people in Bonnyrigg and Liverpool. They are looking for work and trying to stay afloat. For many, JobSeeker is not a choice. It has become the main income for whole families because a tough job market has left them no other option. People in Fowler are doing it tougher than most. Nationally, unemployment sits at around 4.5 per cent. In the Fairfield local government area, which covers most of my electorate, it is around 7.5 per cent. That is three points higher than the national average. There are more people out of work and more people relying on a payment that has not kept up with the real cost of living.

Across Western Sydney, that pressure is felt every day. Parents decide which bill to pay. People skip meals. Households fall behind on rent because their income does not stretch far enough. A payment that once carried a single person through a short gap between jobs now has to cover children, high rents, fuel that is still expensive and energy prices as well. Families in Fowler are carrying that burden. All the while, the government repeats its motto: no-one left behind. We hear it in speeches and at press conferences, but, in Fowler, thousands of people look at that slogan against their bank balance and know that they're being left behind.

The government has been given clear advice. Its own Economic Inclusion Advisory Committee found that JobSeeker has fallen well below changes in living standards. While wages have grown far more strongly this century—and we've just heard of the increased wages for childcare workers, which is fantastic—across four reports, the committee has said that the JobSeeker payment is below the poverty line. It recommended lifting it to around 90 per cent of the age pension. That is about $272 more a fortnight. The committee also showed how to pay for it responsibly through fairer tax concessions, better targeted spending and increases over time.

In a community like Fowler, that advice would reduce deep poverty and give people a fair chance to find work, study and retrain. Instead, the government has relied on routine indexation and left the payment below the poverty line. That hits communities like Fowler the most. If this government truly believes that no-one is left behind, it must follow its own expert advice. Raise JobSeeker. Bring people above the poverty line. The people of Fowler deserve a fair go.