Rachel Siewert (WA, Australian Greens) Share this | Hansard source

[by video link] I would like to make a contribution to the debate on the Treasury Laws Amendment (COVID-19 Economic Response No. 2) Bill 2021. This bill is the latest example of the government failing to adequately provide support to people suffering from the devastating impacts of lockdown. This bill allows the Treasurer to make rules for economic response payments during lockdowns between July this year and December 2022.

The economic and social impacts of lockdown are harmful. Lockdowns are especially harmful for the most vulnerable members of our community, including disabled people, carers, single parents and people without work. At the beginning of the pandemic, the Morrison government did something that, frankly, we never expected them to do. They raised JobKeeper to $1,115 a fortnight, doubling, in fact, the JobSeeker payment. This transformed the lives of thousand of people. For the first time in years, these people could afford to pay rent, buy medications and have three meals a day. It enabled them to survive the lockdowns of last year.

The Greens warned the government not to reduce JobSeeker back to the level of the poverty line when they decided they had provided enough support and we were coming out of the pandemic. We warned the government that people would need to access adequate income support as the pandemic continued. Instead, the government chose to condemn millions of people on income support to living in poverty. When the latest outbreaks occurred the government was dragged kicking and screaming to provide additional supports. These supports are inadequate, and, when they first came in, they ignored those living on income support, leaving them out in the cold.

More than five weeks into the Sydney lockdown, the government has finally provided some limited support to people in lockdown on income support payments. However, to qualify for the additional payment of $200, people on income support payments need to have lost at least eight hours of work. This means 350,000 people on income support in Greater Sydney missed out on critical support. These people, through no fault of their own, cannot find work. Once again, they are being punished by the government simply because they cannot find work. Of course, they cannot find work in the pandemic either—it's worse. I'm concerned that this number will only keep growing as the lockdown continues in Sydney and the threat of lockdown looms over other states and territories. At any time, any state or territory could go into lockdown because the Prime Minister hasn't secured enough vaccinations and hasn't fixed hotel quarantining.

I would like to take this opportunity to foreshadow a second reading amendment in my name that Senator Hanson-Young will move for me that outlines our concerns with the government's broad approach that continues to leave people behind. It will address people on income support and the fact that they have been ignored and are not getting additional support. It will outline the fact that it is very difficult for 350,000 people to try and survive on $44 a day. It outlines the fact that, if we want to ensure that people stay home, they need to extend support for all people on income support. It deals with the issue that people who have lost fewer than eight hours of work continue to be excluded from the payment. It also deals with the fact that all income support payments should be increased above the poverty line and that everybody who has lost work should be given adequate support, with access to the full JobKeeper rate, so that everyone is supported through this pandemic.

Almost half the people on the JobSeeker payment have an illness or disability. Many will need to isolate and require extra services like grocery or medication delivery. How can they afford to do this living below the poverty line? I'm very worried about disabled people and older women, who make up a significant proportion of the people on the JobSeeker payment. I'm very concerned that they will not be able to afford the basics during the lockdowns that are going on now and into the future. You cannot on the one hand say that people should stay at home and then on the other hand not provide adequate support for people to do so. This haphazard approach to managing the economic fallout of this pandemic is damaging our communities that are in extremely stressful situations because the government simply did not have an adequate plan.

By introducing the COVID supplement of an extra $550 a fortnight for people on JobSeeker and youth allowance payments at the beginning of the payment in March last year, the government acknowledged that $40, at that time, was never enough to survive on, and neither is the now changed payment of just $44 a day. It is not enough to live on. We know it's forcing people to live in poverty, and people are now expected to be living in poverty in lockdown situations. Particularly if they're vulnerable, they aren't able to go out and buy groceries and essentials; they have to pay extra. We know from the last lockdown that costs increased significantly for people living on income support. People in New South Wales will be going through lockdown without the means to afford essentials. It will be the same in other states like Queensland if, unfortunately, they have to go into lockdown. This is cruel and should not be happening in a country as wealthy as Australia. If we want people to be able to feed, clothe and house themselves, they need a payment of $80 a day. We will keep campaigning to achieve this for people doing it tough on income support.

To keep everyone safe, the government must ensure that everybody can afford to stay at home. Income support is a public health emergency. People who cannot afford to stay home are at greater risk of getting COVID and spreading it. We should be doing absolutely everything we can to support these people. Instead of income support above the poverty line, we have a government prioritising tax cuts for the rich. We have them giving handouts to their billionaire mates while the most vulnerable members of our community are condemned to living in poverty. This is appalling. To support people to stay at home and follow public health orders, the government must provide COVID disaster payments to everybody on income support—everybody on JobSeeker, youth allowance, DSP and the carer payment—not just those who have lost work. Of course people who have lost work need that additional support, but everybody should receive additional support. We had adequate income support at the height of the pandemic last year. We desperately need it back again.