Janet Rice (Victoria, Australian Greens) Share this | Hansard source

My question is to the Minister representing the Treasurer, Minister Gallagher. Minister, the Treasurer was quoted this morning in relation to the indexation of income support payments as saying:

We know that it won't solve every problem for everybody, but it's important that we try and make sure that those payments keep up.

Minister, today's indexation of income support payments is less than $2 a day extra for someone on JobSeeker. This pathetic increase will leave millions of Australians in really tough times, with payments that are not keeping up, that aren't within cooee of the poverty line, let alone giving people enough to live on. Minister, poverty is a political choice. Why won't your government choose to increase the rate of JobSeeker above the poverty line?