David Pocock (ACT, Independent) Share this | Hansard source

I rise to speak in support of the Social Services and Other Legislation Amendment (Workforce Incentive) Bill 2022. According to the Department of Social Services only three per cent of pensioners receive income from employment. According to recent reports employers are struggling to fill about 480,000 jobs. Pensioners represent an eminently qualified pool of worker that we could better utilise. Traditionally, pensioners have been rightly cautious about taking up work for fear of how it will impact their pensions. Understandably, not everyone wants to go to the hassle of liaising with Services Australia and risking their pension just to work for a few hours here and there or to work for a couple of weeks over the holidays.

Removing the barriers standing in the way of getting pensioners to take up more hours or get back into the workforce is good public policy. I share the government's optimism that these changes to the work bonus will get seniors back into the workforce at a time when we desperately need them. The changes would give senior Australians more flexibility by putting $4,000 into their work bonus income banks upfront. This means that senior Australians are better able to consider seasonal work, whether that's accounting at tax time or retail around the holidays. I also support this change being implemented as a trial and note that the government has extended the trial to the end of 2023. Clearly, there are a lot of priorities for our social services budget, and I believe we need to be looking closely at the effectiveness of each of our programs so that we can refine them over time and also make room for new ideas. As we move on through the parliamentary term, I will keep asking the question of whether this program is working and whether it needs to be refined.

I want to speak briefly about the amendments that will be moved by the Greens on this bill. I will always support raising the rate of JobSeeker, Youth Allowance and other payments to those most in need. I have spoken about this many times in this place because it's not right to leave people behind. We know that inequality has huge implications for the fabric of our society and for the cohesion that many have taken for granted. Dealing with rising inequality and having an effective safety net is something that we should all support. This is about priorities. We've heard, over and over, how tights the budget is, yet we've seen no talk of winding back fossil fuel subsidies—reportedly near $12 billion a year—and then we see additional ones like $1.9 billion for the Middle Arm project. This is clearly about priorities, and we're not treating the discussion about JobSeeker with the urgency it deserves. I commend Senator Rice for the way that she continues to raise this issue.

Here in the ACT, just beyond these walls, we have too many people living in, frankly, terrible conditions. There are over 38,000 Canberrans living below the poverty line, and that includes some 9,000 children. Reports suggest that one in six children in Australia are now growing up in poverty. That should concern everyone in this place, and we should be working to ensure that that doesn't happen—because we can change that. A recent study by Care's financial counselling found that Canberra households living in private rentals face a shortfall of $100 a week. The cost of rent for a two-bedroom unit in Canberra has increased by 7.4 per cent in the past year. If you're living on a payment, you cannot afford to rent privately. With 160,000 people on the social housing waitlist nationwide, social housing is not an option for most people. In asking people to support themselves on $48 a day, we are asking people to live in their cars. We're better than this. If the Senate is willing, we can raise the rate today and grant kids, students, and pensioners a better quality of life.

On the other amendments proposed by the Greens, I've not had the opportunity to look at them in detail and provide scrutiny. We were provided with them only this morning, and I note that they are not small amendments. I haven't seen any of the costings or analysis behind them and I haven't had the time to consult with experts, let alone people in the ACT. Many of these amendments are policies that I would likely support, but if my support is needed then I need to better understand the benefits, the impacts and the potential consequences before I cast my vote. While I will support the increase in JobSeeker, I will be abstaining from the other amendments put forward by the Greens. However, in doing so I want to say that I welcome more discussion on this. We have turned a blind eye to this for too long. There are so many Australians doing it tough. There are Australians with jobs doing it tough. And much of the talk in the parliament has been around dealing with the cost-of-living crisis faced across the country, so let's not forget people who are unemployed and relying on JobSeeker to put food on the table for themselves and their family.

This is important. This is important for those people, those families, those children who are having to grow up in poverty, and this is important for all of the communities that we come from, all of the towns and cities. This is about deciding what kind of country we want to be—whether we want to be a country that looks after the people who need support to get back on their feet or a country that is willing to say, as one of the wealthiest countries in the history of the world, we simply can't afford to give them a helping hand. I certainly believe that we can. I'd suggest looking at the budget and the $12 billion going to fossil fuels in the form of subsidies. This is about choice, and I'd urge my colleagues here in the Senate on all sides of politics to really consider this. Consider the impact that it is going to have on the future of our great country—having one in six children grow up in poverty. We have the means to deal with it. We can be a compassionate country. We can deal with this. We can be part of starting to deal with the growing inequality that should be a concern to all of us here.

I commend this bill to the Senate. It will certainly help a number of pensioners and will help ease some pressures in businesses across the country. Hopefully this is the first step in looking at social security in Australia and coming up with a fairer system.