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

I rise tonight to speak on the lived experiences of people in our community living on Newstart and other income support payments. During Anti-Poverty Week, the Greens bill to raise Newstart and other income support payments by $75 per week was debated. If passed, this would have been the first real increase to the payment in almost 25 years. An increase to Newstart would have a huge impact on the physical and mental wellbeing of those trying to survive on it. It is unacceptable that there are people in a country as wealthy as Australia who are living on as little as $38 a day.

But what does it mean to actually live on as little as $38 a day? When I have, in this chamber, asked various ministers in question time whether or not they could survive on $38 a day, they have refused to answer. So, to give the government and the opposition an understanding of what it's like to live on Newstart, I asked the community to send me their experiences. The letters and the emails that I have received have highlighted the desperation many income support recipients feel. These are the people we need to be listening to in order to understand the difference that an increase of $75 a week would make to the lives of people looking for work who are single parents—predominantly, of course, single mothers—students, disabled people and older Australians. People in our community feel on edge struggling to pay their bills, driven there by the constant fear of income reviews and debts being imposed due to no error of their own.

There is an overwhelming sense of sadness in reading the letters and emails. Many people are literally near breaking point, unable to find themselves on a path to financial security, employment or general wellbeing. This is Tara's experience:

It began in 2013 when my youngest daughter turned 8 and I was thrown onto Newstart allowance from Parenting payment. I can't remember exactly the financial loss but I think it was around $120 a fortnight. Previously, my budget was tight but manageable, I had a job, 30 hours a fortnight, and a 5 year plan to be debt free and off Centrelink by the time my daughter began secondary school. I also had health insurance and a AAA credit rating.

Fast forward 5 years, I have moved 3,000km across Australia in 2018 to find work and better opportunities for my children. I have hardship arrangements in place for my $15,000+ debt, no health insurance, only 3rd party car insurance, rotting teeth and a daughter with social anxiety that is nearly at the end of her 10 bulk billed psychologist appointments. My 17 year old is forced to work to help.

I have no life, the government took it away. My children have no future.

Another person wrote:

I am 57 and my body is destroyed after decades on the tools. My insurer's assessors accept the evidence. I have 20 points. Disability job providers say I can work only up to 8 hrs a week, but not likely that. I am rotting on $485 a fortnight. Robodebt garnered Newstart. If insurance hadn't paid out my mortgage, I would be old, sick, homeless.

He then said—and I urge listeners, if they are affected by the following words, to contact Lifeline:

Suicide, my only way forward.

That is how desperate people are feeling on Newstart. People told us of the stress, loneliness and anxiety they feel, living under restrictive conditions. They want to work and they want to contribute. They find themselves falling into a cycle of ill health that traps them in a system and compounds their feeling of being a burden on society. Another person wrote to me:

I am 'old' (almost 65) which means too old to find work and too young for the pension.

I suffered from domestic abuse and, when I was kicked out of the house my husband moved back overseas and sold the house and assets.

You can imagine how hard it was to find a rental on under $600 a fortnight income. It also included having to get rid of my elderly dog, (my only friend) as I could not find anything where animals were allowed.

Since all this happened, the stress has caused a number of health problems, so I am costing Medicare!

That is the hidden cost of poverty and housing insecurity: ill health. One way or another we are a 'burden' on the system.

Recipients of income support payments struggle to pay even basic living costs. Being unable to cover the cost of food, rent and electricity is the harsh reality for so many. Debts continue to accumulate, increasing the stress and anxiety for those who live literally from payment to payment. This is the experience of a 45-year-old mother of two girls who asked to remain anonymous due to the sense of shame and sense of failure that she says she feels as a result of being on Newstart:

I'm a 45 year old single parent of two girls. I have been studying a Masters Degree in Human Rights and am currently completing my dissertation. I also undertake voluntary work. I am undertaking this in the hopes that it leads to work with a liveable wage. I have been in paid employment for years with my past job held for 10 years. Since I've been out of paid work, I have been accumulating debt. My power bill is around $3000, I do make regular fortnightly payments to the power company. I pay $410 a week rent, once that's paid there isn't a lot left over for all other expenses. I struggle with food costs. Unless you have a well-paid job, it is so hard to maintain a basic standard of living as a single person. You don't expect to have a lot of money when you're receiving government assistance but you also don't expect to be accumulating debt for basic living costs. It's very hard to look for work when you're fighting to keep a roof over your head and are always deprived of money for transport costs once the bills are paid.

Living on $38 a day is so restrictive that, according to the Salvation Army's national Economic and Social Impact Survey 2018, Newstart recipients were left with only $17 a day to cover their expenses after paying for accommodation. This payment is pushing people into poverty. Another correspondent said:

Newstart is so low that all I have been able to eat is salad for the last 5 years. I can only afford to eat toast for breakfast and can't afford to eat anything for lunch. Newstart is causing me to be discriminated against when it comes to finding a place to rent as Landlords don't believe the Newstart payment will adequately pay the rent.

Medical visits are confined to emergency visits alone and even visits to ER at a public hospital, so I avoid any bill.

Raising the rate of Newstart, youth allowance and other income support payments will give these Australians a reprieve. It will allow them to afford the basics they need to attend job interviews with confidence. It will allow them to afford a semblance of a social life. It will allow them to afford things that we all take for granted. Another correspondent said:

Give ordinary people money and they will think: finally! I can afford to buy myself a pair of shoes! Great! I can afford to go to the dentist. Maybe I shall get a take away as a treat. All these things that would be possible …

What you've heard from these quotes about people's lived experience is that the low rate of Newstart is having a profound effect on Australians. It's affecting their mental health, which has been well documented.

Research also carried out by Relationships Australia found that the lack of employment and/or accessing the social safety net is associated with a high risk of loneliness for both men and women. In the many letters received there has been a sense of hopelessness strongly expressed.

Time and time again I have asked ministers in this chamber if they could survive on $38 a day. The truth is they don't understand what it means to live on an income support payment and what it is like not to be able to afford the basics. They don't understand the anxiety or the stress that comes with living from pay to pay. They don't understand the impact on the self-esteem of people who face the stigma of being on Newstart or the isolation that comes from not being able to afford to socialise with friends and family.

In a wealthy country like this, nobody should be forced to live in poverty or experience the poor quality of life that I have just articulated for you through people's lived experience. We don't need a review of the Newstart payment. We need an increase to that payment so that people are no longer forced to live in poverty.