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

Yesterday marked the start of Anti-Poverty Week. This year the theme of Anti-Poverty Week is raising the rate of Newstart. This is one of the most effective ways we can reduce poverty in Australia. Newstart is too low, and everybody, except this government, seems to acknowledge that. Newstart is currently $559 a fortnight or $279.50 a week. This means a substantial portion of people on Newstart are living below the poverty line. The inadequacy of Newstart is causing hardship and poverty for people across Australia.

But on 20 September 2019 the rate of Newstart increased by a whole $3.30 a fortnight! This equates to an extra 24c a day. The government will tell you that the rate went up and that Newstart gets increased twice a year. This is one of their favourite lines, but let me ask you: do you think an increase to Newstart by 24c a day is a genuine increase? Everybody I've spoken to has said no.

When this increased a few weeks ago I asked people what they would spend their 24c a day on and here's what some of them said. 'My Newstart allowance went up by my rent assistance went down so the 24c a day increase will not really make a difference for me.' 'Great, it will go towards the $5 a week that my rent is rising by.' 'Saving for a stamp to send a thank you letter to Scott Morrison.' 'A phone call to Centrelink to tell them I should actually be on DSP.' 'Save it each week and in a 12 months' time you will have $87.60 you can retire on.' 'Saving it, not spending it all at once. To do so would be impulsive and foolish.' 'I think I will stimulate the economy by saving up and getting a haircut in three months.' 'The quality of my life has now improved. I have 24c more per day.' 'Wonderful, let's make it a treasure hunt. Let's go to the shops and see what we can buy for that amount.' 'Can't even buy a packet of chewies. If I save up I can buy two packets at the end of the fortnight.' 'If you save up this for nine days you can afford an eight pack of Wizz Fizz sherbet—the absolute peak of nutrition.' 'This is a difficult one to answer. Maybe I could get a gumball each day. That will really help me get into work.' 'I was going to spend it on a cup of coffee, but I will have to share it as I can't afford to get one by myself.' '$3.30, now I can afford an extra can of baked beans each fortnight.' 'I might put the heater on for five minutes.' As you can hear, some of these responses are in fact very funny and for some people that's the only way they can respond, because this is so ridiculous.

This increase of just 24c a day, so proudly lauded by the government, is quite simply outrageous. Twenty-four cents a day is a joke. You need to call it out for what it is. It's not a genuine increase, and the government must think the Australian community are idiots if they think they can sell such a ridiculous message.

Scott Morrison's claim, the Prime Minister's claim, that Newstart increases twice a year is misleading and disingenuous. It's a distraction from the fact that the government doesn't want to raise the rate. I personally don't think it's working and I think people see right through it. An overwhelming number of people are now joining the campaign to raise Newstart. Businesses, social service organisations, unions, industry groups and everybody with a heart and who cares about our community knows that Newstart needs to be increased immediately. And, of course, we do have some members of the coalition who also support an increase.

Despite the government's claim of an increase to Newstart, the truth is that there has not been a real increase to Newstart in 25 years. One of the reasons Newstart has remained so low is that it has a different indexation arrangement to other pensions and allowances in the social security system. Newstart is indexed to the consumer price index—and community standards have increased substantially since 1994, which is when Newstart was increased—and the consumer price index has not been keeping up with the rising costs of living.

In contrast, pensions are indexed to either the consumer price index or the pensioner and beneficiary living cost index, whichever is the higher. This means people receiving pensions, like the age pension or the disability support pension, have seen their payments increase more, in line with the increasing cost of living. Because of these differences in indexing arrangements, the gap between the allowances, pensions and wages has grown significantly over the past few decades. That's why I've introduced another bill to try to raise Newstart. This bill will end the poverty trap, because that's what we're in. It's important to keep talking about this during Anti-Poverty Week, because the rates are so low that people become stuck in Newstart.

The Foodbank report, which came out just yesterday, showed that, in a country as wealthy as ours, nearly 22 per cent of people are food insecure. Just this year, tax cuts for the wealthy were passed through this place, yet one in five people are going hungry. Of course, many of the people who are going hungry are children, and there are parents who are skipping meals in order to feed their children. This country doesn't even have a definition of poverty. How can we address it properly if we don't have a definition of poverty and a strategy to reduce poverty in this country? The amount of $3.30 a fortnight is not enough to bridge the widening gap that has developed with Newstart. It won't pull people out of poverty. It's not enough to help people meet the rising cost of food, medicines, bills and everyday basics. Last week, we started hearings for the Senate inquiry into the adequacy of Newstart. One witness last week said she eats three or four proper meals a week. The rest are cereal or porridge. Another told us that she gets rent assistance as well as Newstart but is left with $3.02 a day when all her costs are removed.

This Anti-Poverty Week we are going to continue to fight for a real, proper increase to Newstart. Increasing Newstart by at least $75 a week would make a huge difference to the lives of many Australians. Because we've been campaigning for that $75 a week for a while, there are now very clear calls for it to be higher than that. The more the government resists, the more people are getting further and further behind, the deeper their poverty is becoming and the greater will be the cost of making sure that people are able to catch up through an increase to Newstart. Such an increase would mean that people would be able to afford to eat three meals a day. They would have the bus or train fare to go and try to find work and to attend job interviews. They would be confident they could pay their electricity bill and not have to juggle bills.

We are a wealthy country. We can afford it. As somebody said during the inquiry last week, the government is collecting taxes; they're using those taxes to pay for the surplus. The witness said they'd prefer the surplus and their taxes that are building that surplus to be spent on increasing Newstart. It's a possibility; it's reachable; it's touchable. The government just has to acknowledge that Newstart is too low and stop demonising those people on Newstart. Raise Newstart. Address poverty. This Anti-Poverty Week, you can make a real difference by acknowledging that Newstart is too low and committing to raise the rate of Newstart. There are many of us in this place who have been campaigning on this issue for a long time, and we won't stop. Neither will the growing number of businesses, unions, workers and community organisations that all acknowledge the failure to increase Newstart and the impact it has on our community and on individuals within our community. We need to make sure our safety net really is a safety net. We need to raise the rate.

Senate adjourned at 22:09