Senate debates

Monday, 11 November 2019

Motions

Poverty

3:58 pm

Photo of Jess WalshJess Walsh (Victoria, Australian Labor Party) Share this | | Hansard source

I move:

That the Senate—

(a) recognises that, according to the Poverty in Australia Report 2018:

  (i) in Australia, 968,000 people from wage earning households are living in poverty,

  (ii) as a proportion of all Australians living in poverty, this group has increased from 32% in 2013-14 to 38%, and

  (iii) more than half of these households are families with children;

(b) notes that:

  (i) 1.9 million Australians are looking for work or for more work,

  (ii) this Government has presided over the worst wages growth on record, and

  (iii) Australia's economic growth is the lowest in a decade; and

(c) calls on the Federal Government to combat working poverty by getting wages moving, raising the rate of Newstart, ceasing their attacks on Australian workers and their unions, and by reversing the cuts to penalty rates to ensure that Australian families have a better quality standard of living.

Question agreed to.