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

I, and also on behalf of Senator Faruqi, move:

That the Senate—

(a) notes that the November 2019 Rental Affordability Index Report found that:

  (i) a single person on Newstart needs to pay over 77% of their income on rent to live in any capital city area,

  (ii) 43% of low-income households are currently in housing stress, compared to 35% in 2008,

  (iii) rents for a single person on Newstart are severely to extremely unaffordable across all states, in both metropolitan and regional areas, and

  (iv) rental stress pushes single people on Newstart to the outer fringes of our cities making it harder to access employment and training; and

(b) calls on the Federal Government to:

  (i) immediately increase Newstart and Youth Allowance to allow people in our community to have dignity of choice, and

  (ii) immediately address housing stress experienced by people on low incomes across Australia.

Question agreed to.