Janelle Saffin (Page, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Hansard source

I want to make a contribution on the Newstart discussion, and it is a matter of public record that it is something I have been speaking about for quite some time. My belief is that Newstart needs to be raised, and one of the things that I have to do as a member of a large party and as a member of government is persuade my colleagues to that view. Coming up to the budget this year, as I have said, this is something we should look at. When the single parent changes came in first of all under the Howard government and flowed on under Prime Minister Gillard, I said I did not have a problem with the policy per se. But what I do have a problem with is that Newstart, for anybody going onto it, is too low to live on. I have also said I would like to see Newstart change in other ways, particularly in helping people back into the workforce, and take account of local issues—transport, child care and all the different factors in different areas and regions. And I have got some particular ones in the seat of Page that I am very mindful of.

I have also made statements on Newstart. On 29 August 2012—and this has not really changed—I said that, according to a report published in March 2012 by the Melbourne Institute of Applied Economic and Social research, the poverty line for a single person, including housing, is $341.80. Newstart falls $136 short of this—that is, for somebody who is on the absolute basic payment and not getting any other benefits. In 1997 Newstart was almost at parity with the age pension. While the age pension has experienced incremental increases and a historic increase under the federal Labor government—and its last increase was $33 per week in the 2012-13 budget—Newstart has fallen to only 65 per cent of the pension in just 15 years, with the gap between the two having widened to $106 per week. The age pension with supplements is at parity level with the poverty line, but Newstart falls well below the standard. Newstart is currently only 18 per cent of the average wage which, according to the OECD, makes it the second lowest unemployment benefit in the developed world. Living on $35 per day or $245 per week, as pointed out by Minister Shorten, is an incredibly difficult ask; that was on Sky News Agenda on 29 July 2012. Yet this is what is expected of Newstart recipients; this amount must stretch to cover all essential items. Those who have advocated reform include but are not limited to ACOSS, the Business Council of Australia, the Australian Council of Trade Unions, the Australian Human Rights Commission, the Australia Institute, UnitingCare, the Salvation Army, the St Vincent de Paul Society, the Australian Youth Affairs Coalition, COTA, Anglicare Australia and many people in this place, including some of my backbencher colleagues.

The Newstart allowance is part of a broader package of support which includes a basic allowance, supplementary payments, Commonwealth rent assistance, concessions employment servicing and access to training, family tax benefits for those with children and assistance with child care. In the 2012-13 budget, the federal government announced additional measures to further help those in receipt of allowances, including investment to improve childcare assistance to help unemployed parents receive training and skills needed to enter the workforce, and a new supplementary allowance to help manage the unexpected cost-of-living expenses. This provides up to $210 for singles and $175 each for couples, and that is welcome, but we need the Newstart to be more.

Other initiatives which supplement the allowance include the tripling of the tax-free threshold, intensive support for mature age job seekers et cetera. In my electorate of Page, I am talking to people who are on Newstart, and some people who are on the parenting pension who have gone onto Newstart, and I am trying to assist them there. I know that an increase in Newstart would go a long way to assisting those people.

Debate adjourned.

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