Josh Burns (Macnamara, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Hansard source

Like my colleagues on this side of the House who have spoken before me, I reiterate the fact that the Labor Party will of course not stand in the way of this very modest increase to the JobSeeker payment, but at no point throughout this debate should anyone be under the illusion that this work is complete. At no point should we be under the illusion that this job is done and that this rate is sufficient for Australians to live on. It's not. It's not enough. Even with the extended amount, it is not enough. A rate of $40 a day means Australians are living in poverty, and a rate of less than $44 a day is going to mean Australians are still living in poverty. On this side of the House we have a choice to either support this bill, the Social Services Legislation Amendment (Strengthening Income Support) Bill 2021, or not. The government have made it clear that they're not interested in negotiations, and, therefore, this is the rate that we have to choose from. Of course we support raising the amount, even to this very insufficient level, but that doesn't mean that we are comfortable with where it's at right now.

For all of the Australians who are currently receiving the JobSeeker payment, what this is going to mean, week to week, is that they will actually have less money once this supposed increase comes in. At the moment, with the coronavirus supplement, they're getting $150 a fortnight on top of the JobSeeker payment. But the removal of the coronavirus supplement, even with the $50 permanent increase to the JobSeeker payment, will effectively mean a cut of $100 per fortnight. What we also know is that there aren't enough jobs for the number of job applicants in this country. People are applying for jobs because they have to, not because they have a legitimate and realistic chance of getting one.

The most important point that I would like to make is that we are still in this pandemic. When the Treasurer and the Prime Minister stood up in April last year and announced the increase to JobSeeker and created the JobKeeper payment, it was all in recognition that the pandemic was altering the way in which our economy was working. Well, the pandemic is still doing that. We are still in a pandemic. Only this morning, the Prime Minister was making announcements about how we are helping our Papua New Guinean family to deal with one of the worst outbreaks that we have seen in this entire pandemic. It is not over. Speak to any Queensland health professional and they will tell you that the crisis is still looming on our doorstep. Yet this bill makes the assumption that it's all done, it's all over and it's all in the past. I really hope that we will not face another lockdown, anywhere in this country. But if we do, this bill will mean that Australians will be living below the poverty line during that lockdown.

Earlier in the pandemic, when this rate was increased, I spoke to many people. I spent a lot of time in the many public housing towers in Macnamara, speaking to the many amazing people who live there. For many of them, the increased supplement was a life-changing experience that not only meant that they were no longer scrimping and saving every last penny; it also meant that they could do things like buy a bit of meat for their dinner, for the first time in years.

We need to make a decision in this place about what sort of living standards we want Australians to live under.

One of my final points is this: to live on less than $44 a day means that the amount of housing available to you in the private rental market in Australia is extremely limited. Less than one per cent of the private rental market is available to Australians who are on the JobSeeker payment—less than one per cent. During the pandemic, at the very top rate of JobSeeker, when the coronavirus payment doubled the JobSeeker rate, that went up to about 11 per cent of the private rental market. That meant that more and more Australians were able to access the private rental market and live with a bit of dignity. They could live in a rental property and stand on their own two feet. This bill is going to mean that, again, fewer and fewer Australians are going to have access to stable, secure housing.

So we, on this side of the House, say: of course we're not going to stand in the way of this bill—but under no circumstances are we admitting that the job is complete; under no circumstances are we accepting that this is enough for Australians and that the work here is done. It is not a source of pride that this is the largest increase since the 1980s. It's a reminder that the work is still yet to be done and that, in Australia, our fellow Australians deserve to live with dignity and deserve not to live in poverty. Unfortunately, this bill is going to mean that too many will be living without dignity and still below the poverty line.

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