Richard Marles (Corio, Australian Labor Party, Deputy Leader of the Opposition) Share this | Hansard source

Living in poverty is a full-time job, in terms of thinking through how every dollar is stretched in any given day. The necessities of life—food and shelter—which so many of us take for granted become a minute-by-minute problem to solve for people who are living in poverty. And $40 a day, which was the rate of Newstart prior to the COVID-19 crisis, is simply too little to live on. For a long time now, Labor has been calling for an increase in that rate.

The Social Services Legislation Amendment (Strengthening Income Support) Bill 2021 will provide for a $50 a fortnight increase in the rate on a permanent basis. In effect, though, the fortnightly rate will be lowered by $100 when the coronavirus supplement, which at the moment provides an additional $150 per fortnight, comes to an end. This increase will by no means end poverty, and no-one is suggesting that it will. It will stop people falling back, though, to the pre-existing rate of Newstart prior to the coronavirus crisis, so Labor will not get in the way of this increase. We note, though, that the government and its actions ultimately determine the outcomes here. The government is in control of the budget and the purse strings, and, in order to change the budget, ultimately we need to change the government. This is a matter to which Labor is committed. In government, it is something we would certainly seek to act upon.

In my contribution today, I particularly want to speak on the member for Barton's amendment to the bill. This amendment introduces a set of principles in relation to the mutual obligation provisions for jobseekers under the Social Services Act. Mutual obligation is a principle that Labor deeply supports. Indeed, it was the Keating government that first introduced the concept of mutual obligation. It established in 1993 the Committee on Employment Opportunities. At the time, in a green paper entitled Restoring full employment, this committee argued:

As the period of unemployment increases, so does the obligation on the Government to assist the unemployed person into a job, and likewise the obligation on the unemployed person to take more steps to find work and not refuse reasonable opportunities.

That principle of mutual obligation, as important as it was then, remains absolutely fundamental today, and Labor is completely committed to this principle. It does, though, need to be applied in a way which gives expression to the sentiment that was recorded in that passage back in 1993. Put simply, mutual obligation needs to be about government and those who are on unemployment benefits being able to work together.

Under the member for Barton's amendments, what is proposed is that the secretary, in putting in place the mutual obligation requirements, act consistently with a set of principles. These principles are articulated in the amendment that the member for Barton has put forward. The first is that the purpose of mutual obligation be there to help people get into jobs or to develop the skills necessary to get jobs. As obvious as that is at one level, that is something which needs to be legislatively put in place and be the fundamental underpinning of the way in which the secretary acts in terms of exercising mutual obligation powers. The second is that the powers are intended to be used as part of a mutual arrangement in which the Commonwealth undertakes a reciprocal obligation to help persons find work. This means that, in exercising powers in relation to a person, the secretary should take into account the availability of suitable jobs, the person's skills and abilities, and the person's personal circumstances. In part, this applies in the administrative arrangements that exist, but all of these ought to form part of the legislative set of principles which underpin the exercise of the secretary's powers.

It's also important to ensure, as a principle, that, in the exercise of the mutual obligation powers, we don't create a system where there is an unnecessary annoyance or burden for employers. That makes no sense at all, and these amendments make that principle clear. Nothing we have heard from the government in this space, in respect of the changes to the mutual obligation arrangements, offers us any sense of confidence that the mutual obligation arrangements will improve or, in fact, that the government is on the side of those who are looking for work.

If the best that the Morrison government can come up with for the two million Australians who are looking for work right now is a hotline for employers to report people who, regardless of the reason, haven't agreed to a job, they really are showing all the hallmarks of a tired, stale and empty eight-year-old government. Of all the bizarre and clueless things that have emerged from this government, a hotline to report people for refusing a job offer has to be near the top of what is now a very long list. Where is the hotline for those who have been systematically underpaid? That might have been a better place to start.

The truth is that this government has no real plans for the millions of Australians who have found themselves without the work that they want, through no fault of their own, as a result of this pandemic. It's critically important that, as a nation, we do better. The mutual obligation arrangements that have been set out in the amendment proposed by the member for Barton would assist greatly in doing that.

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