Andrew Wilkie (Clark, Independent) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

My question is to the Prime Minister. Prime Minister, on 31 December unemployment benefits are scheduled to return to $40 a day. To many people this will be a devastating start for the new year, impacting their ability to pay for rent, food and clothing. No wonder they're sick with worry. That $40 a day is unacceptable is not in dispute; for instance, the BCA, ACOSS, the RBA governor and even former PM John Howard have all argued against the old Newstart rate. Please, Prime Minister, will you today commit to the principle of unemployment benefits being above the poverty line or, at the very least, no less than the current JobSeeker rate?

Scott Morrison (Cook, Liberal Party, Prime Minister) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

I thank the member for his question. As I've stated on numerous occasions now and as I'm sure the member is aware—and the Treasurer has done likewise, as has the Minister for Families and Social Services—a further decision about the ongoing arrangements for the COVID supplement beyond December will be considered before the end of this year. There is a mid-year statement that is due in December, and obviously this parliament will be rising in that first week of December, or thereabouts, which would require any such change to the COVID supplement to be legislated by that time. So we will be considering those issues about the going forward arrangements for the COVID supplement and its level prior to parliament rising, enabling us to bring that change into the parliament so it can be done before we rise at the end of this year. That will deal with the COVID supplement and its ongoing arrangements. I've been pretty clear, and lent into it pretty heavily, that people can expect the COVID supplement to be going forward beyond the end of this year. The precise level and the arrangements that will sit around that are matters that the government is considering now, and we will be doing so over the next couple of weeks.

This is a position which, I note, is actually supported by the opposition. The shadow Treasurer, when asked in July about what number he would put on the level of JobSeeker payments and the COVID supplement, said:

We haven't been prepared to put a number on it. One of the reasons why we want the Government to update the budget is because the Government needs to take into account all sorts of considerations about the state of the budget and state of the economy. We expect that the new JobSeeker rate will be lower than what it is right now, but it should be higher than the old Newstart rate.

I've quoted him completely. The point I'm making is simply that what we've learnt during this COVID-19 recession is that we have to avail ourselves of the most recent information, as things change very quickly. We will consider all of that information. But the primary decision that we have to make before the end of this year is the ongoing rate of the COVID supplement, beyond the legislated period, which is at the end of December this year.