Josh Wilson (Fremantle, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

My question is to the Minister for Social Services. How will social services measures in the government's 2024-25 budget help ease the cost-of-living pressures for Australians right around the country?

Amanda Rishworth (Kingston, Australian Labor Party, Minister for Social Services) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

I'd like to thank the member for Fremantle for his question and for his continued advocacy on behalf of families and seniors in his electorate. The Albanese government is committed to delivering responsible cost-of-living relief for Australians, including targeted support for pensioners and income support recipients. In this budget we've taken action to provide more cost-of-living assistance and to strengthen our social security safety net. To support renters that rely on Commonwealth rent assistance we are increasing the maximum rates by a further 10 per cent. This will benefit close to a million households. This increase is on top of the increase that we delivered in our last budget and it is the first back-to-back increase to Commonwealth rent assistance in more than 30 years. It means, combined with indexation, we will have increased the maximum rates of rent assistance by more than 40 per cent since being elected.

We are also extending the eligibility for the higher rate of JobSeeker to people who have been assessed as only being able to work up to 14 hours a week because we know these people have additional barriers to working. It builds on our changes in the last budget to extend the eligibility for the higher rate of JobSeeker for people aged over 55.

Of course, our government last night committed to continuing to freeze the social security deeming rates for a further 12 months. This keeps the upper deeming rate well below the cash rate so that part-pensioners along with other income support recipients will keep more of what they earn. Now, these might be the billionaires that those opposite are referring to. Well, these part-pensioners deserve some extra cost-of-living support and that is what we are providing. Now, of course, it depends on individual circumstances but, for example, a pensioner with deemed assets of $250,000 could benefit by more than $2,300 over the course of the coming year. Of course, this has been backed in. National Seniors Australia has said that our budget delivers a trifecta for older Australians, referring to our cost-of-living support.

In addition to the steps we're taking in my portfolio, the government are delivering further cost-of-living relief, including through energy rebates for households and cheaper medicines, and of course on 1 July all Australian taxpayers will receive a tax cut, helping people keep more of what they earn. Unlike those opposite, who are full of negativity and have zero plan, Labor will always do what it can to provide people with more support, ease cost-of-living pressures and put downward pressure on inflation.