Richard Di Natale (Victoria, Australian Greens) Share this | Hansard source

My question is to the Minister for Finance, Senator Cormann. In his budget speech last night, the Treasurer concluded by saying:

As Australians, we must not leave our children worse off.

That is not fair.

That is not our way.

At the same time, your budget introduced staggeringly punitive measures for young people, especially those struggling to find work. My question, on behalf of the 730,000 young people affected by changes to Newstart, is as follows: how is a younger person who is currently looking for work but lives in an area of high youth unemployment and has received no income at all for six months supposed to eat, supposed to pay rent and supposed to clothe themselves? Minister, is condemning someone to poverty now 'our way'?