Rachel Siewert (WA, Australian Greens) Share this | Hansard source

I welcome the opportunity to talk about the impact of the cost of living in this country as it hurts Australians, particularly those who are on low incomes, are on income support and rely on our social safety net. The gap in inequality is growing in this country, as I have spoken about on many occasions in this place, particularly thanks to this government's policy, which always favours the well-off and hurts the most vulnerable. We saw that last night in the latest budget.

People on lower incomes, in the lower income quintiles, in this country are struggling, and they continue to struggle. As I said, there are plenty of reports now coming out about inequality—both wealth inequality and income inequality. A report released by ACOSS late last year showed that an estimated 2.9 million people live below the internationally accepted poverty line, and I have no doubt that this will worsen as the government continues its slash-and-burn approach to our social safety net. Again, you could see the evidence of that last night. The government continue to want Australians to believe that trickle-down economics will float all boats and have an outcome for those on low incomes, when, in fact, the money simply does not trickle down. At a time when things are tough for Australians, our social safety net is essential to ensure that people are properly supported when they are struggling.

It was Senator Malcolm Roberts who raised this matter of public importance, and I have to say I find this extremely hypocritical of him and the One Nation party, as they have an appalling track record when it comes to looking after Australians who are struggling to make ends meet and those who have to survive on income support. I would like to draw to the Senate's attention an interview that Senator Hanson did with Phillip Coorey from The Australian Financial Review in October last year. The article reported her as saying:

"Right across the board, not only in welfare, I see a big waste of money and we actually have to rein it back in."

The article continued:

She said successive governments, in a bid to win votes, had allowed welfare to become a way of life rather than a helping hand and 'tough decisions' were needed.

'If we are going to be able to, in the future, support those who are truly in need, like the sick or the aged, we've got to do something about it now,' she said.

The article went on to say that Ms Hanson said:

I want the money to be put into hospital waiting lists and schools. Infrastructure in this country is ridiculous.

Further, the article said:

Ms Hanson acknowledged many who voted for her party were on low incomes and some were on welfare.

And it quoted Ms Hanson as saying:

I'm sorry, I can't please everyone and not everyone's going to agree with me but I have to make decisions I believe are right for this country and future generations.

The article continued:

She said her supporters were not the type to tolerate 'welfare bludgers'.

To me, by using those words and other words that One Nation have said in this place, they assume everybody on income support is a bludger.

I do not use the word 'welfare', because this government and many others have tried to denigrate the word 'welfare'; so I talk about our social safety net, because that is what it is. It is our social safety net that ensures that the most vulnerable members of our community have the support they need, particularly in the face of increasing inequality and, for those people, the rising cost of living. When you are on a low income, the cost of living makes a difference. It makes an essential difference. People have a right under our legislation and under international obligations to have access to social security. Australia has a responsibility to ensure that we have a social safety net.

Irrespective of this matter of public importance debate today, people need to know that the One Nation party in the Senate will not protect our social safety net. In fact, they take every opportunity they can to denigrate our social safety net and try to rip giant great holes in it, or assist the government to rip giant great holes in our social safety net. This issue needs to be considered in the context that there are people who are on income support or on very low incomes who are struggling to make ends meet—and those are the people we need to be investing in.