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

I rise to speak tonight on the lived experiences of people in our community receiving Newstart and youth allowance. Today in this chamber we started debating the Greens' fifth bill to try and raise the rate of Newstart and related payments. I have reached out a number of times to people in the community about people's experiences of Newstart and youth allowance. Yet again, in response to a call out on Friday, I received an instant response from people outlining their experiences. Many of them asked us to raise their voices in the Senate so that their experiences could be heard and understood by not only this chamber but the rest of the country. I'll take some time over the next couple of weeks, whenever I can, to outline some of these experiences.

People have outlined their personal experiences of what it's like to live on Newstart on less than $40 a day. The responses I've received are heartbreaking. I've heard from hundreds of people about their experiences—having to rely on charity for food, having to choose between paying bills and eating, not being able to afford public transport, constantly worrying about money and endless sleepless nights. All I can take from that is that living on Newstart isn't living. It's barely surviving.

One single parent shared the daily choices they make to put their children first:

What's it like to live on new start? Relying on others to help feed my children. Living off community groups for help a lot. Saying no to my daughter who has been asking to do dance for years because we can't afford it. Going without so my kids get what they need. Wearing clothes until they have holes…and then…still wearing them.

I heard from many older Australians about the isolation and discrimination they experience receiving Newstart:

I'm 64 on the 26th of this month and I don't go out, as it's hard living on Newstart. I go to where there are meals are supplied for free, as when you go shopping for food it takes quite a bit to keep yourself fed for the fortnight. I do volunteer for the Salvation Army and I can get food from them too. By the time you have utilities deducted via Centrepay it does not leave much for anything else. When you apply for jobs they discriminate against you for your age so the hope has gone.

And:

At 63 trying to get a job is near impossible it's very demoralising. I became socially isolated while caring for my terminally ill husband for 3 years and now on Newstart I have no money to get out and due to the government moving pension age to 67 I have another 4 years of this. Fed up with the condescending attitude of this government with their slogan of the "Best Social Welfare is a job" also that everyone on Newstart has another source of income I must be missing something, as I'm only on Newstart.

Many people with health issues find it impossible to afford the medical care they need on Newstart. One person told me of their horrific experience of being forced to live in their car:

I have cancer and am unable to work. I'm not eligible for DSP so after surgery in November, I was forced to live in my car. $545/ft is my current entitlement. I have recently been granted a Department of Housing property. The rent is $160/ft, but you don't get rent assistance while in Government Housing. I can't afford to keep my car anymore and I am virtually housebound due to complications. I am 44 and never thought that this is where I would be after working for the last 30 years and raising 4 children.

Another person told me about how they are unable to afford treatment costs for mental health issues:

I have mental health problems, which cost a lot of money in therapy visits, that still cost a lot despite being on medicare and having a mental health care plan. Trying to spend $150+ a week on top of rent, food, fuel, bills, medicine is impossible. I've heard the same from every other physically or mentally ill people. It's hard enough to look after yourself while earning less than what the treatment costs.

So many people shared their tragic experiences of being trapped on Newstart while applying for DSP—that's the disability support pension:

I live in a leaky caravan in my mum's backyard as I am a DV survivor and have been left with nothing and cannot afford to rent privately. I have severe PTSD and other issues which prevent me being able to work, study or train. I generally eat once a day, rarely drive anywhere more than ten kilometres from home as I don't have money for fuel. I don't socialise as I can't afford to go anywhere other than medical appointments. Currently going through the nightmare process of appealing my DSP applications. I am unable to afford to pay for a clinical psych to give diagnosis report for Centrelink for DSP appeal.

Trying to survive or get well under this system is impossible. Newstart does not provide enough for well people to get by on, let alone those of us who are not well and have additional costs to try and manage due to being rejected for DSP. As if this isn't enough—to be living below the poverty line—many people described the humiliating treatment they receive from job service providers:

I was on Newstart for two years and it was the most humiliating and degrading period of my life. My job service provider didn't know what to do with me, and I suspect they just "parked" me - I was bounced from case worker to case worker every few months, and one of them all but called me a dole bludger in front of a room of fellow jobseekers. I can't decide whether I was treated more like a child or an inmate, the way I was constantly babysat and condescended to and regarded with suspicion. All that and the group lessons on "job skills " were unfathomably pointless - I can't think of one thing I "learned" there that actually helped.

Another person said:

On Newstart, your life becomes an endless series of bureaucratic, pointless tasks. You are under constant threat of having your payment cut off. You are at the mercy and whim of any official who forgets to log an appointment or click a button. You are treated like a criminal who is not to be trusted.

This is just a handful of the hundreds of personal accounts I've received.

It is time to listen to the community. Australia is an incredibly wealthy country. We have an opportunity to choose the level of poverty we're prepared to accept. It is time to raise Newstart, because the experiences that I've outlined here have common themes: feeling degraded, the system not working, people who can't afford to get the diagnosis and treatment they need to then do a proper application for the disability support pension. I've heard of people who were told that they wouldn't need the disability support pension if they had certain treatments, but the treatments cost more than they get per week on Newstart. It's a complete catch-22 situation. Somebody told to go for treatment every single week, and the treatment costs $400. That's ridiculous.

This system is nonsensical. It is nonsensical that people are treated the way they are; that they're forced to live in a car when they have cancer. How, in a country as wealthy and supposedly compassionate as ours, can we treat people like this? I'll continue to make sure this Senate bears witness to these accounts. They're not stories; these are accounts of people's lives. They are suffering because they're forced to live on a payment that is indecent.

Senate adjourned at 22:17