Jenny McAllister (NSW, Australian Labor Party, Shadow Cabinet Secretary) Share this | Hansard source

Surviving below the poverty line is a reality for millions of Australians. In Australia, the poverty line is $433 for a single adult living alone or $909 a week for a couple with two kids. When you think about the basic payments that you make each week for rent, bills, groceries and petrol, $433 would barely see you make ends meet. But over three million people in Australia are currently living on less than this, including 739,000 children. The holiday season can be a pretty stressful and isolating time if you don't have a lot of money. If you don't have a lot of money, it's basically impossible to find extra money for Christmas presents or decorations or lunch. So at this time of year, while lots of us are counting down the days to the holiday season and looking forward to spending time with family and friends, too many people on low incomes, including Newstart and youth allowance recipients, find themselves feeling anxious, stressed and isolated.

You'd think that might be a priority for a government that's in search of an agenda. You'd think that implementing a real plan for the economy and providing Australians with the services and support that they need to lift them out of poverty might be an opportunity for the government. That's not what we've got. The Morrison government is actually planning further cuts to Newstart. Just yesterday, the government's social security integrity bill passed the House of Representatives. There's that word 'integrity' again. It's funny, isn't it? The government loves to talk about integrity. Why is it that, under the people over there, integrity only applies to working people, poor people and middle-income people. It certainly doesn't seem to apply to Minister Taylor, it certainly doesn't seem to apply to the Attorney-General and it certainly doesn't seem to apply to Mr Morrison.

This bill will cut Newstart by doubling the liquid assets waiting time from three months to six months. That means Australian workers who are made redundant with $18,000 in liquid assets will be forced to wait six months before they can access income support. That isn't a lot of money, not if you need to stretch it out over six months and not if you need to look after children or other family members.

These changes will disproportionately impact middle-aged and older workers who've recently been made redundant and people who live in regional areas where unemployment is higher than the national average. Imagine Joan, the kind of person I meet a lot, a 55-year-old woman who's been made redundant from her job in regional New South Wales. It's pretty difficult if you're an older woman to find a new job in regional New South Wales. And this woman's liquid assets total $18,000, but her assets actually aren't money just sitting in the bank waiting for her to get it out. She's previously lent money to her children and she's owed money from a previous job, and that all counts. She's left now with no income because she's been made redundant, and she needs some support. She has worked her entire life. She's paid taxes. She's never accessed social security. But she's not going to get support from the government under their proposed arrangements. I tell you what: her story would not be uncommon. In fact, her story is very common, because half of all Newstart recipients are 45 years or older and 25 per cent of people on Newstart are over 55. Last month at Senate estimates, the department fessed up that the government's proposed six-month waiting period will impact 10,000 Australian workers each year for the next four years—that is 40,000 Australian workers.

What is this about? Australians are doing it tough. Wages are stagnant. Jobs are less secure. This is a cut to the safety net, and it is a low blow. And, once again, it demonstrates a government that is completely out of touch. I look at the senators opposite and I wonder how often the senators opposite do go and speak to people in regional Australia, do hear their stories, do hear their anxieties, do hear their worries—I really do. I wonder how you could contemplate supporting legislation of this kind that is so cruel, because the government continues to run a cruel and inhumane agenda. It is entrenching millions of people in poverty, and, with the holiday season approaching, it is time for the Morrison government to show some compassion and some leadership and deliver some much-needed support to the people who need it.