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

I rise to kick off the debate on this very important issue. The fact is that nobody in our community should be living in poverty. The fact is that no-one on income support should be condemned to live in poverty. But the terrible fact is that many, many people are living in poverty in this country, particularly those who were trying to survive on the former rate of the old Newstart payment—now jobseeker—of just $40 a day. The government knows that the old jobseeker/Newstart rate is below the poverty line. The fact that they moved so quickly—and, as I have already articulated, we were strongly supportive of them moving quickly—to double the jobseeker rate shows very clearly that they knew that people cannot survive on $40 a day, which was the old rate of Newstart. If jobseeker drops below $40 a day—or, with the energy supplement, less than $41 a day—at the end of September, the government will most likely be condemning over a million Australians—who will still be unable to find work due to no fault of their own, as the government pointed out earlier—to live in poverty.

I can tell you now that $40 a day does not provide an adequate standard of living, but you don't just have to take it from me. Take it from the hundreds of people who submitted to the Senate inquiry into the adequacy of Newstart, the report of which was tabled on 30 April. They told us about the daily dilemmas of how to cover the basic costs of essentials, despite rigorous and careful budgeting. The new rate of jobseeker with the supplement being paid, at $557 a week, is well below the average minimum wage of $740 a week. Even with the supplement, Anglicare found through their annual survey of rental affordability that only 1.5 per cent of properties were affordable for someone on jobseeker. This demonstrates that the new rate of payment will not act as a disincentive to work, but it will help keep people not living in poverty. In contrast, it will allow people to better meet the daily costs of living while looking for work.

How is the government going to manage the social and economic costs of poverty come September? When government MPs start to talk about budget constraints around jobseeker, they fail to take into account the devastating costs of poverty. Those people who, during the Senate inquiry, very bravely gave us their accounts of what it was like to live on the old Newstart rate told us of going hungry, of skipping meals—particularly parents skipping meals so they could feed their children. People couldn't pay for their medications. Some were on multiple medications, so, even with the healthcare card and the lower rates of payment for medications, people were still skipping taking their medications because they couldn't afford them. They couldn't afford to keep the heating on during winter. They talked of sitting with blankets around them, going to bed early and turning off the lights. You can't cover rent or mortgage payments when trying to survive on $40 a day. It is, quite frankly, impossible. You do not and cannot look after your mental and physical wellbeing. You can't address your mental health issues when you're surviving on $40 a day. The more it continues, the more poverty becomes a barrier to work. Poverty, of course, is one of the social determinants of health. Increased rates of poverty in Australia mean more people are relying on charities for support. It means more pressure on our health systems. More and more people will be stuck on income support long term.

Previous modelling undertaken by NATSEM found that, if Australia adopted the World Health Organization's recommendations to tackle the social determinants of health, it could potentially support extra Australians into work. The modelling was done some time ago, so the figures will be higher now, but at the time the estimate was that 170,000 Australians could be supported into work, which could save $4 billion each year in income support, see around 60,000 fewer Australians admitted to hospital annually and result in 5.5 million fewer Medicare services each year. So, if people are not living in poverty, not only does it help their own wellbeing but it helps the wellbeing of the nation.

Retaining the rate of jobseeker and youth allowance will not only stop the devastating impacts of poverty but also help stimulate the economy. In 2018, Deloitte Access Economics found that raising Newstart by $75 a week would help stimulate the economy by $3.3 billion in consumer spending. It would also create 12,000 jobs, and those jobs would particularly help regional Australia. Lower- and middle-income households are likely to spend every cent of the extra money they receive, especially if they have been living on $40 a day. That supplement is being spent and is very much appreciated. The $750 coronavirus cash payments to households and the supplements have had a significant stimulus effect. We've already seen the uptick in consumer spending just with the payment of the $750. We know that when you're on a low income you spend the money, and that stimulates the economy. The ANU Centre for Social Research and Methods recently found that, due to the coronavirus stimulus payments, those on low incomes are less likely to be finding it difficult or very difficult to cope on their incomes.

We saw the benefits of the stimulus package, as I said, in the uptick in consumer spending. It's not surprising that increases in income support help boost the economy and consumer confidence. Many Australians have little to no savings and struggle to pay bills and rent. Last year, Deloitte found that half of Australia's people don't have any emergency funds to fall back on in a personal financial crisis.

Today, the Minister for Finance said that the economic stimulus introduced by the government not only has financial benefits but also provides a psychological boost, an economic lifeline, to people in their hour of need. Well, the hour of need is going to continue after September. It is not suddenly going to just bloom roses for everybody. Unfortunately, not all of the people who have become unemployed are going to be able to find work, come 25 September. The reality is that people are still going to need payments to survive on. They're going to need a decent and fair social security safety net, just as the Treasurer and Senator Cormann, the Minister for Finance, pointed out today—that our social safety net needs to be underpinned by decency and fairness. Dropping people onto $40 a day, come 25 September, is not decent; it is grossly unfair.

Inadequate rates of income support payments have harmful effects on people's physical and mental health. Therefore, dropping people onto an unfair payment would have devastating and harmful impacts on people's physical and mental health. It was only last week that new modelling demonstrated, unfortunately, Australians' poor mental health and raised very deep concerns about the potential suicide rate in this country. We need to be making sure we are looking after people's wellbeing—that we're looking after people's mental wellbeing. The impact of dropping people onto very unfair payments of $40 a day will have devastating impacts on people's physical and mental wellbeing.

If the government is serious about doing whatever it takes to stimulate the economy and doing whatever it takes to protect people from the devastating impacts of a recession, they simply must retain the rate of jobseeker payment and youth allowance and create a decent and fair social safety net for this country, which includes making sure people are no longer condemned to live in poverty on income support.