Kerrynne Liddle (SA, Liberal Party, Shadow Minister for Child Protection and the Prevention of Family Violence) Share this | Hansard source

Over three million Australians are currently impacted by poverty. It's complex and multifaceted; it has no one central cause or driver, and it arises in many different situations. Poverty refers to people not only on income support payments but also to those experiencing intergenerational poverty, new poverty and even the working poor. Poverty is not a simple concern and it has no simple solution.

It's unfortunate that after all the work of this committee over a long period of time, the committee's central focus in the report is to raise the rate of income support. In this report the government and the Australian Greens have put ideology before results. They've reduced poverty to a dichotomy of oppressor and oppressed. It does a disservice to diminish poverty to such a simple dimension. This false assumption fundamentally misunderstands the issue and does nothing to truly alleviate poverty in Australia.

Poverty is on the rise, and it's on the rise for one key reason. The economic mismanagement by this government has been part of that. The cost of mortgages is up, the cost of groceries went up and the cost of electricity has gone up under this government's watch. Under this government's watch, cost of living has skyrocketed, and every Australian knows that. While distracted by its failed $450 million Voice referendum, Labor ignored the fact that the number of working poor was exploding on its watch. People with a mortgage are paying an interest bill that is $24,000 a year higher after a dozen interest rate hikes resulting from Labor's inflation failures. These additional costs have been passed on to renters. All in all, Australians are thousands of dollars worse off as Labor's economic mismanagement further reduces their disposable income.

This is why the working poor—a demographic too often overlooked and invisible in the majority report—is exploding in size. There are Australians who purchased their home in an effort to plan for a future, and they should not be ignored. Until the Prime Minister offers real cost-of-living relief, not tax cuts worth only $15, there will be no real alleviation of poverty in our nation, just as there were no real increases in real wages. Fifteen dollars a week is not a genuine offering when it's already eroded by the cost of living—and it's not even available until 1 July. That's not cost-of-living relief.

Recommendations 1, 2, 3 and 7 of the report refer to increasing the payment rate for those on JobSeeker and similar payments and pensions and for those who rely on Commonwealth rent assistance. These recommendations mark the government's and the Greens' primary solution to poverty: to raise the rate for all income support payments. The government passed many of these propositions last year in the Social Services and Other Legislation Amendment (Strengthening the Safety Net) Bill 2023. The coalition supported some but not all recommendations. We did not support four recommendations. Increasing support payments misunderstands the purpose of welfare. JobSeeker is called such because it is for people seeking jobs. JobSeeker exists to enable Australians who are struggling to find work. Ultimately, the best form of welfare is a job. Increasing support payments can disincentivise working. Increasing welfare will never create new jobs. Supporting small business supports jobs, and a job offers a buffer to poverty.

With Australia close to full employment, the Prime Minister must now be focused on ensuring that JobSeeker enables increasing numbers of people to find work. JobSeeker is not a wage replacement; it's a wage supplement. As of March 2023 there are 800,000 JobSeeker recipients. A vast majority—around 75 per cent—show no earning, zero, meaning that they participated in no part-time work. This is simply unacceptable, and increasing payments will not fix that. The relevant minister, Amanda Rishworth, should listen to her department, who, in a submission to the Community Affairs Committee, noted:

Economic participation is the best way to alleviate poverty and disadvantage. This is widely supported in the academic literature. Economic growth leads to the expansion of opportunity and reduces occurrences of poverty.

It's a shame to see the government's final recommendations flying in the face of that submission.

Income support must continue to be JobSeeker and not 'job replacer'. Rather than just throwing money at the problem, the coalition supports amending JobSeeker's salary thresholds. It is a win-win for jobseekers, for employers and for taxpayers. If the income-free area for those on JobSeeker and related working-age payments is increased, that would not only allow current income support payments to be maintained but also allow recipients to gain valuable work experience and supplement their income without those opportunities impacting their payments.

These benefits could extend beyond just the unemployed. As of September 2022, around five million Australians were receiving income support payments, the bulk of these age pensions. Groups such as elderly dependants and veterans should be able to access the threshold and increase and boost their incomes, too. Such a policy also goes further than any recommendation in the final report on alleviating the pressures currently faced by the working poor.

The report also proposes the removal of mutual obligation. That's a terrible idea. Mutual obligation is basic to the welfare social contract. It refers to the agreement between the government and the welfare recipient that requires recipients to actively seek work in order to receive payments. Removing this further disincentivises entering the workforce. Keeping it forces those on income support to be engaged in the job market and increases the likelihood that they will find future employment. It gives impoverished Australians the means to focus on building and maintaining the skills and capacity they need to transition to the workforce.

I have been an employer of hundreds and hundreds of Australians, many of them coming off welfare, and the people that get to the front of the line are people that have some experience and training. They've shown some initiative, they've done something to show that they've got work ethics and they want to work. But yet again the Albanese government, in cahoots with the Greens, has published recommendations that will produce the exact opposite of that desired effect.

I've spoken at length about the best way to alleviate poverty, and that is to incentivise employment. But much more needs to be done. Intergenerational disadvantage can be broken. In fact, this is one area where the government can take immediate action and reap the benefits. With better training and education, all Australians will be better equipped for the workforce, and a skilled Australian industry will be better for it. Building on the skills Australians need to transition to the workforce will help them remain there. Education and training increases opportunity for employment. It increases the opportunity for promotion and it limits the scourge of poverty. It's that simple. Yet it's not being sufficiently enforced by this government.

In the Northern Territory, average attendance in remote schools is less than 50 per cent, and I reckon that figure is woefully overrepresented. As long as this continues, the cycle of poverty and welfare dependency will not be broken. End the poverty of low expectations and end the culture of welfare dependency.

Effective income management is also critical to ending all types of poverty. The Greens, the Labor Party and Senator Pocock should travel to those areas that they did so much damage in when they removed the cashless debit card. Just go there and ask the locals. You can't see it from your comfortable homes in the cities, thousands of kilometres from where the action is. The abolition of that card has led to income support payments being misused. Instead of money for food and family, it can now be spent on grog and gambling. Addiction will ensure that.

Crime in rural communities is ravaging some of those townships and their people. The data from former cashless debit card trial sites bears this out. In Bundaberg, domestic and family violence offences rose 24 per cent. In Kalgoorlie-Boulder, which I just recently visited, breaches of violence and restraint orders shot up by 48 per cent. Impoverished communities are more dangerous communities. Increased prosperity and ambition make all Australians safer, and it's good for all Australians. Yet this government continues to obfuscate and hide the statistics that make this obvious. For the six cashless debit card trials, the Albanese government is yet to provide data that demonstrates the lives of people living there have been improved since the card's removal. There must be more extensive and accurate data and information available if we are to end poverty in Australia.

The report is heavily flawed and could produce perverse outcomes. Australia needs more men and women in its workforce. Raising income support payments with no mutual obligation will do just the opposite. Children need to be at school, not on our streets. Without quality education and training, poverty won't go away.

I encourage all senators in this place to think carefully about the consequences. I seek leave to continue my remarks.

Leave granted; debate adjourned.