Peter Whish-Wilson (Tasmania, Australian Greens) Share this | Hansard source

I've genuinely lost count of how many times my colleagues and I have had to stand up in this chamber—certainly over the 12 years that I've been here, and Senator Waters has been here longer than me and would probably say the same thing—and fight for the disadvantaged in this country who are living below the poverty line. Most of that 12 years has been under the Liberal-National party government.

It's so disappointing to see, in their first term of government, the Labor Party not acting on the evidence that's been so clearly provided that this government needs to do better to look after the most disadvantaged in this country.

You can verbal me as much as you like, Senator Brown, but, like you, I've been here for a long time, and this issue never gets solved. We never come together as a parliament to look after our most vulnerable. I remember the 'age of entitlement': Joe Hockey's first budget—the lifters and leaners—and the presumption that somehow it's your fault if you're doing it tough in this country. I remember, in the lead-up to the 2013 election, standing with my colleagues outside Centrelink offices most days with single parents who'd had their entitlements cut—that was under a Labor government—and the realisation that no two people are the same. I remember hearing the heartbreaking stories from all sorts of individuals. Many of them had lost their way because of circumstances completely out of their control: the death of a partner or the onset of mental illness—a whole range of things. It was hard not to feel deeply compassionate for these people and to wonder why the government doesn't do more. Yet, here we are, 12 years later, still having the same debate.

I want to compliment my colleague Senator Allman-Payne for the work that she's done on this bill. I also want to put on record the legacy work that former senators Janet Rice and Rachel Siewert did. In fact, before I came in here to speak, my staff put up an earlier video of Senator Siewert. Some of you may well remember Senator Siewert's passion for this issue and how often she went to bat for those doing it tough. Senator Siewert did so much work in the committee system on many issues, particularly raising the rate. Rachel Siewert went straight from being a senator to continuing to work with the most disadvantaged in our communities. I hope she's watching today. I hope you're not too frustrated, Rachel. The fight goes on.

I want to say a few words on the substance of this bill. The first issue is partial capacity change. A slightly higher payment is available for JobSeekers with an assessed partial capacity of work under 15 hours per week, indicating a very low or limited capacity. This will affect a tiny portion, at 4,700 recipients, out of a total of 814,765 jobseekers. The higher rate is $833.20, which is still $283.10 under the disability support pension. This is a cohort that should be receiving the disability support pension over time. The decisions of the government to erode the disability support pension over time have put this cohort on JobSeeker in the first place. Currently, 43 per cent of JobSeeker recipients have a partial capacity to work less than 30 hours a week.

The second part of this bill relates to Commonwealth rent assistance. This change amounts to $9.40 per week, or $1.30 per day. The Greens support the cause of advocates to raise the rate of CRA, Commonwealth rent assistance. However, this should be in conjunction with an increase of all payments, to be more effective. In June 2023, 43 per cent of all CRA recipients were still in housing stress, indicating issues with the payment.

I want to go through a couple of key stats for senators. More than three million people in Australia are currently experiencing poverty, including one in six children, or over 760,000 children, in 2019-20; the current rate of the JobSeeker payment is below all poverty lines used in Australia, and always has been since I've been in this place; 25.5 per cent or 549,000 single parents are in poverty; 36 per cent or 3.7 million households have experienced food insecurity in the last 12 months—this is a 10 per cent increase from 2022, or 383,000 more households; more than 2.3 million households are severely food insecure, defined as actively going hungry, skipping meals or going days without eating; data showing suicide rates for people on unemployment payments fell 37.4 per cent when payments increased during the pandemic; and, in 2019, 30 per cent of all suicides in Australia were people receiving the disability support pension and Newstart.

I want to say a couple of things in relation to this. Firstly, I want to acknowledge the work that my colleague Senator McKim is doing on this issue of food security in Australia through the Greens' supermarket inquiry, looking at the power of the duopoly in this country and the price gouging which is making the cost-of-living crisis worse for a lot of Australians—as well as, may I say, making life hell for a lot of farmers across this country. This is also an issue the Greens—and other senators in this place, may I add—have been campaigning on since I've been here, for the last 12 years, but still nothing has changed. Governments refuse to act on corporate profiteering at the expense of the poor in this country. We know we can do a lot better. While increasing the social safety net and looking after people are essential, there are a lot more structural things we also need to be doing.

I also note that yesterday Senator David Pocock—and I'll acknowledge him in the chamber here today—organised a forum, mostly for the blokes in this place to come along and learn more about what men can do about the scourge of violence against women in this country. One of the speakers—a clinical psychologist who has worked on this issue with men, especially younger men, for many years around the country, trying to change behaviours—said there is a very stark and high correlation between men who commit acts of violence against women and their physical and mental health and their economic situation.

What the government has to understand, when we're talking about any health issue, is that things like Newstart and the social safety net are not just an investment in helping people live, pay their bills and put food on the table; they are an investment in our community and in human beings. They are an investment in each and every person who needs assistance. If we make their life easier, we reduce the anxiety in in their life, and 'anxiety' is a very important word when it comes to a whole range of social issues we face today. If we reduce the anxiety and other mental health issues by making people more supported and giving them the ability to live above the poverty line then—while I hate to throw a neoliberal argument into the mix—it will reduce the costs of this country in the long run, across a whole range of indicators. This is an investment in people that the Greens are asking for, and we're very disappointed that, in the last two years, the government have only found it in themselves to introduce this bill, which barely helps even a fraction of the people in need, into this place.

I want to finish by talking about the messaging of this. It's very simple and it's very, very important. This bill won't even touch the sides of the cost-of-living crisis being felt most acutely by people on income support payments. Many of those people that I've talked to would like a job. They desperately don't want to be in their current predicament, and we need to do everything we can to help them get out of that. JobSeeker is a starvation payment, and millions of Australians are currently living in abject poverty. Those statistics I went through are just some of the relevant statistics, and they are black and white and stark. A bill to move less than one per cent of jobseekers onto a slightly higher payment is not a solution; it's actually cruel. Income support is so inadequate that people can't cover their most basic needs. Some are showering only once a week because they can't afford hot water, others can't buy essential medication, and a third of Australian households are struggling to put food on the table. I was doorknocking not that long ago in my home town of Launceston, and I met a lady who had no teeth. I was talking to her, and she told me that she's been waiting for over 3½ years to see a dentist. She literally has not been able to get on a public health list to see a dentist in 3½ years.

They're the kinds of reminders that we need as senators, leaders and decision-makers in this country. When you meet people who are in such a situation and so clearly disadvantaged and down on their luck in life, you ask yourself: 'What could I do to help? Why haven't I done more?' I certainly ask myself that. So $1.30 a day will do nothing for some renters, when, as Senator McKim just pointed out, average rents are climbing more than $40 a week.