Penny Allman-Payne (Queensland, Australian Greens) Share this | Hansard source

I rise to speak to the motion before us today. I want to acknowledge the thousands of people in this country who've been forced by Labor and coalition governments to live on poverty payments. It is bitterly disappointing that, by refusing to raise the rate of income support, this government has thrown up its hands at improving the lives of the thousands of people who receive that support.

I want to share some comments that a constituent has shared with me. They say:

When the current prime minister took office, I had the hope that he would take steps to make the system kinder for people like me. After all, he did promise that nobody would be left behind, and that he empathized with and understood people with disabilities. His mum lived in public housing on the DSP with disabilities of her own. However, he, and other staff in his cabinet who deal with welfare services have treated me with the same contempt as the LNP. The Prime Minister has ignored me.

I've gone from being able to afford a somewhat decent shop for us a fortnight, to barely getting through my shopping list, to not getting through it at all before i'm over budget and having to pick and choose what we eat based on what I can afford. 10 years ago I could get a large variety of fresh vegetables boxed for $5. Now, we can only eat frozen vegetables once a week. I've had centrelink suggest that I ask my partner for 'pocket money' like I'm a child.

The stress of knowing that I am less than $10 away from being cut off the DSP yet again is so heavy that it's something else that's on my mind a lot, keeping me awake and in a state of feeling physically sick …

I want to thank that constituent for sharing that story with me and enabling me to share it here in the chamber. Thousands of people in this country are forced by this government to live on desperately inadequate payments, including JobSeeker and the disability support pension. The cost of inaction on this is human. It is being kicked out of your home. It is not being able to escape domestic violence. It is starving because you can't afford food. It is freezing in winter and boiling in summer. The government needs to raise the rate above the poverty line.