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

Yet another week has gone by with governments at all levels pretending that people on income support do not exist. Last week, ACOSS found that almost 90 per cent of people on the lowest incomes in lockdown are missing out on disaster payments. It's heartbreaking to think of the hundreds of thousands of people who are locked down with no additional help, treated as though they are invisible.

Last year, people accessing the social safety net were considered worthy of extra support, and, for a brief time, we saw what happens when those people have access to income support that is above the poverty line. This year, people with the least are being abandoned by the Morrison government. It's outrageous that the government thinks it's acceptable for people to survive on $44 a day, especially during a pandemic when job opportunities are severely limited and people need extra to be able to buy the basics. The mental strain that people are going through because of lockdown is significant, and, for those without the means to get by, it is life-threatening.

Through the Jobkeeper program the government has handed over billions to big corporations who don't need it and who have made huge profits. And the government can't even make sure that those on the lowest incomes can survive through what is now months and months of lockdown. I'm so worried about people in lockdown on income support. I'm also furious about it. It is just outrageous that the government doesn't think people on Jobseeker are worthy of additional support.

The government can fix this. They have the means and they can make it happen. They just choose, over and over again, to punish and abandon people living below the poverty line on the Jobseeker payment. These people are living in poverty. They deserve additional support.