Janet Rice (Victoria, Australian Greens) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

Today I have the privilege of sharing four stories of people who are struggling to survive on meagre income support payments and navigating our broken social security system. To start, here is Nicholas's story in their words about living on income support.

'Hello, my name is Nicholas. I'm 24 years old, and unfortunately in 2020, just before full COVID lockdowns, I was diagnosed with a prolactinoma—it's a brain tumour on the pituitary gland.

'They found it as I was having and still do have constant head pain, headaches, migraines and nausea. I've been on JobSeeker since, as I've had to stop working full time and also studying. I have applied for the disability pension three times now, and I've been declined every time, as there is a chance I could get better.

'This is completely unfair. I have supplied all the relevant information from my doctors, but they refuse to allow me to be on it. My doctors don't want to do surgery as currently it's not life threatening, just life impacting—quality of life has plummeted. The medication I'm on is helping a little bit, not enough that I could return to how my life was before.

'Not only does the amount need to increase but there needs to be an in-between payment between JobSeeker and the disability support pension. I have to constantly supply three-month medical certificates from my GP that I am still unwell to work, but if I'm delayed by not even one to two days, then the JobSeeker agencies swoop in and demand I see them, otherwise my payments may be cut. It is a shameful, humiliating experience having to deal with them and Centrelink.

'Being on JobSeeker, I receive approximately $700 a fortnight with rent assistance. My rent has just increased to $360 week. I live out of home with no chance of being able to move back home to my parents, as there just isn't any room.

'I am lucky in that I have a partner that's happy to support me, but it's humiliating having to live off your partner's income. My money from Centrelink goes straight into rent as well as trying to help out wherever I can with other bills. I can't even afford my own groceries, as the majority of it goes to my side of rent, and whatever is left generally gets eaten up by other bills—electricity and car-related expenses. I have gone through any savings I had, and most weeks I am left with not even $10 to spend on myself.

'Something needs to change, as our most vulnerable are living in poverty. How could anyone actually look for work that would help them improve their lives or their children's lives if they can't even provide food or a roof over their heads?

'How is anyone that is sick but not sick enough for disability supposed to focus on getting better when they are too busy trying to figure out how they are going to eat, where they are going to sleep.

'We should be doing everything we can to make the lives of everyone around us better. If something happened to you and you suddenly found yourself with no income but Centrelink, how would you feel? How would you feel if you were stuck on Centrelink because you couldn't work due to illness and could barely afford your rent?'

This is Kelly's story:

'Hi, I'm currently 45 years old, on the disability support pension, with chronic health issues and severe mental health issues, and I'm currently homeless due to my very limited income. It's near impossible for me to find another rental. I was evicted six months ago from my previous rental of nine years because the real estate wanted to double the rent and couldn't do so with me in the property.

'I'm currently staying in a caravan park, which is dangerous and very unsafe for my health, paying $350 per week, with no cooking facilities, no heating, no in-home bathroom facilities et cetera, and my health and mental health have never been so bad.

'I'm also now separated from my carer and my family members—again, dangerous to my health, as there isn't enough room here.'

And, now, this is Elizabeth's story:

'I'm a 33-year-old woman on the disability support pension. I get the privilege of paying about 7½ thousand dollars a year out of pocket for my treatment, and live in an NRAS studio apartment, which is $13,000 a year in rent. My annual income, according to Centrelink, for this financial year was $23,000.

'As a disabled person, that leaves me $3,000 a year to eat, pay utilities and travel for treatment. Homeownership is not a possibility for me. I've resigned myself to the fact that I won't be able to have a family, because I can't even afford to socialise with peers, let alone date.

'Yet I've had to endure robodebt collections; job service providers cancelling my payments because they didn't attend the meeting they set; being told to search for eight to 10 jobs a week, when I've supplied documents saying I'm in hospital recovering from having an organ surgically removed; threats of being forced into certificate 1 vocational training classes, when I have an undergraduate degree.

'The problem is not that I don't want to work or that I can't navigate recruiting processes. The problem is that, to the Australian government, my value as a human is tied directly to my productivity and the amount of income tax I can pay. I want to work. I know I've got skills and experience in communication, advocacy, event planning and executive assistance. I've run my own business in the past. I've got a tertiary education.

'Job service providers would tell me to apply for factory work, despite physical impairments, an inability to get to the job for the 5 am start time and my inability to actually complete that type of work. Recruiters wouldn't consider my application seriously anyway, yet I'd be bullied by the provider into applying to meet my obligations and not have payments cut.

'How can any government say they are representing the people who vote for them when they intentionally look at a group of people who are physically incapable of work, through age, impairment or an inaccessible job market, and decide to intentionally force them to endure being bullied by service providers, or to have to call Centrelink and beg to receive payments well below the poverty line. Quality of life is non-existent. It's humiliating, dehumanising, psychologically harmful and, as proven by robodebt, potentially fatal to have to endure.

'I've thought on more than one occasion: I literally cannot afford to be alive right now.'

Finally, I would like to share the experience of someone who was on income support while they were studying:

'I left a full-time position in 2016 to attend university, relying on Centrelink to support my studies, as I was unable to find an appropriate part-time position willing to be flexible around my uni schedule.

'Despite dumpster diving for food and living in cramped shared accommodation, income support was so low that I often couldn't afford the bus to class, which severely affected my ability to study.

'Due to my poor standard of living, I got really sick and could not access the diagnostic tests my GP recommended, as there were out-of-pocket expenses that were not covered by Medicare.

'I suffered with an undiagnosed treatable illness for nearly five years because Centrelink is too low to access medical care. This obviously prolonged my degree and therefore cost the government more money to support me while I finished it.

'The income support over COVID meant that I could access the tests I needed. I was diagnosed and went through surgery in late 2020. Since then I've been able to finish my degree, get a job in my field and resume paying tax.

'My heart breaks for people still trapped in poverty while the cost of everything skyrockets around us. Please do something.'

Thank you to Nicholas, to Kelly, to Elizabeth and to everyone who has shared their stories with me and given me the opportunity to share them here in the Senate tonight. These stories reveal an income support system that is broken, a system that is punishing people in poverty and failing to dismantle barriers to employment.

It is time for the Albanese government to listen to people on income support. It is time to raise the rate of all income support payments to above the poverty line and to abolish punitive mutual obligations. Come on, this new government. It is time.

Senate adjourned at 20:36