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

I present the report of the Community Affairs References Committee on the extent and nature of poverty in Australia, together with accompanying documents, and I move:

That the Senate take note of the report.

In September 2022, I first proposed the idea in this place of a national inquiry into poverty, and today, after nearly 18 months, I'm pleased to present the final report of the Senate Community Affairs References Committee's inquiry into poverty. This inquiry was established almost 50 years to the day after the historic Henderson commission of inquiry into poverty, and like the Henderson inquiry, this inquiry investigated poverty at a national level and gathered significant evidence from people, organisations and communities about poverty in Australia. The committee heard from witnesses across the country at nine hearings and a site visit.

I'm incredibly proud that the Greens established this inquiry and I'd like to thank my colleagues for their support and participation in the hearings. I'd also like to thank my fellow committee members for their work on the inquiry—in particular, my deputy chair, Senator Marielle Smith—and, of course, the Community Affairs secretariat for the countless hours of work that they have put into this inquiry and the report over the last 18 months. And most of all, I want to thank everyone who participated in the inquiry, particularly people with direct experience of poverty who shared their testimonies. It can be incredibly difficult to share the traumatic experience of living in poverty, but it is immensely powerful and important for parliamentarians to hear your stories and understand the real impacts of government policies.

What was made clear throughout the inquiry was that in the nearly half a century since the Henderson inquiry, policy failures and inaction from government after government have left Australia even deeper in a poverty crisis. Evidence presented to the committee made clear that while there were many complex and intersecting structural drivers of poverty in Australia, the current crisis is largely reflective of the failures of our social security system. Australia's social security system should provide people with a social safety net; it should ensure that no-one is living in poverty, and everyone has the opportunity to live with dignity. Yet in hearings held across the country and in submissions, the committee heard personal and devastating testimonies from individuals who are trapped in poverty due to the inadequate rates of income support.

Abigail shared:

Energy prices went up, inflation went up and the DSP did not. I had to start making difficult decisions. I couldn't save money, it was just impossible. There were some fortnights where I had to decide whether I was buying myself groceries or paying electricity bills.

Chibo said:

I've never felt so mentally tortured as when I was unemployed, starting with Centrelink treating you like you're the last dirt from the street. Just coming into the whole situation … really impacts on your lifestyle, on your nutrition level, on anything.

Jo told us:

I am 58 years old. I have been waiting for a total hip replacement for 14 months. I get $683.40 per fortnight on JobSeeker. It should be more than that, but Centrelink have not recognised my new lease that I have uploaded three times or answered my calls … I am going to lose this tooth because I can't afford to see a dentist.

And Genevieve said:

I have registered for public and social housing. The local housing organisation tells me that the waitlist is 15 years. There's no transitional or priority housing available. They also told me on several occasions that my son and I will be homeless … apparently there are mums and babies, mums and young children, living in cars in Australia, in this affluent country. I don't have any family or friends to stay with, so our situation is dire. I'm under enormous stress. I'm both physically and mentally exhausted.

It is completely unacceptable that in one of the wealthiest countries in the world people like Abigail, Chibo, Jo and Genevieve and so many others are having to live in poverty. Urgent and transformative change is needed.

The inquiry's interim report that was tabled before the budget last year centred on the experiences of Australians living in poverty and examined the extent and human impact of poverty and its relationship with income support payments. This final report focuses on Australia's social security system, the impacts of poverty on First Nations people and children, and policy mechanisms to alleviate poverty.

In response to the evidence presented, the committee makes 14 important recommendations to the government. These include recommendations for the government to take urgent action so that Australians are not living in poverty by considering the suitability, adequacy and effectiveness of the income support system. There are also specific recommendations regarding changes to the disability support pension, Commonwealth rent assistance, mutual obligations and the employment services system.

Other recommendations include actions to reduce the disproportionate impact of poverty on First Nations communities, including committing to the principle of a First Nations led co-design of all First Nations employment services; asking the Economic Inclusion Advisory Committee to review the adequacy of the remote area allowance and to continue to reform income management with a view to replace compulsory income management schemes; and measures to reduce child poverty, including significant investment to ensure children have access to quality early education, a review of all student payments and the child support scheme.

These recommendations are from a majority report of the committee. I, as chair, and the Labor senators on the committee are supportive of these recommendations. The Liberal senators are putting in a dissenting report, so it's unclear to me as to whether they support these recommendations. But the reality is that the agreed recommendations still fall far short of the transformative action needed to eradicate poverty in Australia.

As a member of the Greens and chair of this inquiry, I have put forward a suite of additional recommendations which would seriously address the poverty crisis that we face. Throughout the inquiry there was clear evidence that the simplest, most effective and most urgent step to reduce poverty was to raise the rate of all income support payments significantly. Yet sadly, I note that this is not a recommendation of this report. Another glaring omission in the main report is the lack of any recommendation calling on the government to develop a national poverty measure. Overwhelmingly, the committee heard evidence of the importance of national poverty measures and targets to eradicate poverty. Having no committee report recommendations on a national poverty measure, or anything specific on raising the rate, reveals the lack of willingness by the two major parties to fully acknowledge this and take the serious action that's needed to address the poverty crisis.

In response to the limitations of the committee recommendations, I, as chair, put forward a suite of additional recommendations that would effectively transform the social security system, target entrenched disadvantage and build on the work of the Henderson inquiry. Notably, these include clear actions for the government: to lift the base rate of all income support payment to $88 a day; to ensure that poverty alleviation, including developing a national measure of poverty, is a key focus of the Economic Inclusion Advisory Committee; to make a national commitment to reduce child poverty; and to abolish all mutual obligations immediately. Further recommendations are to review the adequacy, effectiveness and culture of Services Australia and the Department of Social Services, and to take critical steps to target the high rates of poverty in First Nations communities by increasing the rate of remote area allowance, expanding access to Services Australia services in remote areas and abolishing all forms of compulsory income management.

My recommendations also address other issues, including the age of independence, the disability support pension, parenting payment and Commonwealth rent assistance. These recommendations build on the work of advocates, organisations and researchers who have been advocating tirelessly for an end to poverty in Australia. They also reflect longstanding calls by the Australian Greens. Unlike the Labor and Liberal parties, the Greens have consistently called for a significant increase in income support and for a fairer social security system. We believe that a socially just, democratic and sustainable society rests on the provision of an unconditional liveable income, complemented by the provision of universal social services.

Before the election, Prime Minister Albanese made a promise to leave no-one behind. But since Labor came into government we have seen them implement a series of centre-right policies that benefit big corporates and the well-off, and leave people living in poverty without access to essential health services and struggling to access affordable housing. This inquiry has laid bare the depth and breadth of the poverty crisis in Australia. The Labor government cannot just dismiss this evidence, as they and so many governments before them have done with the Henderson inquiry. Australians cannot afford another 50 years of meaningless rhetoric and policies that trap people in poverty. For the sake of the wellbeing of our entire community, I call on the Labor government to implement both the recommendations of the main committee report and my chair's recommendations in the upcoming federal budget.

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