Budget shows politicians can’t be trusted with the lives of welfare recipients
The Labor Party leaves millions behind, it's time to take the power to set rates out of the hands of politicians.
Labor’s budget contains meagre changes to Centrelink payments, including an extra $20 a week for some welfare recipients.
We do not welcome this insult.
$2.85 a day is less than the tory party gave us and a 15% increase to rent assistance helps no one when rental prices will outpace that in a few months, these numbers are an insult.
A deficit or a surplus, it doesn’t matter to the communities who need housing and a rate above the poverty line to pay their bills and buy their food. We’re in a crisis and this government, like the last, simply does not care about those who are going to have to keep on suffering.
To the Labor MPs who aren’t happy about this pity payment. Speak up, your sympathies mean absolutely nothing if you don’t stand with us, so step out of line and call on your poverty party to do better.
It’s time to take the powers to set payments out of politicians hands, like the Fair Work Commission and the RBA, we need a commission that will make sure that no one is in poverty and the rates of payments are independently set to meet the needs of those in poverty.
People can’t just keep waiting, we’re already out of time.
Quotes attributable to Antipoverty Centre spokesperson and Austudy recipient Jay Coonan
Surplus or no surplus, it doesn’t matter. What matters is that people have a home, can eat and can keep themselves warm this winter, but this government has shown that it is ready to leave people behind.
We will not welcome poverty like the other organisations, unions, businesses and whoever else strangely accepts poverty. We will fight it, as we have done and we won’t stop until those who profit from this constructed misery are held accountable.
We need an independent commission to set the rates of payments for people and not politicians. Time and again they’ve proven that they do not have our interests at heart and willing to throw us aside for welfare for the wealthy and submarines.
Media contact: 0403 429 414 / media at antipovertycentre.org
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About the Antipoverty Centre
The Antipoverty Centre was established in May 2021 by people living on Centrelink payments to counter problems with academics, think tanks and others in the political class making harmful decisions on behalf of people they purport to represent.
We have deep expertise in poverty, disadvantage and unemployment, because we live it. Our goal is to help ensure the voices and rights of people living in poverty are at the centre of social policy development and discourse. We believe there should be no decision made about us without us.
The Antipoverty Centre is not aligned with any political party and does not accept funding that places political constraints on our work.
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