An irresponsible budget: No meaningful relief in sight for millions locked in poverty
The treasurer’s spin and rhetoric is not enough to trick poor people into believing this budget will meaningfully ease the cost of living crisis that has escalated and crushed us for at least two years.
Community-led groups will hold a press conference in the Parliament House senate courtyard at 11am on Wednesday 15 May. Representatives from the Antipoverty Centre, Australian Unemployed Workers’ Union, Better Renting, Black People’s Union, National Union of Students and Renters and Housing Union, will be available for comment, as well as students and other people who rely on Centrelink payments to live.
There are a raft of measures in this budget dressed up as an answer to the cost of living crisis. But in every way that matters, Albanese has failed people in poverty on his third and final opportunity to “leave no one behind” before he faces an election.
We reiterate: There is no such thing as a “responsible budget” that leaves people in poverty. Welfare recipients are not causing inflation and nor should we be paying the price for it.
Antipoverty Centre spokespeople are available to comment on measures related to: housing, homelessness and Commonwealth Rent Assistance; energy bill relief; the No Interest Loans Scheme; Centrelink payment rates including the new JobSeeker rate for people with limited work capacity; employment policies and “mutual” obligations including Workforce Australia, Disability Employment Services, social enterprise job placements, the ‘Real Jobs Real Wages’ pilot and cuts to the employment fund; the continuation of compulsory income management; Services Australia resourcing and Centrelink staffing levels.
Every single one of these measures is deeply flawed, and entrenches problems we have communicated to government repeatedly. Their insistence on pushing ahead with policies that are good for headlines but not those of us they’re supposed to be for is shameful.
Quotes attributable to Antipoverty Centre spokesperson and JobSeeker recipient Jay Coonan:
Welfare recipients are tired of being told the pennies we are thrown will somehow hold back the crushing weight of housing and other living cost increases we are dealing with.
We are unsurprised by the treasurer’s underwhelming performance tonight, but that does not stop the despair we and so many people in our community are feeling.
We are further behind now than when Anthony Albanese took office and promised us things would change for the better.
What use is an “energy bill relief” payment when my energy provider can turn around the next day and increase the amount I pay for electricity, as many welfare recipients experienced last year? What use is a Commonwealth Rent Assistance “increase” that has already been outstripped by my rent increase this year?
Quotes attributable to Roxanne Sleigh, parenting payment recipient from Ballarat:
I am highly disappointed but not surprised that the government continues to do very little to help the most vulnerable in our country.
We are in a cost of living crisis and people are going without food and having to make tough choices as to what's more important, food or rent.
No one should have to pick and choose in a rich country like ours. Why do the rich get to go home and have 5 meals a day and live the flash life when there are millions of Australians suffering and homeless?
Please help us, I beg, I have a child with disabilities and I have to sacrifice a lot to try put a meal on a table every fortnight. I can barely keep the fridge full. BRING US ABOVE THE POVERTY LINE AND STOP MUCKING ABOUT.
Media contact: 0413 261 362 / media at antipovertycentre.org
Key statistics
The number of people on unemployment payments has steadily increased since September 2023, pushing more and more people on to a poverty payment. One in 5 people are employed but still receive a partial payment because their wages are so low.
The Henderson the poverty line for a single person with no children is currently $597 per week.
The JobSeeker payment is currently $381 per week for a single person with no children, which is $216 below the poverty line. Youth Allowance is $320 per week.
Disabled people 50% higher adult-equivalent disposable income to meet the same standard of living as those without a disability.
There are more than 900,000 people on payments with compulsory “mutual” obligations (42.9% have a disability or chronic health condition. In Workforce Australia, 14.5% are Aboriginal and/or Torres Strait Islander and 16.9% are parents).
2,471,455 payment suspension notices were issued in the 12 months to December 2023. 429,865 of the 1,628,330 (26.4%) total payment suspensions applied were imposed on First Nations people. 12.6% of total payment suspensions applied were imposed on parents with children in their care.
2.6 million people who rely on a Centrelink payment do not own their home.
An estimated 58% of the total payments made to Commonwealth Rent Assistance recipients who are on JobSeeker this year will be spent on rent ($3.6 billion in rent from an estimated $6.1 billion in payments). $16.4 billion a year in welfare payments is paid to landlords each year just from Centrelink recipients who receive CRA.
Crisis support and counselling services
If you need support you can seek guidance, counselling or crisis help from the below organisations or talk to someone you trust.
Suicide Call Back Service – general: 1300 659 467
SANE Australia – general: 1800 187 263
13YARN – for First Nations people: 13 92 76
National Counselling and Referral Service – for disabled people: 1800 421 468
Headspace – for young people: 1800 650 890
QLife – fo LGBTQIA+ people: 1800 184 527
Full Stop – for people who have experienced sexual harassment and assault: 1800 385 578
Embrace Mental Health – multilingual service: embracementalhealth.org.au
MensLine – for men: 1300 789 978
Brother to Brother – for First Nations men: 1800 435 799