Welfare recipients despair over poverty inquiry failure
"No one left behind" rings more hollow with each passing day under the Albanese government
The Antipoverty Centre categorically rejects the Senate Community Affairs Committee’s pathetically inadequate recommendations arising from its inquiry into the extent and nature of poverty in Australia. The report was tabled in the senate last night.
The poverty inquiry report is just the latest in a long line of deep disappointments faced by welfare recipients under the Albanese government.
At the same time as living cost increases are far outstripping changes in Centrelink payment rates, the government is actively pursuing higher unemployment, condemning more of us to live in deep poverty for reasons beyond our control.
Quotes attributable to Antipoverty Centre spokesperson and JobSeeker recipient Jay Coonan
These recommendations are an insult to the hundreds of welfare recipients who contributed to the inquiry and to the millions of people living well below the poverty line in this country.
Despite having a Labor-Greens majority, the committee couldn’t even bring itself to make the single most obvious recommendation that can drastically cut poverty overnight: higher income support. In 2020 the Morrison government showed just how easily this can be done.
Instead, we got yet another list of proposed reviews and tweaks.
The welfare system is killing people. Our lives are getting harder, and it’s clear that most politicians do not care whether we live or die as a result of the policies that leave us sick, hungry, homeless and suicidal.
Poverty is not a “wicked problem”.
We don’t need more reviews, we don’t need more consideration, we just need all Centrelink payments increased to at least the Henderson poverty line and we need it now.
Media contact: 0403 429 414 / media at antipovertycentre.org
For information about the Antipoverty Centre’s proposals to meaningfully address poverty both now and into the future, view our submission to the inquiry here:
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
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.