‘Wake-up call’: Senate report urges income support reform in the budget

A report into Australian poverty has recommended the government target rising inequality in next week’s budget. 

The interim report from the Senate’s poverty inquiry, released on Thursday afternoon, paints a grim picture of the state of inequality in a country where 3 million live below the poverty line.

Committee chair and Greens Senator Janet Rice said the Albanese government needed a “wake-up call” and urged it to quit “tinkering around the edges” of the welfare system.

“If Labor does choose to raise the rate of JobSeeker for people over 55, that’s a welcome step. But we don’t accept that we can’t afford to raise the rate for everyone,” she said.

“In opposition, Anthony Albanese is on the record saying that the rate of income support is inadequate, and Labor supported previous Senate inquiry recommendations to raise the rate of Centrelink payments.

“Are they now saying that it’s only inadequate for those over 55 years of age? It’s hard to believe the Labor Party holds any core values if they can so easily call for one thing in opposition and do the opposite while in government.”

The standing committee on community affairs describes in the report the vicious circle that can be created by “multiple layers of disadvantage”.

“For example, lived experience testimonies highlighted that poverty can lead to poor housing, poor housing can lead to negative health outcomes, poor health can lead to poor educational outcomes, which can lead to reduced employment options … and unemployment can lead to financial hardship, which can lead back to poor housing,” the report says.

It made only one recommendation: that the government “take urgent action so that Australians are not living in poverty”.

That may be achieved by “[prioritising] policy measures in the upcoming May budget that specifically target rising inequality and entrenched disadvantage, including through the income support system”.

Greens members on the committee suggested two additional recommendations that didn’t make it into the report.

The party would have liked the report to recommend lifting the base rate of all income support payments to $88 per day, and that the government establish a national definition of poverty. 

“The Australian Labor Party has long had rousing rhetoric on helping the disadvantaged … [it] cannot continue to present itself as a progressive political party while enacting a centre-right agenda that provides tax cuts for billionaires and leaves people living below the poverty line,” Greens members wrote in a separate document seen by Crikey. 

The official report says the committee has seen “evidence … that the current levels of income support payments are inadequate and lead to deprivation and entrenched disadvantage”. 

“The committee acknowledges that there is significant evidence before it regarding the relationship between income support payments and poverty, as well as the need for reform,” the report says. 

Treasurer Jim Chalmers is expected to raise JobSeeker payments in Tuesday’s budget, but only for those over 55, according to a 7NEWS report. 

“You’ll see on budget night what we intend to do about this … one of the troubling developments is that the growth particularly in women over 55 in our unemployment numbers,” Chalmers told reporters earlier in the week.

“And we do think that’s a problem. It is something that concerns us, particularly for women over 55 who find it harder to get back into the workforce, particularly for the long-term unemployed. 

“If you’re over 55 it’s harder to find a job even when unemployment nationally is 3.5%.”