[Greens-Media] Newstart bill an important step towards closing Australia’s growing income support gap

[Redman, Chris (Sen R. Siewert)]

24 March 2014

Newstart bill an important step towards closing Australia’s growing income support gap

The Australian Greens said today that their bill to increase Newstart and Youth Allowance would be an important step in closing the growing gap between Newstart and pension payments.

“With the latest round of payment indexation, the gap between pensions and Newstart is bigger than ever, as jobseekers and single parents remain trapped in poverty,” Senator Rachel Siewert, Australian Greens spokesperson on families and community services said today.

“The Government know that current indexation is unfair, but they’re unwilling to act to help those people who are struggling to pay the most basic of bills, preferring instead to help big miners through their attempt to repeal the MRRT.

“Our bill would increase the base rate of Newstart and Youth allowance by $50 per week, making an immediate differences to hundreds of thousands of households across the country. Importantly, the bill also ensures that Newstart and pension payments are indexed in the same way, to prevent the payment gap from widening in the future and to help people deal with increases to the cost of living.

“Indexation has been ignored by governments for years and years, and as a result, Newstart is failing to provide people with the support they need while they look for work or raise a family.

“This is especially concerning for older jobseekers, who we know spend a lot longer on Newstart than their younger counterparts. When you add issues such as age discrimination into the mix, people face the real prospect of living on Newstart in the years until retirement.

“The Government is ignoring the needs of our most vulnerable by attempting to cut important revenue streams like the MRRT, which would see a fair share of mining profits stay at home to help those people living in poverty,” Senator Siewert concluded.