Another Liberal Politician Went On ‘Q&A’ And Insisted The Welfare System Is Actually Fine
Another well-paid MP insisting they could live on $40 a day.
Tim Wilson is the latest Liberal MP to insist it’s possible to survive on the Newstart allowance, telling last night’s Q&A panel that it can be done as long as people are willing to make “sacrifices”.
Wilson was one of the panellists on Monday night’s episode, and was asked by an audience member about recent comments made by his colleague Julia Banks, who said she could live on the $40 a day allocated to Newstart recipients. Banks was slammed as being out of touch by members of the Labor party, as well as pretty much anyone who’s ever had to pay rent in Australia.
But while Wilson conceded that living on Newstart is “very, very difficult”, and that he wouldn’t be able to do it “with my current lifestyle,” he nevertheless maintained that “yes, you can live on it”.
The member for Goldstein in Victoria also said that he disagreed with leading economist Chris Richardson, who recently described Australia’s welfare system as “unnecessarily cruel”.
“Every dollar that’s taken to give to some people, means it has to be taken from other people,” said Wilson. “People who are on [Newstart] are always going to want more money, but the reality is that money has to be taken from someone else.”
It was at this point that GetUp! co-founder Jeremy Heimans chimed in.
“Tim, you’re absolutely right that the money has to come from somewhere else,” said Heimans. “The $65 billion of proposed business tax cuts [would be] a fantastic place to take the money.”
Cue a massive round of applause from the Q&A audience.
Meanwhile, Labor MP Linda Burney disagreed with Wilson’s assertion that you can live on the Newstart allowance.
“I could not live on $40, and anyone that says that they can, comfortably, they are living in a bubble,” said Burney.
When will the Newstart rate be lifted to support people who are out of work? @TimWilsonMP @jeremyheimans & @LeylaAcaroglu respond #QandA pic.twitter.com/MzMYKlVAzp
— ABC Q&A (@QandA) May 7, 2018
Wilson’s remarks come shortly after Minister for Jobs and Innovation Michaelia Cash said that she too could live on $40 a day. “Certainly as a backpacker … I lived off a very, very minimal amount of money,” said Cash.
And sure, if you’re hitchhiking and eating instant noodles three meals a day, $40 is probably fine. But throw in rent, utilities, transport and groceries, and it suddenly becomes a little bit more difficult.