A Government Minister Reckons A Newstart Raise Would Be Spent On Drugs, So Why Bother?
Tell us what you really think.
It seems like pretty much everyone agrees its time to #RaiseTheRate of Newstart to give jobseekers a leg up. Everyone from Labor and the Greens, to social services agencies and John Howard and Barnaby Joyce agree that Newstart is way too low.
But you know who doesn’t agree? The Coalition government. Scott Morrison and his team have been stubbornly refusing to raise the rate for months now, all while attempting to implement policies that would punish jobseekers.
And we may have some explanation as to why the government is being so stubborn, thanks to comments from Minister For Social Services and Families Anne Ruston.
Speaking at a forum on single mothers in South Australia earlier this week, Ruston said that a rise in Newstart is likely to be spent on drugs and booze. The rate of Newstart is a problem for many single mums, who are pushed off the single parenting payment when their children turn eight. But Ruston said that raising Newstart isn’t the answer.
“We can’t just keep on adding money to this bucket, because we’re not making a difference,” she told the forum, as reported by the Murray Valley Standard. “Giving [people] more money would do absolutely nothing… probably all it would do is give drug dealers more money and give pubs more money.”
“What we need to do is take a proactive approach to how we look at social welfare, look at social cohorts and what those cohorts need. We’ve got to be fair to the people who pay for it.”
Speaking on Sky News this morning, Ruston attempted to clarify her comments.
“[I made] the comment that if somebody had an alcohol addiction then giving them extra money on Newstart was more likely to result in that money being spent at a hotel. Giving more money to someone who finds themselves in a situation of isolation is not going to prevent their isolation,” she said.
“We need to come up with more inventive and innovative ways to deal with the barriers that people find themselves in going into the workplace and that is what the government is absolutely focussed on doing.”
Jeremy Poxon from the Australian Unemployed Workers Union says Ruston’s comments are unfair, and only serve to demonise unemployed Australians.
“Minister Ruston continues to cast vile, unsubstantiated aspersions about Newstart recipients — demonising them as drug addicts who don’t deserve a liveable income,” he told Junkee. “The fact of the matter is that hundreds of thousands of Australians are starving under her watch and the minister is refusing to do anything about it.”
What Would Actually Happen If We Raised Newstart?
We shouldn’t have to say this, but Ruston is obviously wrong about what a rise in Newstart would mean for some of the most vulnerable Australians.
First of all, there hasn’t been any real money added to the Newstart “bucket” in 25 years. And second, the Australian Council of Social Services has found that raising the rate would not only alleviate poverty, but would provide some much needed stimulus to our struggling economy.
The Government should #RaisetheRate of #Newstart to act on poverty and stimulate the economy #auspol People on Newstart have to spend every cent so an increase would immediately flow into the economy. Deloitte finds would lift economy by $4 billion: https://t.co/vEvTFFxxRq
— ACOSS (@ACOSS) September 3, 2019
The report by Deloitte Access Economics found that raising the rate of Newstart by $75 a week would create an additional 12,000 jobs by 2020-21, and would disproportionately benefit lower income households who most need the money and are most likely to pump that money — around $4 billion — back into the economy. Literally everybody wins.
So hey, maybe we should just raise the rate instead of demonising the unemployed?