Young People Are Suffering, It’s Time To Work Together To Raise Newstart
This isn't about political games. This is about people's lives.
This Monday, the Senate will debate the Greens private member’s bill to increase Newstart and Youth Allowance by $75 a week. It’s the fifth bill to increase Newstart I have introduced in my 14 years in Parliament.
Private member’s bills can be powerful, which is one of the reasons the major parties are expending so much energy trying to justify why they can’t support my bill instead of acknowledging that people on Newstart deserve more support.
In 2012 I introduced, and the Parliament passed, a bill that helped address petrol sniffing, the Low Aromatic Fuel Bill 2012. The bill that bought us marriage equality was a private member’s bill too.
Busting The Two Party System
The myth that the Australian Parliament can only work within a two party system and that things only get done when they come out of a big party machine should be consigned to the dust bin. It is well recognised that Newstart is too low (even Barnaby Joyce thinks so) and the Parliament should be co-operating to address this appalling situation.
Politicians cannot continue to obfuscate and pretend that their position in Parliament, whether they are in Government, Opposition or on the crossbench is not powerful. A vote in Parliament sends a message and every single vote is a show of solidarity. Politicians should never forget that.
Every single time I have put an increase to Newstart to a vote in a motion or a bill over the last decade, it has been part of the community campaign to increase Newstart.
That’s why I will keep introducing private member’s bills and putting motions to Parliament until we get an increase to Newstart. This is not a political game, this is about people’s lives.
Do we really need to go through the evidence that stacks up year-on-year on the desperate need for an increase to Newstart, again?
Despite being the second wealthiest country in the world, poverty rates in Australia have remained entrenched at a high level, with three million people living below the poverty line, including more than 700,000 children. People in our community are denied dignity when they are forced to live on $40 a day for years and years, because the jobs are simply not there. Older Australians who are out of work will retire into poverty and housing insecurity because of the difficulties they face getting back into work.
Raising Newstart Helps Our Most Vulnerable
That young people are suffering from depression and anxiety from being targeted by robodebt and being on the punitive jobactive program, or going without meals while they study, despite working two or three jobs at a time?
Newstart has to be increased urgently by at least $75 a week.
We then have to stop treating income support payments like a political football. An independent process for setting pensions and allowances is well overdue and the Greens will continue to campaign — as we have for decades — to ensure that people who rely on these payments are treated fairly by our income support system.
We’ve had almost 25 years to “talk” or have a “review” about this. During that time we have managed to increase the aged pension as was needed, and now the deeming rate. But not Newstart. A cynic might think that certain groups are more valuable electorally.
Let’s step back and take a look at the “welfare” being handed out to big business and mining companies through tax cuts and subsidies. Or the tax cuts that benefit the wealthy the most that Labor and the Coalition just passed.
They have tried to justify these tax handouts as economic stimulus, but if they really wanted to boost the economy they’d be giving more to those who need it the most, knowing they’d spend it straight away in the local economy on the basics of life… rather than another investment property.
It’s often hard to tell the difference between the major parties’ policies, but Labor are now finally feeling the heat when it comes it the abysmally low rate of Newstart. Those in Parliament who support an increase to Newstart should vote for their professed values.
When the people in Parliament work for their community, we can do powerful things, together.
Rachel Siewert is a federal Senator for Western Australia and the Greens’ spokesperson for Indigenous Issues, Family, Ageing and Community Services, and Mental Health.