Government plans to push unemployed further into poverty

Living on the dole is hard yakka. And it is going to get harder.

Research by the Australia Institute (TAI), a think tank, shows that newly announced cuts to Centrelink payments will drive the unemployed further below the poverty line.

The Coalition government is proposing to shave at least $8.80 per fortnight from incomes.

That’s one less meal a week for people who already have to skip meals because they don’t have enough money.

Turnbull is kicking the poorest in the teeth at a time when Australia’s 10 richest families own the same amount of wealth as the poorest 3.9 million people combined.

The value of welfare payments is already at historic lows, having fallen sharply over the last 25 years. Newstart is nearly one-third below the poverty line. This proposed cut will push recipients even further below.

What does this mean for workers who lose their jobs? TAI chief economist Richard Denniss notes: “If Arrium Steel closes in Whyalla, around 8,000 people in a town of 22,000 will be looking for work … Full time manufacturing workers earn an average of $1,353 per week. How many weeks could you pay the mortgage for if your income fell to $263.80 per week?”

TAI executive director Ben Oquist also noted:

“The pre-election budget gave tax cuts exclusively to the highest income earners. High income earners were given a $315 a year tax cut in addition to those on more than $180,000 having the budget repair levy cut.

“A policy which gives more to the richest while cutting support for people below the poverty line will only increase inequality in Australia.”

This is scandalous. It is time to squeeze the rich, not the poor. Harry Triguboff, the Pratt family, and Frank Lowy sit on nearly $30 billion. They aren’t going without.

No-one should be going without.