Media Release
The powerful NSW Labor Administrative Committee will this week consider a motion to request the Federal Labor Government to raise the rate of Jobseeker.
Chris Haviland, former Federal Labor MP and Administrative Committee member will move the motion, which asks the Government to increase Jobseeker in line with the recommendation of the Government’s Economic Inclusion Advisory Committee.
Mr Haviland is one of over 300 current and former MPs, community leaders and advocates who have signed a letter to the Prime Minister, Anthony Albanese, from the Australian Council of Social Service (ACOSS) calling for the increase.
“The current rate of Jobseeker is woefully inadequate. It is less than $50 a day,” Mr Haviland said.
“The Howard Government broke the nexus between the rates of unemployment benefits and the Age Pension, It is way past time this was restored.”
Mr Haviland rejected arguments that there was no room in the Budget for any increase in Jobseeker.
“Budgets are about choices, about priorities. If a Labor Government can’t prioritise a raise in Jobseeker ahead of yet another (Stage 3) tax cut for the wealthy, then there is something wrong. Not to mention the obscene expenditure on nuclear submarines!”
“No-one held back, no-one left behind. That was the Prime Minister’s promise. Does that not include those on Jobseeker, the most vulnerable in our community?”
The motion to be presented to the Administrative Committee this Friday reads as follows:
“The NSW Administrative Committee welcomes the recommendations of the report of the Economic Inclusion Advisory Committee, in particular the recommendation that the rate of Jobseeker be increased to at least 90% of the Age Pension.
“The rate of the Jobseeker allowance has been woefully inadequate for many years, dating back to when the mean-spirited Howard Government broke the historical nexus between unemployment benefits and the Age Pension. It is below the poverty line and impossible to live on.
“According, NSW Labor requests that the Federal Labor Government increase the rate of Jobseeker by the amount recommended by the aforementioned Committee, and that this be announced in the forthcoming Federal Budget.
“That this resolution be conveyed to the Prime Minister and the Treasurer as a matter of urgency.”
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