Relief as a majority voted against the Trumpian Peter Dutton, who also lost his seat, should not be confused with newfound support for all of Labor’s policies. A second-term Anthony Albanese government has no excuse not to raise welfare payments in a cost-of-living and housing crisis.
The welfare system is so broken that, according to the government’s own (AIHW), those on JobSeeker and the Disability Support Pension (DSP) make up a third of adult suicide deaths.
Between 2011 and 2021, for age groups between 16 and 65 years were highest among those who received the DSP. For those between 16 and 45 years old, the number of suicide deaths was highest among people who were on unemployment payments.
Labor took over from where the Coalition left off — demonising the poor. It was a particular shock as the pandemic forced the Coalition to substantially lift unemployment payments and help many street-dwellers find a safe place to live — albeit temporarily.
The AIHW suggested that those who received income support payments for that relatively short period during the COVID-19 pandemic may be less vulnerable, compared to longer-term unemployment payment recipients. Its previous analysis has found that the longer a person is on unemployment payments the higher the risk of death by suicide.
The Antipoverty Centre said poor people felt a growing despair during Labor’s first term, after having pinned hope on Labor’s promise to “leave no one behind”.
The first term Albanese government lifted JobSeeker by just $20 a week — less than the Coalition in its first term. It meant that those on the DSP, Youth Allowance and other Centrelink payments were forced to live in poverty, without any rate increase at all.
Labor also continued its “mutual” obligations policies — another way of punishing the poor. These policies, which funnel public money to unemployment agencies to police people on benefits, cost the public purse $4 billion a year.
With market rents soaring, alongside essentials such as food and electricity, the meagre indexation rate fell far behind, causing more pain to those already struggling.
Labor abolished the privately-run compulsory cashless welfare card programs in 2022, after an audit showed the expensive program was not working. But it , more than 80% of whom were Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people.
Minister Amanda Rishworth justified this backtrack by saying the card had become “voluntary” and people could advise the department if they wanted to go off it.
But Labor’s reintroduction, in 2023, of the Indue-run Smart Card locked in compulsory income management as part of the social security system. if their children had an “unsatisfactory” school attendance record, or if they were considered to be “disengaged youth” or a “long-term welfare payment recipient”.
When more public money is being spent on schemes to police the poor rather than helping the disadvantaged it’s clear the scheme is cooked.
Centrelink payments do not even meet the Henderson poverty line — a standard social welfare measure — and Labor’s own Economic Inclusion Advisory Committee advised it in March to lift welfare payments.
For Labor to take its duty of care seriously and not leave anyone behind, as Albanese stressed again on election night, it must immediately pause Centrelink payment suspensions imposed on people with “mutual” obligations requirements and remove the compulsion from employment services.
It must also raise JobSeeker and all other payments above the Henderson Poverty Line and work with welfare recipients to develop a sophisticated measure of poverty. It must also deliver on its 2022 promise to abolish compulsory cashless welfare programs.
It must, as a matter of urgency, invest in building high-quality public homes at scale and abandon the turbocharging of privatisation through “social and affordable” housing policies.
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